Changes to flights booked with FF miles

[calmac]

We booked flights from the UK to Seattle using Star Alliance "miles". We booked via United but the flights are with Lufthansa, via Frankfurt.

 

A couple of months ago, the connecting flight from the UK to Frankfurt was changed so that it arrived in Frankfurt earlier which gave us some extra time to make the connection. This was good.

 

We arrived back from a Med cruise yesterday to find a message from United regarding further changes. I've looked online and the morning flight from the UK to Frankfurt (which we were on) appears to have been cancelled. The itinerary is now showing us leaving Frankfurt for Seattle BEFORE we arrive in Frankfurt from the UK. This is NOT good.

 

There were hardly any flights available when we originally booked which doesn't help. We are flexible on dates (to a certain extent) and on routes. As things stand we would have to fly to Frankfurt a day before and stay there overnight which we would rather not do and certainly don't want to pay for.

 

My question is - what can I expect United to offer us?

[greatam]

We booked flights from the UK to Seattle using Star Alliance "miles". We booked via United but the flights are with Lufthansa, via Frankfurt.

 

A couple of months ago, the connecting flight from the UK to Frankfurt was changed so that it arrived in Frankfurt earlier which gave us some extra time to make the connection. This was good.

 

We arrived back from a Med cruise yesterday to find a message from United regarding further changes. I've looked online and the morning flight from the UK to Frankfurt (which we were on) appears to have been cancelled. The itinerary is now showing us leaving Frankfurt for Seattle BEFORE we arrive in Frankfurt from the UK. This is NOT good.

 

There were hardly any flights available when we originally booked which doesn't help. We are flexible on dates (to a certain extent) and on routes. As things stand we would have to fly to Frankfurt a day before and stay there overnight which we would rather not do and certainly don't want to pay for.

 

My question is - what can I expect United to offer us?

 

First thing-you don't expect United to offer you anything. You INFORM United that you would like flight XXX or YYY or ZZZ.

 

You also did not provide enough info UK-where??? Time??? Date???

 

There are at least 10 Lufthansa flights from LHR to FRA almost daily. So without the times and dates of your flight to the USA, it is impossible to determine why you can't make the connection. US Air (Star Alliance) has flights through CLT, PHL from LGW to SEA. Also a flight with stops in PHL/SFO from LHR. United has flights through both ORD and SFO. But without further info, I have no idea how to advise you.

[calmac]

Thanks for the quick response. Here are a few more details.

 

Date flying out of the UK is Wed 29th July. We are flying from Edinburgh (EDI) to Frankfurt and then on to Seattle. The revised timings are

 

Wed 29 Jul

13:55Edinburgh

16:50Frankfurt

LH4941

1h55

Business (I)

 

Wed 29 Jul

11:50Frankfurt

13:10Seattle

LH490

10h20

Business (I)

 

We were due to arrive in Frankfurt at 09:40 but this flight (06:45 from EDI) seems to have been removed from the schedule.

 

Would it be reasonable to ask for hotel accommodation at Frankfurt airport - flying in the night before?

 

The alternatives are all via LHR and then via Chicago, Denver, Dulles or San Francisco. Would it be reasonable to "prefer" one of these and ask for a stopover of a couple of days?

[Twickenham]

AC did this to us for our return flight for our most recent cruise. We were originally scheduled to do FLL-YQB via DCA and YUL (yeah, I know...:rolleyes:), the first 2 segments on USAir. Then we got switched to a flight... that left at 8am! Was able to get changed back to an afternoon flight, but this time it was a straight FLL-YUL-YQB connection - much better than what we originally booked.

 

As far as I'm concerned, once they changed your original flight on you, all bets are off. While I'm not sure what they'd say to a 1-2 day layover, I can't see then refusing your request for a flight that works for you - remember, they changed the flight, not you, and I'm pretty sure that -5 hours isn't a legal connection...;)

[ab0si]

There are quite a few Star Alliance routings to get from Edinburgh to Seattle.

 

Kayak.com has tha ability to show only the flights operated by Star Alliance (or one of the other major alliances). You might (or might not) need to register to have this tool available. It is a very easy way to get the information you need before calling.

 

Greatam give you very good advice. Please allow me to repeat it:

You do NOT calling asking what they can do for you. You DO call and tell them what flights you want after having them pull up your records to see that a minus five hour connection is not going to work. It is useful to have several routings ready, not just one.

 

Also ... this does not make sense, but it is true ... if you do not get an itinerary that works for you, hang up (be polite, of course) and redial. Agent B might be able to help. Whether this is because Agent B knows the system better, asks her/his supervisor for assistance, the alignment of the planets or low blood sugar, I have no idea. I do know it has worked for me. It is also one of the reasons I have a speaker phone .. makes getting work down while in queue easier. :)

[6rugrats]

UA can open up award seats for you in this case, even if there are none available. You will need to ask them to do this. Find acceptable flights first and ask them to try those. They are not going to provide a hotel for you; you have plenty of time to fix this problem.

 

If flying on UA, you are allowed one stopover en route, but this will require even more changes to your reservation and I am not sure they will do this as you didn't orginally appear to have a stopover. You may have to take what you can get, but it never hurts to ask.

[Globaliser]

Would it be reasonable to ask for hotel accommodation at Frankfurt airport - flying in the night before?

Without detracting a jot from the excellent advice you've been given, I think that this would be my first choice alternative in the circumstances, if you're flexible enough to fly the night before. Personally, I think it's an eminently reasonable request but that doesn't mean that the airline will agree to it. However, it's worth a try. But you may find that they'll happily put you on the previous evening's EDI-FRA but refuse to pay for the overnight accommodation.

[greatam]

Without detracting a jot from the excellent advice you've been given, I think that this would be my first choice alternative in the circumstances, if you're flexible enough to fly the night before. Personally, I think it's an eminently reasonable request but that doesn't mean that the airline will agree to it. However, it's worth a try. But you may find that they'll happily put you on the previous evening's EDI-FRA but refuse to pay for the overnight accommodation.

 

Yes, you can ask, but I think the last sentence is probably the outcome. UA is NOT known to "bend over" for the sake of business class FF, as some other airlines do.

 

BMI is a Star A member. You could fly BMI to LHR or LGW, even FRA. Lufthansa has a codeshare with BMI that would work fairly well. Not the best connection and you would get into SEA about 7 hours later than original schedule. But it would work.