As a professional management trainer, one thing I stress with my students is that you have to give at least as much feedback about things done well as you do about things that need to be improved. As such, I want to give some positive feedback about yesterday’s entry (below).
You’ll recall that I felt a bit hood-winked by United Airlines, after I had to wait 48 hours to book an award ticket because it took that long to process the purchase of the final 1,000 miles I needed for two tickets to Japan. The wait seemed unnecessarily long and, by the time the miles credited to my account, all the award seats for April were gone.
Prompted by several comments in response to the original entry, I contacted a United Airlines representative and explained the situation. Sure enough, it turns out that I should have been able to put the seats on hold while the purchase of the miles was being processed. This representative worked the necessary channels and was able to get two seats released from inventory, making things right by me.
My love afair with United, which began when I was just a month old but in recent years had soured a bit, is worth giving another chance. Credit where credit is due, the employees of United made things right. It looks like the Friendly Skies are still friendly, after all.
Tawn and I will fly to Tokyo from Bangkok on Thursday, April 9th, returning the following Thursday. If you have any suggestions of what to do or see, or where to stay inexpensively, please let me know.
Original entry, dated Thursday February 5, 2009:
April is very hot in Thailand. It is also our Songkhran holiday – the three-day traditional Thai new year. I’ve been here for three Songkhrans so far and each time, I’ve promised myself that the next year I would get out of town for the long weekend.
Browsing our options, I noticed that United Airlines actually offers very generous mileage redemption levels (about half the normal requirement for other Star Alliance flights) on the Bangkok to Tokyo route, which is an add-on leg to their San Francisco to Tokyo flight. 20,000 miles for an economy ticket and 30,000 for business class for a 6-hour flight – a good deal!
Checking online, they had a pair of seats available in the time frame we wanted to travel. Not in economy class, though, but in business. 60,000 miles total. I had 59,540 in my account. But not to worry, I could buy an additional 1,000 miles for $67. Pretty steep for miles, but it would get me where I needed to be.
Processing the purchase, I was informed that it would take up to 48 hours to complete the transaction and credit the miles to my account. This confuses me – I can buy an airplane ticket and in a matter of a minute or two, confirm the entire transaction. But to buy $67 worth of miles takes two days to process?
During the 48 hours I checked the award travel seats – still available. Then, yesterday afternoon when I received the email confirming that the purchased miles had been added to my account, I went to book the award seats and – guess what? – they were no longer available.
Now, I’m sure this is simply a coincidence, but I can’t help but think that this is part of United’s machiavellian plan. They now have $67 from me but have taken away the thing I was going to use the miles for.
What to do, what to do?
Ken, a friend who is retired from UA and is familiar with their reservation and inventory systems, suggested I could check again and see if any more seats are released for award travel. Of course, I could just as easily see other affordable options slip away as I wait for that to happen.
There are free business class seats available departing three days earlier, but this would mean that Tawn has to take an additional three vacation days and results in ten days in Japan instead of seven – a bit longer of a short getaway than I expected.
Another option is to apply the miles towards my purchase of the seats. Chase Mileage Plus Visa allows me to do this when buying United flights from the united.com website, so my 60,000 miles would equal a $600 credit towards a purchase of seats. Two economy class seats during our travel time frame would be $900 total (plus the $67 I spent on miles). A pretty good price but not nearly as nice as two business class seats for $67!
Have you ever felt like you were being manipulated by a company?
christao408 
Yes. The old bait and switch. I’d hold out and just stay in town and lay low and make plans for next year.
Raise hell!Write a letter.Get what’s yours!http://www.xanga.com/CareyGLY/684765889/customer-service-xangaversary/http://weblog.xanga.com/CareyGLY/584418306/a-terrible-tragedy-hits-home—days-1-3.html
I always feel like the system is working against you when you try to redeem these points.
That’s truly evil. How do people come up with that stuff?
could you have called the reservation line and booked the seats when there was availability and purchase with the agent?
bait and switch trick! Must be frustrating.
