Velocity Redemption not ticketed with United Airlines

[dandandan]

Hi,

Does anyone know what the process is or who to best contact when United reward seats (J) through Velocity are booked however it doesn't ticket with United? I spoke to the after hours call centre last night and of course they can only see one reward ticket available now!

I got the below message after booking with a Velocity PNR:

Our apologies, we experienced an issue when finalising your booking. Please contact our Guest Contact Centre and provide your Booking Reference so we can get you on your way.

 

[Mattg]

If you booked using Velocity points, Virgin Australia needs to ticket the booking. Contact Velocity.

 

[dandandan]

Yes I contacted Velocity today, I got told by multiple agents that United cancelled, however I said Velocity needs to call United and get it ticketed. Agents have been searching for available rewards even though I told them I searched and there is no 4 x J tickets available around Xmas time and asked if they can call United.

 

[Bagpuss]

told them I searched and there is no 4 x J tickets available around Xmas time

I'm surprised you could get 4 J tickets around this time currently. They'd have been exhausted by now or released almost last minute.

Possible they were "phantom" tickets, hence can't / wont ticket.

 

[dandandan]

I'm surprised you could get 4 J tickets around this time currently. They'd have been exhausted by now or released almost last minute.

Possible they were "phantom" tickets, hence can't / wont ticket.

They could have been cancelled redemptions or new released tickets with United's increased schedules etc. Five tickets were available and even after booking four, one was left.

 

[dandandan]

Just an update, Velocity followed up with United as I requested and they were able to ticket for me so 4 x J tickets secured for my Xmas/New Year trip.

 

[antycbr]

Just an update, Velocity followed up with United as I requested and they were able to ticket for me so 4 x J tickets secured for my Xmas/New Year trip.

Try doing that with Qantas

 

[dandandan]

Try doing that with Qantas

I will miss the QF first lounge though.

 

[dandandan]

So about 5 months down the track and a repeat of this issue when booking 4 x J velocity reward seats with United Airlines (UA).

I got the error message saying "Our apologies, we experienced an issue when finalising your booking. Please contact our Guest Contact Centre and provide your Booking Reference so we can get you on your way". The reservation was showing as pending in my bookings after booking.

I was able to login through UA and get a UA PNR as well and select seats. I tried to make contact with Velocity about 20 times over a number of days, I initially got through to the international ticketing team once and then the called dropped out and they never called back, however I called after that about 20 more times and each time the agent tried to transfer me to the international ticketing team the call would drop out. In the meantime the reward seats were still showing up until yesterday when as I finally able to get through again. I had to go through the rigmarole of Velcoity trying to process the ticket and telling me the tickets were not available, pretty obvious they weren't when I had first explained the situation to them and how the reward seats had now also disappeared. Again I had to request a supervisor to call UA, who reckons they did and that UA said no, however the quickness they did this in to call and get an answer, I was sceptical. I further disputed the issue and sent Velocity screen shots saying they need to sort out.

So twice now, maybe I am unlucky however maybe there is a system glitch in Velocity when booking UA J seats, which is more what I think. As to phantom tickets, I don't think you would get through to booking page if they were. Has anyone else experienced this similar situation, UA velocity rewards seats not ticketing in J?

 

[SYD]

Where are these flight from/to? 4x J reward tix on UA are unheard of unless UA 1K status.

 

[dandandan]

From Australia into the US. Obviously 4 x J seats is rare, however not unheard of at all. As above I booked 4 x J on UA in July this year and shorter dated flights in January and February are available now through Velocity, in fact I have seen up to 7 x J seats available and they are also available on UA’s website verifying their availability. More availability seemed to come up when UA increased their flights.

 

[im.daniel]

From Australia into the US. Obviously 4 x J seats is rare, however not unheard of at all.

Correct. I have seen UA release up to 9 seats for redemption in J on its T-PAC routes, even on flights around Christmas time this year.

It is sometimes publicised here on AFF, or other travel reward websites or on FB groups.

 

[bcworld]

Where are these flight from/to? 4x J reward tix on UA are unheard of unless UA 1K status.

Actually it's quote common close in to departure.

 

[SYD]

Actually it's quote common close in to departure.

Yes, but within a week or two - great for the uber flexible.

 

[dandandan]

Yes, but within a week or two - great for the uber flexible.

