And I thought it was just a glitch....

The first flight (apparently) missing on the United side seems to happen all the time. I've never actually had it translate to a lack of seat on the first segment though.

How is a flight two months from now already sold out? Even the holiday ones aren't usually sold out yet.

It was my itinerary. XYZ is DSM. The flight that's sold out two months in advance is UA5824 DSM-ORD on December 19. Iceman, I was surprised to hear that it was sold out too.

The story does have a happy ending: on my fifth call to US's reservations line, I got an extremely competent agent who promised me he'd fix things. He called UA and managed to get me rebooked on a different flight the same day.

I'd like to publicly thank Lucky for his help here. His advice was invaluable.

2 of the 3 morning flights from DSM to ORD sold out on a Saturday nearly a week before Christmas --- Get Out! Really, this is hard to believe. Every flight in and out of ROC on that day is Y9 or better. What's the deal? Major sporting event?

"While we’d like to think that codeshare flights and alliances translate to a smooth travel experience, that often isn’t the case."

I certainly feel for Alex's frustration and inconvenience in this situation and agree that US was in the wrong and UA could have done more than help, I wonder if statements like the above, which I have read and bought into for years, are a bit sensational. For every example of a codeshare/interline going wrong, how many go right?

I can give you an example of my recent experience of a fairly complex itinerary going flawlessly: DCA-BOS on AE, BOS-LHR on AA, LHR-JNB on BA, and JNB-CPT on MN.* Four flights each way, four airlines each way, three terminal changes each way, more than 24 hours of flying each way--I made it and my luggage made it (checked all the way through) with zero problems. I was even notified of schedule changes before I left promptly and easily.

I was so skeptical that the trip would happen that I brought printouts of alternate flights and itineraries with me for each stop along the way and bought travel insurance to cover any delays of my person and my luggage. I was so impressed at how flawlessly the trip went that I began to question that skepticism. I'm sure I'll keep my guard up on codeshare/interlining itineraries, but I'll probably be less hesitant to book them now that I've seen firsthand that they can go well. Sometimes there can be a happy ending without having to call customer service five times.

* I was flying on a frequent flier ticket, hence the less than ideal routing to South Africa.

Ahh man... IDB chance!

@ct: Seems like a good routing to me! 🙂

My guess is they realigned (corporate speak for downsizing) 2 flights into 1, and now they're in an oversold situation, hence zeroing out. But it sounds like there was a happy ending after all.

This is a well known problem with UA. They steadfast refuse to deal with these kinds of issues assuming (as happened here) that the passenger will cave and take an alternate flight.

I had essentially the same thing happen to me. LH had a schedule change and a segment was dropped. UA claimed LH had made the mistake but detailed investigation by LH proved that in fact it was UA that had dropped the ball. Despite this UA refused to correct the problem and suggested I travel an alternate day or not at all. It took serious prodding from LH and a call to a high ranking individual at UA to get it straightened out and the issue wasn't even a sold out flight. UA just didn't want to ask LH to open space.

I've never seen anything like it. As far as I can tell UA has no problems ignoring their Conditions of Carriage when it suits them. You can find story after story like the one above on Flyertalk. No other airline I have flown with seems to act like this so the only thing I can say is be careful when dealing with UA and make sure you know the rules and don't give up if you are in the right.

Or fly somebody else whenever possible and make it easy on yourself.