I need some advice and counseling from fellow frequent flyers. My wife and I just completed a fly/cruise vacation to Australia and New Zealand, via United mileage award tickets, including one flight on Air New Zealand and connecting to Princess Cruises. I paid 320,000 miles and cash for the flights and $9,000+ for the cruise, booked on United Cruises. It was a nice trip, but it almost didn't happen.
I made reservations back in May 2012 for the December 2012 trip. I took special care to ensure that we would fly first class on either 747's or 777's with full-flat beds. I'm65 years old, am 6'10' tall, weigh 270 lbs, and have two knee replacements. The only way I could make a 15-hour flight was on an aircraft with some room. I received reservation confirmations for the flat-bed first class on the LAX-SYD and AKL-PVG-LAX flights and then went on an extended RV trip. When I returned in September, I found an e-mail from United telling me that they had revised our reservation. What they had done was to change our second (PVG-LAX) leg so that our new flight left the day before our first (AKL-PVG) leg arrived! That's a tough connection to make.....
I did a lot of checking and found open first class seats on both United and Air New Zealand for our original departure date but when I called, United told me they now had no award seats of any kind (first, business or economy) on Air New Zealand or United out of Auckland for twelve days after our initially scheduled departure. They told me that we were out of luck - there was nothing they could do for us and we would be stranded in PVG. They were willing to refund the miles, but I had paid $9,000 for the cruise and wouldnt get all that back. I called several more times, trying both United and Air New Zealand, but got no help until my forth call during which we were rescheduled on flights two days after our original dates, which now included a 13-hour layover in PVG. We lost our 777 full- flat beds on the 12-hour AKL-PVG flight and had to pay for an additional two days of hotel, meals and car in Auckland.
Ive e-mailed and written United, but have received no response. Should I be happy with how things turned out, or is it reasonable to at least receive some response from United? Should I receive some form of compensation, and what would be reasonable? Thanks for your advice!
I made reservations back in May 2012 for the December 2012 trip. I took special care to ensure that we would fly first class on either 747's or 777's with full-flat beds. I'm65 years old, am 6'10' tall, weigh 270 lbs, and have two knee replacements. The only way I could make a 15-hour flight was on an aircraft with some room. I received reservation confirmations for the flat-bed first class on the LAX-SYD and AKL-PVG-LAX flights and then went on an extended RV trip. When I returned in September, I found an e-mail from United telling me that they had revised our reservation. What they had done was to change our second (PVG-LAX) leg so that our new flight left the day before our first (AKL-PVG) leg arrived! That's a tough connection to make.....
I did a lot of checking and found open first class seats on both United and Air New Zealand for our original departure date but when I called, United told me they now had no award seats of any kind (first, business or economy) on Air New Zealand or United out of Auckland for twelve days after our initially scheduled departure. They told me that we were out of luck - there was nothing they could do for us and we would be stranded in PVG. They were willing to refund the miles, but I had paid $9,000 for the cruise and wouldnt get all that back. I called several more times, trying both United and Air New Zealand, but got no help until my forth call during which we were rescheduled on flights two days after our original dates, which now included a 13-hour layover in PVG. We lost our 777 full- flat beds on the 12-hour AKL-PVG flight and had to pay for an additional two days of hotel, meals and car in Auckland.
Ive e-mailed and written United, but have received no response. Should I be happy with how things turned out, or is it reasonable to at least receive some response from United? Should I receive some form of compensation, and what would be reasonable? Thanks for your advice!