This is not a post about poor service or dirty planes. This is a post about an endemic problem on one Star Alliance carrier that has not been addressed for three years. The consequences are profound: delayed, cancelled, or ruined trips for many.
Three years ago I wrote a story entitled Mysterious Cancellations of Air China Award Travel Booked with United MileagePlus. Passengers found their award bookings on Air China suddenly cancelled without notice or explanation.
I posited that it was happening to United MileagePlus members because United made it so easy to cancel award space. At the time, no login or password was required: only the last name of the passenger and the confirmation code.
I speculated that this was being done within China because 1.) online-generated cancellation notices were sent in Chinese and 2.) Air China’s Phoenix Miles loyalty program has a waitlist feature for awards, incentivizing nefarious action in order to clear waitlists.
It seemed clear that this also had to be an “inside job” because access to the passenger manifest was needed to find out who booked using United miles.
But nearly three years have passed and United, to its credit, has made it more difficult to cancel an award. Login is now required and United’s multi-factor authentication system makes it not impossible, but much more difficult than before to cancel tickets maliciously.
And yet the problem persists.
A Flyertalker just shared of a ruined Christmas trip on…Air China.
The problem is also not exclusive to United any longer: Aeroplan bookings have also been cancelled. Part of it may be back-end communication breakdowns. The Air China system has traditionally had trouble communicating with other airlines. That led Aeroplan to suspend all Air China bookings temporarily last year.
But I still think there must be foul play at work here: and it may even be institutional. It still seems far too coincidental that passengers on low-demand flights do not encounter any issues. Passengers who do run into this issue, however, are always told, “Sorry we cannot help because the flight is full.” They are also always seated in business or first class.
Is Air China deliberately cancelling award space on flights? I cannot give you an answer, but circumstantial evidence suggests the answer is yes and for that reason alone, I would avoid Air China, when possible, when redeeming your Star Alliance miles.
How to Protect Your Air China Reservation
Ultimately there is no way to protect your Air China award reservation, but you can take steps to mitigate damage if something goes wrong.
1. Watch your reservation like a hawk
Sometimes segments drop out weeks before a trip, sometimes only days. The sooner you discover an error, the more likely you are to find a viable alternate solution.
2. If Air China space is cancelled, contact the issuing carrier of your award ticket
Air China is unlikely to help you if your Air China flight suddenly drops off your award reservation or if your entire reservation is cancelled. Passengers who have contacted Air China are provided some iteration of the line, “Not our fault! They didn’t ticket it right!” Forgive me for questioning that, but when only premium seats on high-demand flights are cancelled, I doubt it.
Nevertheless, if you booked your award ticket through United, call United and explain the issue. Agents may say, “It looks like you cancelled it yourself”. Simply state that you did not. With the new MileagePlus security features, this question may not come up any more.
3. Try to find an alternate solution before calling
Using united.com or the Aeroplan award search tool, try to come up with a combo that works for you. As a last resort, insist that you are rebooked on the ticketing carrier’s own metal, even if there is no saver space. No matter what some agents may say, supervisors are empowered to open this space under extenuating circumstances and this would certainly be such an occasion.
So say your Air China flight from Beijing to San Francisco was cancelled. Insist that United place you on its flight, even if there appears to be no saver award space. Obviously this doesn’t help for destinations served by Air China but not United.
4. If the problem occurs in the middle of a trip, understand that all parties will attempt to deflect blame
A passenger shows up in Beijing for his connection to Bangkok. His Air China award ticket is canceled. Air China blames United and instructs the passenger to contact United. United blames Air China and instructs the passenger to go back to Air China. Air China again blames United and refuses to help. United also refuses to help…
This happens. To avoid it, your path of least resistance is to deal with the ticketing carrier (United in my above example). That is not to say United is ethically responsible, but stand your ground with United (or Aeroplan) and you will get results, even if it takes several calls. It is doubtful the same will be true of Air China, no matter how many reps you deal with.
CONCLUSION
You won’t always be able to avoid Air China and the Chinese flag carrier is surprisingly better than ever to fly. It is sad that these sorts of games continue, thus I encourage you to avoid Air China for the time being if possible. But if you cannot, just keep an eye out on your reservation so that you can quickly handle any cancellation that might arise.
