United changes your resrvations then blames it on you!
 

I have been a loyal Continental customer for the last 12 years, Gold Elite currently, with 350,000 miles. I booked a business trip from Newark to San Antonio on April 30, 2012, reserving the first flight out at 6AM for the return trip, as I always do. This afternoon I checked my arrival time on the United website and it was listed as a 2PM flight, instead of the 6AM flight that I booked and received an e-mail confirming. When I called United Customer Service they wanted to charge me over $1000 to "change" my flight back to the 6AM flight I had already booked! After speaking to a second individual and waiting on hold, I had spent at least 30 minutes trying to resolve this. Finally their response was that I changed the flight on-line the following day, which was absurd. I never received an e-mail confirmation that I had, indeed, changed my flight and was not even near my computer the day they say I changed it. They did not offer me any alternative except to pay the ridiculous amount of money for the change in fare and a change fee ($1200 extra on a $525 ticket already). I live in NJ and am planning on booking flights out of Philly more and more - United has made flying Continental out of Newark a nightmare.

Just so i understand,
- You booked a ticket to fly out at 6am
- You have confirmation (emails) for the booked 6am flight
- Now when you log-in, the website says you are booked on a 2pm flight
- When you called to rectify, you were told that "YOU" changed the flights online to 2pm. However, according to you this is false and that you have not changed any flight.

If this is exactly the case, I would urge you file a case of fraud against united. Keep proof of the confirmation emails, credit card stmts, etc.
They would then have to prove that you changed these flights

Fraud might be a bit strong, but tell them you intend to take legal action uless they rectify their error. They will not be able to provide proif you did it if you did not. Also, why didnt they charge for the change if you initiated it? You should not accept this... They have clearly made an error and you are entitled to have them honour their contract

They did not charge me a change fee because they said I changed the flight myself within 24 hours of booking it. I asked them why, if I allegedly changed it on-line, did I not receive an e-mail confirming the new flight? I always receive a confirmation e-mail. She responded that I did receive an e-mail. I asked her to send that to me again and she said she could not. I have been so busy at work this week that I did not get a chance to address this further - except to vent here! I did research on-line and I am not alone in this experience. Apparently their computer system is not integrating very well during the merger. But you know what - just be honest and tell me that. Don't make it my fault by lying- another example of absolutely no accountability! Its not our fault, its your fault. Continental used to be a pleasure to deal with - United is an entirely different story.

This is what I think happened to you,because it's happened to me. UA has countless flight number changes. Why they change a flight number 6 times in one month is beyond my comprehension, but they do. Then, rather than their rebooking robot booking you on the new flight number, at the original departure time, it rebooks you on a different flight that has seats available
in the same inventory bucket, e.g. q,s,t class, etc. either earlier, or later, than your original departure. To add insult to injury, if it's an earlier flight and you no show, thinking you are still on the later flight, all of your remaining flights get canceled.

You need to file in small claims. If that is really happening on a large scale and United knows it, there could be a class action case in this. If they know there is a problem and they are charging customers a change fee it is fraud.