@LostSock21 – Nope. Didn’t have enough mileage so I had to purchase the extra 1,000 miles. In the 48 hours to process, the seats were no longer available.
@christao408 – Understood, but wouldn’t an agent be able to see that you’re purchasing miles (since you’d do that with them) and purchase the reservation? Your account goes negative for the 48 hours, but they know the miles have been purchased.I’ve done that with Northwest before. Dunno what UA’s policy is.
Yes, many times! I really hope that some seats get released and you get to go to Tokyo for $67!
It’s really frustrated when these things happen and luckily everytime I make this redemption booking my friend who’s a travel agent does help me a lot
good luck!
Have I ever felt manipulated by a company? Only Goodfriend Enterprises and I’m not complaining about that. Good luck with the tickets. Three extra days in Japan sounds nice from here!
@agmhkg – Can’t you just travel on passes?
@bebesmill – If ever there was a company to look out for, that’s the one! =)
@LostSock21 – It looks like UA does have that policy, but it wasn’t clearly articluated nor followed. I’m pursuing it with UA and we’ll see if we get resolution.
Oh, yay!
Nice! Glad you followed up with United and got what you wanted.
good for you, Chris. Oh, my, early April is Cherry Blossom time in Japan. Make sure to check the timing and do not miss it, as those blossoms last only a few days.
http://gojapan.about.com/cs/cherryblossoms/l/blsakurazensen.htm here is a cherry blossom timing map. Wish you and Tawn have a chance to enjoy and eat the special candy.
Have you been to Kamakura? It’s in the suburbs (near Yokohama, I believe), maybe about 45 minutes by train from the city. There’s a giant Buddha (Daibatsu, I think) there that’s the big tourist draw, but I found the place nice for accidental wandering — that is, we got lost on the way to the Buddha and found lots of other stuff. There are some nice temples (Tokei-ji and Jochi-ji) and shrines, and we got in a very healthy two-hour hike through the woods.There is also the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills, on the top floor of a skyscraper. The collection was quite nice when we were there, and the views are really impressive.
Great! So glad that you got it released. I am already excited thinking about your Japan holiday posts! hehe.
You’re welcome. Now, you can go to http://www.travelingbetter.com and learn more tips. *disclaimer* that is my website.
and btw, where’s my credit! LoL
That’s quite a bargain for business class seating! 30k miles per seat! Even Thai Airways can’t match that! We have to pay almost $190 pp one way from Saigon to Siem Reap on Viet Airline..what a rip off!
@curry69curry – Siam Reap is a very expensive destination. One reason we haven’t been there yet. So, as you can tell from the post, it looks like we will not join you and W in Vietnam or Cambodia. As much as we would like to see you, cooler weather is calling us. We’ll be in the US this summer and will probably travel through LA at least one direction.
@LostSock21 – Your credit? It’s in the previous comment where I let you post an advertisement for your site! =)
@stevew918 – Looks like we will possible miss it by a few days in Tokyo. Maybe we can travel north and see them.
@Mike August – Thank you for the recommendations. I’ll put them on the list to check out.
@Dezinerdreams – Ah!!! The pressure!!!
I’m glad to hear that you were able to get the situation with United fixed!
Chris, the dates of Cherry Blossom varies every year depending on the temperature. They will announce in March when and where they will be start blooming and the blooming lasts for about 10 days. You may want to figure sometime late March where is best to see them.
@stevew918 – Interesting. Thanks, Steve.
yay have fun!!!
@christao408 -when I travel I will go either on Staff Standby, paying a specail fare like others or on redemption tickets…depends….
@TheCheshireGrins – Yeah, I’m glad, too.
@yang1815 – Thank you.
@agmhkg – Ah, I see. I remember doing space-available travel for the first two dozen years of my life, since my father worked for United. One thing is for certain, it teaches you patience. =)