Wanted flight itinerary printout

We are using our frequent-flyer miles for the first time for a trip to Antarctica in January 2005. We had enough miles with both Delta and United. I started calling more than a year early to book our flights and learned that you can’t book more than 11 months out.

Delta would not allow us to use our miles to fly into Santiago, Chile. They kept wanting to sell us seats. I finally gave up on Delta.

United could get us to Santiago and home from Buenos Aires, so I booked with them in April. When I got the final cruise itinerary at the end of July, I realized I needed to get to Santiago a day earlier. I was worried there would be no space available by then, but United let me make the change using the same schedule (arriving two days earlier) with no penalty charge.

The difficulty with United was getting them to e-mail me my itineraries. They said they kept getting a “bad e-mail address” message. They were able to fax me my first e-mail schedule, but my machine (or theirs) wasn’t printing well enough so that I could read the fax.

I even gave my travel agent my confirmation code and had him contact United. He was told that they couldn’t e-mail him because one of the flights I’m using is Air Canada and they don’t permit their schedules to be e-mailed. They did read my schedule to him.

After repeated calls trying to get an e-mail, one of United’s employees said the problem must be with my provider. I called Brightok and they checked into it. The problem was not at their end and they called the United technician and gave him my confirmation number so United could track down the problem. Having heard nothing further, I was surprised to receive my e-ticket in the mail.

After all this, I accidentally learned that I could go to the website www.united.com, log in with my frequent-flyer number and password, find my schedule by entering my confirmation code and then print off my e-ticket. No one at United had told me this.

The people at United who helped me book my flights were very patient and courteous.

Based on this one experience, I am glad I booked my flights early on. I’m not sure I would have gotten seats if I had delayed booking the cruise, taking a chance that I could get passage at a reduced rate. Also, I wonder if I could have changed my schedule if I had waited much longer to do so.

JEAN MACKEY
Salina, OK

ITN sent a copy of the above letter to United and received the following reply.

Thank you for your letter regarding Ms. Jean Mackey.

While we are unable to erase the negative experience she had with us regarding (the ability) to view and print her travel itinerary, we can act upon her feedback to prevent such occurrences in the future. In fact, the constructive criticism of our customers is one of the most significant means of quality control and is helpful in detecting shortcomings.

We appreciate that you have given us this opportunity to respond.

NADEEM A. BURNEY, Customer Relations, United Airlines, 1200 E. Algonquin Rd., Elk Grove Township, IL 60007