UAL/Continental Tip

[snickerboo]

Just did a trip to Hawaii on UAL/ Continental and thought I'd post a few tips:

1) As they merge, their computer systems do not communicate. You may book through one airline and end up with one leg of your trip on the other. Because your trip is on two airlines (even though they have merged) you will not be able to check in online. You will have to wait to check in at the airport. By then, the other passengers will mainly have checked in online and seats be limited. Your 6-year-old may be forced to sit many rows apart from you & if the flight is booked, you won't be able to fix it and whether or not they care will depend on the individual flight attendant.

2) UAL's call center is in India. You will not be able to resolve any of these issues through them. They will bounce you from attendant to attendant. My dh spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone with them the night before our vacation!

3) UAL/Continental's systems will not fully process a reservation where two people on the reservation have the same first and last name. One of the passengers will be allowed to check-in. The other will have to argue with the UAL attendant at the airport the day of your flight. The agent we had at Newark told us that it was our fault for naming our son after my dh and that we should legally change his name. To which I said, "no thanks, I just won't fly UAL/ Continental". My family travels regularly. We've flown on SWA, AirTran, American & Delta as a family. We never had a problem because dh and ds have the same first name because their systems include middle names!

We had the worst experience on UAL/Continental & terrible, terrible customer service from start to finish. Maybe when the merger is fully complete they will be better. Until then, don't book UAL/Continental for your family vacation. SWA's customer service is infintely better.

 

[Thumper4me]

I can certainly understand your frustration.

I have recently booked a Hawaii flight through Continental and most of my flight is on United. However, I was given two confrimation numbers - one for Continental and one for United. Therefore, I was able to access both sites on the internet and get assigned seats ahead of time.

I don't know if this was available to you at the time or not but it is available now. I did end up speaking with customer service from both airlines and they were very helpful. Hopefully, things are already turning around for the better. Therefore, based upon my recent experience, I would say that booking with Continental/United can be done and not ruin the family vacation.

Kelly

 

[uva185]

FWIW, there may have been another problem with your reservation that prevented online checkin. Even before the merger it was (and still is) possible to have multiple airlines flying you on one reservation...it's called code shares. You should always checkin with the airline that is physically operating the flight.

Continental and United both allow you to pre-select seats so online checkin should not have made a difference. If your family was not seated together at the time of booking did you consider buying access at Economy Plus so you could sit together?

Lastly, even if there is no field for "Middle Name" on United or Continental you can always just type the Middle Name in the "First Name" field.