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http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/38212

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/awards/travel/types.aspx
Click on "United air travel award rules:"
"You may redeem miles for travel in United Global FirstSM, United First®, United Business® or United BusinessFirst® , even if the space is not available. In these cases, United Economy in the same award type must be confirmed, and the front cabin will be waitlisted. For example, a Saver United First award must be confirmed in Saver United Economy to be eligible for waitlisting. If the courtesy waitlist does not clear, it will expire 24 hours before itinerary departure, and you will automatically be added to the airport upgrade standby list upon check-in. In these cases, you will be confirmed on a space-available basis by a United airport representative at the gate once the flight has closed for check-in. For United BusinessFirst and United Business travel awards, the difference in miles will be refunded when the United BusinessFirst or United Business class segment of the trip could not be confirmed. Waitlist requests may only be made over the phone with your local United Reservations office"


« Last edited by HolyNyc on February 02, 2015, 08:51:46 AM »

Author Topic: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability  (Read 507420 times)

Offline jaywhy

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #700 on: August 17, 2014, 11:03:51 AM »
He says he is not on the list.
Or that. Either way, the upgrade is not clearing unless he gets to the airport asap and gets PR-1.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #701 on: August 17, 2014, 11:59:06 AM »
Or that. Either way, the upgrade is not clearing unless he gets to the airport asap and gets PR-1.
When I got switched from I to R class on  the day of departure I just called and they conformed a seat over the phone. I just pointed out that I'd already paid for the seats and they still had some available. The agent was kind of surprised I wasn't already ticketed so she did it for me.

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #702 on: August 17, 2014, 12:56:39 PM »
When I got switched from I to R class on  the day of departure I just called and they conformed a seat over the phone. I just pointed out that I'd already paid for the seats and they still had some available. The agent was kind of surprised I wasn't already ticketed so she did it for me.
Wow, that's really great. I think it's too late for us to try that as we already checked in online. I'm at the airport now but there's no one at a ticketing counter yet, and the flights only three and a half hours away!

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #703 on: August 17, 2014, 01:08:33 PM »
Wow, that's really great. I think it's too late for us to try that as we already checked in online. I'm at the airport now but there's no one at a ticketing counter yet, and the flights only three and a half hours away!
Often they don't show up until 2-3 hours before the flight. Just wait in line so you'll be first served when they do show up.

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #704 on: August 17, 2014, 01:23:30 PM »
So no one here knew what we were talking about. They said they cant look up the ggstandby thing, but a ticketing agent will come soon and he can

Offline HolyNyc

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #705 on: August 17, 2014, 02:19:05 PM »
what happened in the end? r1 left

Offline AharonInIsrael

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #706 on: August 17, 2014, 03:46:00 PM »
Okay, so she didn't get upgraded in the end. I feel kinda bummed out, and want to figure out what I may have done wrong so that I can fix it next time, whether 1) something was wrong with the booking 2) I didn't do a good enough job at the airport convincing them 3) it's just not a good idea to do try this leaving TLV.

I thought the booking was okay- I had switched it from a stopover to a direct flight (which I understood above was okay), and it was listed as X class requesting I class until this morning, when I received an email that she would be added to the upgrade list, as no I class had opened up. At this point the reservation said X class requesting R class.

We got to Ben Gurion 3.5 hours before after doing online check-in, only to find that there is no United Ticketing counter in the airport and the desk agents only arrive about 3 hours before the flight. We spoke to the desk agent as well as the supervisor, mentioning the fact that my mother was a displaced business passenger who had payed the business award rate, asking for PR-1 waitlist status, and mentioning "gg onestandby". The supervisor said that she understood that "gg whatever" was part of their system, but claimed she couldn't look it up and that we'd need to wait for a ticketing agent, who would be arriving shortly.

The ticketing agent came and told us that my mother would be at the bottom of the waitlist. I mentioned all of the above again, and she said that the reservation said that she was placed in economy and asked for an upgrade. When I said that she had payed the business rate and that didn't make sense, she said that their records showed the reservation had been changed, so that must have been the cause for the confusion. When I mentioned  a friend had said we should ask for PR-1 status, she was confused how we knew what that was (and even seemed a bit upset), and said to tell our friend (hi Dan!) that her reservation stated she was to have PR-3 status.

Since she seemed to be the only person who could do anything, and didn't want to help us, we gave up. I called United from the airport using the Web Callback option to see if there was anything to do on that end, but they said there was not.

I would really appreciate any advice for the next time, especially if people have actually been able to take care of the Plan B at TLV itself.
TIA

Offline slnyc

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #707 on: August 17, 2014, 05:08:43 PM »
Hi - I just booked a flight SYD-SFO-EWR. The UA agent wait-listed me (plan B) on the SYD-SFO segment, and said that I would be wait-listed on SFO-EWR if and when SYD-SFO clears. Is that accurate? Does it automatically happen or do I need to call UA once I'm cleared for SYD-SFO? Thanks. 

Offline Dan

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #708 on: August 17, 2014, 05:16:06 PM »
No, HUCA
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline slnyc

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #709 on: August 17, 2014, 05:20:59 PM »
Thanks. Just to clarify - i should be wait listed for both segments?

