As United-Continental final merger looms, tips for March 3 Madness

by Janice Hough on February 24, 2012


United’s merger with Continental Airlines merger has been a long time coming. The “final” step, or at least the end of the Continental name, is coming March 3.

The airlines have had enough time to prepare. They assure us the switchover will be smooth. All Continental flight numbers are going away and, at the same time United is switching over to Continental’s reservation system.

As a 30-year veteran of the business, married to a software engineer for almost that long, my honest reaction — I’m not flying that weekend.

Do I think planes will fall out of the sky? No.

Do I think it will be mass confusion. Yes.

If the changeover goes without a hiccup, I’ll be the first to congratulate the new United Airlines. Just in case, for anyone flying that weekend or soon after on United or Continental, here are some tips.

1. Make absolutely sure you have your record locator (a six digit/number code) and your ticket number, including the first three digits. Currently, Continental tickets start 005, United tickets start with 016.

If there is a problem and they can’t find your reservation, the more information the better.

2. Carry on your luggage. Now, I don’t know all the details of the computer switchover. But it’s hard to imagine it won’t affect baggage information, especially if a piece is lost.

3. For anyone collecting frequent flier miles — save boarding passes. United’s system for crediting mileage after the fact has gotten pretty easy for most flights, just call with the ticket number and a reservations agent quickly processes it. I’m not sure what will happen when an old reservation was in a computer system that doesn’t exist in the same form.

It’s probably a solvable problem. A boarding pass will eliminate the worry.

4.Get to the airport early. Even travelers with all their ducks in a row and no problems can still end up in line behind people with problems.

5.Have a “life-line” ready. Whether it’s a travel agent, emergency after-hours service, a computer program or an smartphone app, be prepared to problem solve; preferably without waiting in the aforementioned line.

Fortunately the changeover, well after President’s Day and before Easter, is not during the busiest time of the year. Despite all these preparations, if it turns out that March 3 is just another travel day, well, then enjoy the extra time to relax at the airport and consider buying a lottery ticket.

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Tagged as: Continental Airlines, March 3 United Continental merger, travel agents, united airlines, United merger date, United-Continental merger

  • Anonymous

    Just hope the UA system doesn’t repeat the “nationwide computer malfunction” they had last June. Here are some pictures to remind y’all.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005029/Fathers-Day-weekend-United-Airlines-computers-5-HOURS.html

  • Julia

    I agree — you wouldn’t catch me trying to fly on March 3!  Thanks for the insight!

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/5JCOEKELJK22WZT6UI42VOA2HQ hildynyc

    So… is it best to go ahead and book one’s reward travel NOW rather than wait. I have a TON of Continental miles and not many United… I’m concerned how UA will treat those miles (i.e devalue them)….

  • Lyngengr

    You should have got an e-mail from United telling you how they were going to convert miles.  They will combine both miles, the name of the FF program will be Mileage Plus, but you will use your Continental number (not the United). 

  • Anonymous

    Is it just the Res system or the whole passenger service system that will changeover? I’d be more worried of a departure control system change.

  • ellen

    well the technical side may come together, but they willl never fix the lazy flight attendant problem that arises on 2 out of 3 international flights i take. Just returned from China and the service was abominable.  I have a million miles, so i know of what i speak. Jeff needs to get on and actually FLY every month — he’d melt down if they treated him as they just did the passengers on my flight last week.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/5JCOEKELJK22WZT6UI42VOA2HQ hildynyc

    Yes. But it does seem like they will be worth less….. Am I wrong?

  • Janice

    TonyA, the reservation system is linked to the whole system now, waitlists, upgrades, checkin, etc.  Just really hard to know exactly what’s going to happen. They’re changing frequent flier numbers too.  Am also wondering what happens to “e-certificates’ for discounts….

  • John

    Thank you for this column Janice, it’s really useful information. I’m a corporate travel agent and frequent reader, and this is good info for me to pass on to my clients.

  • Jayhup

    Well…I’ll be doing a JFK-LAX on Sunday the 4th so if it all goes pear shaped I will be able to give everyone a first hand account. Wish me luck!

  • Charles Leocha

    Just finalized a flight from IAD to GVA with a return from BRU to IAD for mid-April. The flights are booked with a Continental record locator but also have a different United locator number. Looks like they are getting ready. I assume the CO PNR will disappear and I’ll have to use the UA locator. Time will tell.

    Any word on what happens to the continental.com website?

  • Anonymous

    Just got the System Wide Re-issue Waiver Codes !

    Continental and United Schedule Change Processing Waiver

    United is now within days of migrating to a single passenger service system – SHARES – on March 3. In advance of the migration, United is encouraging agencies to process remaining records that have been impacted by recent schedule changes.

    Records not processed and moved out of a queue prior to the migration may be subject to additional complications when they transition to the new SHARES environment. In order to assist agencies through this effort, United is providing a series of self-service options, detailed below:

    · If the current class of service is not available, please rebook in the lowest available class of service (within the same cabin) and append a waiver code/OSI message to the record.

    · Routing changes are allowed as needed, as long as the original origin-destination pair remains the same. Connections may not be changed to non-stops.

    · Rebook and reissue the ticket as an even exchange on the same plating carrier. No change fee will apply for the initial reissue. For CO/005 ticketed records, the waiver code will be required to reissue the ticket.

    · Waiver code and OSI message are applicable for use for through Thursday, March 1.

    We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through the integration process.

