stryker said:However, this does seem to be a one airline board (no surprises there).
Calling the USA direct is probably the best option. If I need something when I am in AU, I call the UGS number in the USA, so the closure of the SYD office doesn't effect me much. Having said that, I will still be calling the US 1K line direct if/when I get bumped off the UGS list.wallacej said:I am prem exec with UA, and have only had to call on the centre once. I do have a bucket load of points I want to use, so where does my call go now..I think I would prefer to call the US direct if I want to book travel on Air NZ...
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stryker said:I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned this.
I guess it indicates there are few UA elites on this board.
However, this does seem to be a one airline board (no surprises there).
cssaus said:I'm a 1K member and didn't know. When did this happen?
stryker said:Happened at cob last Wednesday, when all SYD Reservations staff were terminated.
All calls to UA Reservations from Australia as from Thurs 9 August are routed to the Manila call centre, which is slightly better than India, but light years behind the old Sydney centre.
Very sad, and it may even push me slightly more in the direction of OW (I guess I might have to have a closer look at AA).
wallacej said:UA are (becoming) the default LCC bus in the sky for travel between East Aust and west US... and still not that much cheaper
I think UA are doing pretty well out of their US-AU routes. Last time I saw the loadings for the LAX-SYD routes, UA were well over 80%.clifford said:.
Maybe they'll withdraw competely from Oz, as they did with NZ. Wouldn't be any great loss IMHO.
stryker said:I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned this.
I guess it indicates there are few UA elites on this board.
However, this does seem to be a one airline board (no surprises there).
Amerrican said:I am an American living in Cairns.
Whenever doing any UA reservations I either use the web or call the Premier 800 number in the US. I've got a US-based VoIP phone line with a US number, so the call from that phone is free.
This is especially useful when booking award travel (I fly 'em and my wife uses the free tickets). We rarely have any problem redeeming miles; usually two trips to the US per year for free.
stryker said:Happened at cob last Wednesday, when all SYD Reservations staff were terminated.
baldman said:FWIW, my recent experience of making mileage plus award bookings has been a fairly happy one. Notwithstanding varying degrees of language difficulties with the different accents, I've found most of the staff fairly competent.
I'm happy to persist with them as using the miles to fly business on air nz beats the hell out of qantas, both interms of seat and flt availability, hence I'm keen to find out how I get more of my amex points into mileage plus, without being ripped on the "exchange rate".
baldman