Offline ilherman

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #710 on: August 17, 2014, 05:45:22 PM »
Okay, so she didn't get upgraded in the end. I feel kinda bummed out, and want to figure out what I may have done wrong so that I can fix it next time, whether 1) something was wrong with the booking 2) I didn't do a good enough job at the airport convincing them 3) it's just not a good idea to do try this leaving TLV.

I thought the booking was okay- I had switched it from a stopover to a direct flight (which I understood above was okay), and it was listed as X class requesting I class until this morning, when I received an email that she would be added to the upgrade list, as no I class had opened up. At this point the reservation said X class requesting R class.

We got to Ben Gurion 3.5 hours before after doing online check-in, only to find that there is no United Ticketing counter in the airport and the desk agents only arrive about 3 hours before the flight. We spoke to the desk agent as well as the supervisor, mentioning the fact that my mother was a displaced business passenger who had payed the business award rate, asking for PR-1 waitlist status, and mentioning "gg onestandby". The supervisor said that she understood that "gg whatever" was part of their system, but claimed she couldn't look it up and that we'd need to wait for a ticketing agent, who would be arriving shortly.

The ticketing agent came and told us that my mother would be at the bottom of the waitlist. I mentioned all of the above again, and she said that the reservation said that she was placed in economy and asked for an upgrade. When I said that she had payed the business rate and that didn't make sense, she said that their records showed the reservation had been changed, so that must have been the cause for the confusion. When I mentioned  a friend had said we should ask for PR-1 status, she was confused how we knew what that was (and even seemed a bit upset), and said to tell our friend (hi Dan!) that her reservation stated she was to have PR-3 status.

Since she seemed to be the only person who could do anything, and didn't want to help us, we gave up. I called United from the airport using the Web Callback option to see if there was anything to do on that end, but they said there was not.

I would really appreciate any advice for the next time, especially if people have actually been able to take care of the Plan B at TLV itself.
TIA
It's probably 2 and 3. You tried to get PR-1 status at check in? Maybe it's a good idea to starts asking for a ticketing agent over there. Did you tell them to look up lines 85-89 or just gg onestandby?
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline slnyc

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #711 on: August 17, 2014, 07:10:10 PM »
No, HUCA

Thanks. Called again and got an agent who knew exactly what I needed. She explained that the previous agent only booked me on SYD-SFO and not SFO-EWR because the agent thought that if I was cleared only on SFO-EWR and not SYD-SFO, I would still be charged the full mileage for SYD-EWR - an international b/c ticket.

She then wait listed me on both, and explained that UA would contact me if I was cleared on either segment to confirm I still wanted the upgrade. She said they do this because if I'm only cleared on SFO-EWR and not SYD-SFO I'm probably not going to want to spend international b/c miles on a domestic b/c. Makes sense to me. 

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #712 on: August 17, 2014, 07:12:58 PM »
Even if SFO-EWR clears you can still get a full refund.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline slnyc

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #713 on: August 17, 2014, 07:27:18 PM »
Even if SFO-EWR clears you can still get a full refund.

A full refund meaning I can fly coach from SYD-SFO and business from SFO-EWR for the cost of a coach ticket (40K)?

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #714 on: August 17, 2014, 08:13:24 PM »
A full refund meaning I can fly coach from SYD-SFO and business from SFO-EWR for the cost of a coach ticket (40K)?
Correct, read the Wiki.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #715 on: August 26, 2014, 10:56:10 AM »
Is it possible to/has anyone been successful in getting PR-1 status for the following:

i booked a flight tlv-ewr-lax and only the tlv-ewr portion had business availability so i paid the miles for buisness and im sitting in coach for ewr-lax. i would think i should at least be considered a displaced business class passenger for the ewr-lax segment. whats the best way to go about this?

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #716 on: August 26, 2014, 11:02:00 AM »
Yes.

However the odds are that the outsourced TLV agents won't know how to do it so you'll have to do it in EWR, at which point J will probably be full.

Are you waitlisted for I class?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #717 on: August 26, 2014, 11:23:23 AM »
Is it possible to/has anyone been successful in getting PR-1 status for the following:

i booked a flight tlv-ewr-lax and only the tlv-ewr portion had business availability so i paid the miles for buisness and im sitting in coach for ewr-lax. i would think i should at least be considered a displaced business class passenger for the ewr-lax segment. whats the best way to go about this?
I had a similar experience GIG-IAH-PHL on UA. We got J on GIG-IAH, but J was sold out for IAH-PHL. We were waitlisted, but the cabin was sold out days in advance so it didn't help us much when everyone checked in and made the flight. We just sat in coach.

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #718 on: August 26, 2014, 11:37:46 AM »
Yes.

However the odds are that the outsourced TLV agents won't know how to do it so you'll have to do it in EWR, at which point J will probably be full.

Are you waitlisted for I class?
im not currently waitlisted for anything, but i watch the space like a hawk

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Re: Plan B Discussion: Booking BusinessFirst Awards Without Availability
« Reply #719 on: August 27, 2014, 10:36:47 PM »
Tried to get the staff at EWR to set up PR-1 status today... Noone knew anything... Said exactly what was posted in the article...  :(