Aggravating Day … Ends with a Smile

Tuesday, 13 December 2016
Advanced RV Resort — Houston, Texas

Don’t ask me why I logged into my United Airlines account this morning.  But some little devil … or maybe it was an angel … prompted me to check our flight reservation from IAH to MIA on 4 January.

I double and triple check all of our reservations periodically for schedule changes, but wasn’t planning to revisit this one for another two weeks.  Good thing I didn’t wait that long.

It’s a long story … but since my diary has all the details, I will keep this post as brief as possible.

We booked our award reservations for this flight back on 21 February.  At the time, UA made us an offer we could not refuse … an Enhanced Economy Plus package for $157pp.  For that price, we got the E+ seats for at least half off the going rate of the usual upgrade price for exit aisle seats … plus a second free checked bag each, UA Club trip passes, premier access for boarding, and extra award miles.  Nice way to start out our RTW adventure for sure.

Fast forward to today and that devil/angel that whispered in my ear to check the reservation.  The first thing I noticed — no change to the schedule since I last checked in October.  Then I scrolled down to verify our seats as we’ve had our pre-selected ones drop off the website before.  What??? NO SEAT ASSIGNMENTS!!!  Sigh!  But an easy fix … or so I thought.

Every other time I’ve had this problem, a quick 5-minute phone call restored the seats.  Not this time.  The first agent insisted we were refunded the package when there was a schedule change.  Remember, the last change was in October.  Personally, I think it was the equipment change from a 737-800 to an A320 that was the culprit.  At that point, I think UA dropped all seat assignments.

Anyway, I am diligent about reconciling credit card statements, so I knew there had been no refund on the October or November statements.  Many, many, many minutes and several transfers later, another agent reported the refund had been processed on 3 December … 10 days ago.  No notice, no nothing.  I guess I’m supposed to have a crystal ball to alert me to something I didn’t know was happening.

Two hours on the phone to try and get the Enhanced E+ package reinstated … to no avail.  “We’ll waive the E+ seat fee, but we cannot waive the baggage fee.”  That was the final offer.  Fuming, we took the offer just to have the seats.  But by now I had something else in mind.  As soon as I ended the call, I got to work … first, though, time out for lunch.

The break served to put my temper on simmer.  I started out by checking for other flights on other carriers on the 4th.  UA still had the best option that worked with everything we already had planned in Miami.  So I priced new tickets to see if the Enhanced E+ offer would pop up again.  It didn’t.  But something else did … first class tickets for little more than what I had initially paid for the package.  I was surprised, but not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I booked us two tickets to hold for 24-hours while I checked out options for canceling our award tickets.

The UA website showed three options for canceling the reservation … rebook on a different flight; accept a one-year certificate for the value of the ticket … with no cancellation fee; have the miles redeposited for a fee of $125pp.  The certificate option was attractive, but what would be the value of our award tickets?  I called UA to find out … glutton for punishment, aren’t I?

But this time the call was short and sweet, and it ended quite satisfactorily.  The UA agent said I could cancel and she would redeposit the miles to show up within 72 hours … no fee.  No fee sounded good.  We’d be out the $11.20 September 11 fee … but that was peanuts.  I gave her the go ahead and within seconds the rez was on the cancelled tab.  Now to wait for the miles to be redeposited.  You can be sure I will be checking daily and not waiting 72 hours.

Some might say I rewarded UA for the screw-up by paying for first class tickets.  Some might say that I should have kept the original reservation, taken the free E+ upgrade — to our original seats, no less — and paid the $35/bag fee for the extra bags we plan to check.  But that would not have put a smile on my face.  We can afford the inexpensive first class tickets and that does put a smile on my face.  I choose to think of this as pleasing myself instead of rewarding UA.  I have my new confirmation, my new receipt, and seats 2A and 2B are reserved for us.  I am ready to put this debacle behind me.

Mui sometimes makes fun of my compulsive planning habits, but I think it paid off this time.  We won’t be arriving at the airport on the 4th to a nasty surprise.

P.S.  If you think this post is long, you should see my diary entry on this topic!!!

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