I had this happen about three years ago. Books two one-way first class tickets on Air China for my aunt and uncle from Sydney to Beijing to San Francisco and suddenly two months before departure the tickets were cancelled (despite previously showing ticketed and even reserving seats with Air China). Air China then showed the flights as full in premium classes. Called United and they were very familiar with Air China tickets being cancelled. United blamed Air China, not us, and replaced the Air China tickets with two first class United tickets directly from Sydney to San Francisco. This is probably the only time I was ever happy with United customer service. However, they also told me that they only do this with United metal and available seats. They will not rebook on partner metal unless saver seats are available. In this case, it worked out, but it was scary and if United did not have seats the trip would have been scrapped.
Matthew,
This actually happened to me for a Christmas 2013 business class ticket (IAH-PEK-HKG)… on a flight booked 330 days in advance. I received a cancellation email from United (in Chinese) 1 week before my scheduled flight. When I called UA to inquire about it, UA insisted that I cancelled it myself. Back then, I couldn’t find any reports on FT or anywhere else that this was happening. I was horrified and had no idea how I was going to be in HKG in 1 week.
After numerous calls with UA, they ended up opening up saver award space on their own metal. I am thankful that it was resolved back then, but to hear that it is still continuing now is such a disappointment. Thanks for bringing attention to this issue.
@lovesupgrades
Well when you have a communist state-run airline where many employees are family members of high-ranking party officials who feel they can do as they please, there’s gotta be a lot of back-end deals going around.
#justsayin
Yikes!!!
Im flying them next week . 2 business class seats using united points
I feel lucky as I just flew them oct 31 from HNL TO BKK in biz and everything when smooth
It could be an institutional problem but could also just be an incompatible system. I speak Chinese so that may have helped in dealing with Air China – including when redeeming UA miles for CA flights.
What I normally do is to ask UA to give me the CA PNR #, which is different from the UA confirmation # you see in your itinerary. I then call CA (at their China-based customer hotline) to re-confirm my flights and select preferred seats when possible. During this process the CA agents usually ask for more personal info – gender, DOB, nationality, passport # and expiration date – as it is required for intl booking per Chinese regulations.
I’ve done this multiple times and so far have encountered no issues with UA award tickets involving CA segments. CA does have English-speaking agents so give it a try to have more peace of mind.
chinese are so rubbish im not surprised this happens. they are proven to be cheats since the beginning of the world. i dont understand why anyone would fly there or go there
How rude, how racist
Please change that as it will upset someone who’s dad worked air china and I am working for air china too
We had an experience where we booked a business class ticket with United miles out of Palm Springs to somewhere else in the U.S. and then to Beijing, but the flight from Palm Springs was cancelled due to bad weather. The United staff rebooked us on an Air China flight, with verbal confirmation at the departure gate, in business class (X code) to China out of LAX later that evening, but we had to pay for our own transportation to LAX. So we rented a car to drive to LAX, but when we got to the Air China booking desk in LAX, the Air China staff said the X code was their economy class. Despite the fact that we showed a print out of our original itinerary ticket with United showing “business class” with United, the entire staff of Air China didn’t care and demanded we pay about $5,000 USD to sit in a business class seat one way. Immediately, there was literally a gang of Air China staff, about 10 all in front of us, trained in this X code is economy class scam for people who dread sitting in economy for 14 hours. Of course they said we could call United, but little good it would do because they are Air China and they are not going to call or help, just pay the $5,000. Today we tried finding what is X class according to Air China and we can not find it anywhere. We also rebooked a different flight in O class for a future flight which United said is First class with Air China, but we can not find it in the Air China or PhoenixMiles webpages either. We tried calling the Air China number at 1-800-882-8122, but after holding for over 20 minutes and not pressing the #1 button fast enough to “continue holding on”, we were disconnected a few times. Somehow it seems that when Air China can make money, they are fast and ready, but when it comes to Air China giving to customers in return, they are very slow, non-existent to help or answer their phone which is deliberately set up to disconnect if you don’t press the #1 button every 2 minutes at their recordings prompt while on perpetual hold at the exact second prompted but they are very fast and aggressive to ask for more money and downgrade your original agreed business seating. We do not believe it is a coincidence. We believe it is all deliberate, but the airline company leaders don’t offer a way to communicate with them, so people are forced to write these reviews on the internet, which will be here for every one in the world to read, and destroy the reputation of their airline business, until the airline pays off the site owner enough money to take all the reviews down or the airline staff behave and communicate clearly and fairly.
Oh no , I’m flying in mid of January from Vancouver to India. I wish if I could refund my ticket?? But I be careful in future.
How did it go?
Hi,
How do we even checked our redemption award flight on Air China website? There is no way to use PNR to check. Their e-ticket is starting with 999xxxx. I have a flight with Air china coming up this December redeemed from Aegean Airline.
Wish me luck!
Ask Aegean for the Air China PNR.