I have seen up to 9 seats as well and more than 1 or 2 weeks before deaprture, months actually.

 

[diningdecadence]

I have seen up to 9 seats as well and more than 1 or 2 weeks before deaprture, months actually.

did you have any tag on internal USA flights? I'm seeing similar availability but need the additional domestic leg to my final destination, and don't want to buy the VA points (on sale) until I can get confirmation.

 

[dandandan]

did you have any tag on internal USA flights? I'm seeing similar availability but need the additional domestic leg to my final destination, and don't want to buy the VA points (on sale) until I can get confirmation.

Only to Vancouver on a seperate booking, it till a while for there to be some availability though.

 

[dandandan]

This is becoming a joke with Velocity UA redemptions booked yourself. I already have a booking on hold ticket Velocity is trying to sort, apparently I am up to their level 3 support now and tonight I found 4 more redemptions to book. I needed to change a flight to book this, I didn't have enough points left to do without cancelling and rebooking unfortunately. I tried to get the agent to handle it all, however they talked me into cancelling the flight and then myself rebooking online. So this is what I did and amazingly I get the booking on hold problem.

Booking not finalised Our apologies, we experienced an issue when finalising your booking. Please contact our Guest Contact Centre and provide your Booking Reference so we can get you on your way.

This is really becoming frustrating with Velocity. Clearly there is an issue their end, I have had the same issue 3 times this year now and all when booking UA flights through Velocity.

I am on hold with Velocity trying to get them to sort, they give the same answer each person you speak too "unfortunately their is no tickets left for this booking" and it's very difficult to push them to ring UA.

Is this a coincidence, 3 times in one year, my points taken, credit card charged however no ticket. Maybe it's a story for AFF to run....

 

[dandandan]

This is becoming a joke with Velocity UA redemptions booked yourself. I already have a booking on hold ticket Velocity is trying to sort, apparently I am up to their level 3 support now and tonight I found 4 more redemptions to book. I needed to change a flight to book this, I didn't have enough points left to do without cancelling and rebooking unfortunately. I tried to get the agent to handle it all, however they talked me into cancelling the flight and then myself rebooking online. So this is what I did and amazingly I get the booking on hold problem.

Booking not finalised Our apologies, we experienced an issue when finalising your booking. Please contact our Guest Contact Centre and provide your Booking Reference so we can get you on your way.

This is really becoming frustrating with Velocity. Clearly there is an issue their end, I have had the same issue 3 times this year now and all when booking UA flights through Velocity.

I am on hold with Velocity trying to get them to sort, they give the same answer each person you speak too "unfortunately their is no tickets left for this booking" and it's very difficult to push them to ring UA.

Is this a coincidence, 3 times in one year, my points taken, credit card charged however no ticket. Maybe it's a story for AFF to run....

Still on hold with Velocity, they have said UA can see the flight confirmed their end however Velocity don't know why is not ticketed their end.

 

[dandandan]

Still on hold with Velocity, they have said UA can see the flight confirmed their end however Velocity don't know why is not ticketed their end.

Okay a new year and again another 'booking on hold' email/booking not finalised error message when booking a United reward seat booking through Velocity! does anyone else have this probelm? I am overseas at the moment, it's 5.30am Sydney time and the call centre person I spoke with said it's another 2 hours until I can speak with the team who can fix this.

Once again I have a reference number for Velocity and United and can manage the booking on United and select seats etc.

Interestingly I may have discovered an issue on Velocity's website that's causing the problem. These flights are YVR-SFO flights and taxes when using minimum points are $112 a ticket, for four tickets with taxes the charge was $452.39 to my credit card which I can see as a pending charge. Velocity's website however shows the charges as only $286 and a payment surcharge of $4.39, for a total of $290.39. I haven't looked a this with my other booking on hold issues (about 8 of them had the same error and all with United) however I suspect the mismatch between the payment amount charged and collected vs what Velocity is showing as paid, which doesn't match is causing this issue. The credit card surcharge is correct, as Amex it's 0.98% of $448 which is $4.39, so there is an error how Velocity's system is calculating the other charges and why UA reward tickets don't seem to book when done through Velocity's website. They need to get this fixed as it's been going on for ages.


(Booking not finalised Our apologies, we experienced an issue when finalising your booking. Please contact our Guest Contact Centre and provide your Booking Reference so we can get you on your way.)