    Sounds like we’re having fun next weekend.

  • http://twitter.com/johntbaker John Baker

    Charlie… The new United.com is a rebranded version of the current CO site. continental.com will redirect to united.com starting the 3rd

  • http://twitter.com/johntbaker John Baker

    The values changed at the begining of the year in both programs… Doesn’t matter which one you are currently in. PS make sure you go in and link your two account before the 3rd!

  • Graham

    IF (repeat IF) things go wrong then it may take a couple of days to sort out.

  • Robert

    UA has told us that travelers can’t link their accounts anymore.  The deadline was January 31.  They’ll have to wait until after the migration to combine accounts.

  • Anonymous

    From what I am hearing and reading, they are moving the whole Passenger Service System (PSS) to SHARES – the system of Continental. Same is true for the website of United. They will use Continental’s website but re-brand it United.

    So we are not dealing with brand new systems – both of their systems are pretty old. The apprehension is the Reservation and Gate Agents need to learn SHARES. So productivity (and of course speed) will dip since you have maybe thousands of UA agents who have to ramp up their skills in using SHARES.

    Being a user of an archaic GDS system myself, I will find it difficult to shift to another GDS in just a few weeks. You know what you need to accomplish but you don’t necessarily know HOW TO DO IT with the other system. I suspect that upgrades, re-accommodation, rebooking, and similar complicated tasks will be quite a challenge. If I was an airport agent and I get frustrated, I will be inclined to tell the passenger to use the kiosk or call the toll-free reservation desk and let them deal with it. That’s what I expect will happen come 3MAR.

  • Robert

    This is good advice except for one thing – When the migration takes place the night of March 2, every UA reservation will be assigned a new record locator so if a traveler has the old record locator, UA may not be able to find a reservation from that.  We won’t know the new record locator until after the migration.  I also have one other suggestion that might be helpful.  That is to check in for your flight and print a copy of your boarding pass on Friday, March 2 before the cutover.  That way if there is a problem at the airport the traveller will already have their boarding pass to get through security and to board the flight. 

  • Anonymous

    You’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head.   Bad news and good news………..
    SHARES is very antiquated compared to FASTAIR (overlay on Apollo).   They didn’t call it FASTAIR for nothing.  SHARES ?….you’re talking chisel and stone.   Yes, United customer service agents had to learn SHARES but it was a “crash” course – thousands of agents have been in training classes 1-2 weeks (counters and gates) since October. 
    The differences are abyssmal.   What could normally be done in 3-4 keystrokes on Apollo now takes sentences of commands, multiple screens, paging through profiles and
    fill-in formats.  The commands and responses are totally different in native SHARES versus native APOLLO (FASTAIR) and are not easily dicipherable — SHARES is overkill – just too much information on screens, entirely cluttered which just adds to the hardship.
    Good news –
    1.  United is very much aware of the differences – How do we know?…….They have ramped up (staff) at a Help Desk to call, they will be providing CO volunteers to stations who currently have no CO presence.   Even stations that have CO agents will be well-staffed with volunteers from EWR, IAH to other airports around the system.
    2.  There is a new overlay called “Check-it”……an application that is being tested (at several stations).  It is very easy to understand and negotiate and will be able to handle basic check-in, changing of reservations, seat changes, involuntary and voluntary exchanges to other airlines (irregular ops, etc).  

    But still, there is a lot we to know and do in native SHARES.   Just to change seats or collect fees in that system is not simple……picture typing a command to get to a certain fill-in to check-in an unaccompanied minor or another fill-in to collect fees, etc., all the while not even able to tab into the fill-in — this is a system with NO  TABS - you have to arrow up-down-right-left.

    3.  More good news — United/CO is working on new apps for everything – but not expected to be in place until the end of 2012.  

    In the meantime, CSA’s are relagated to learn this.   Some will gain speed and proficiency but others will be struggling and at the mercy of CO agents standing beside them or using a third party (help desk) to assist as they go along.  Very awkward and handicapped way of working.   You can imagine passengers getting irritated,impatient and angry – all the while verbalizing while the agent (with head down is hearing this) and trying to get through the system.  Like you said, if a problem is just too daunting to work through SHARES, it will indeed be “easier” to fob the passenger off onto a phone call to reservations or put them back on the kiosk to change seats or pay for a bag, etc.  

    In the long run, I believe the UA agents will “get it” and function accordingly.   In the meantime – in the beginning of this computer transition – come to the airport early – bring a book (War and Peace, or The Bible)!! and take heed to the suggestions above – at least your ticket number or reservations number.    

  • http://www.MaineTravelMaven.com/ MaineTravelMaven

    And be prepared for flights to be eliminated. I was just notified of a Continental flight being dropped. Rebooking meant coming home a day earlier than planned and on a very inconvenient flight. Could have been worse, I expect. 

  • Anonymous

    Absolutely right – hopefully there won’t be some kind of overload with the check-in process the day before.   Contingency plans are in place if something really goes wrong.   There are still ways to check passengers in “manually”, albeit a real pain.    I also think that if necessary, UA can plug back into Fastair, even if for a few hours or days more ??? 

  • Anonymous

    Today I noticed  CO Flight Cancellations without Auto-ReAccommodations. ORD-GUM disappeared. No re-routes made by system.  What a pain!

  • Anonymous

     Here’s the info I got from UA/CO:
    All PNRS will receive a new record locator, which will be cross-reference with the old locator. Customers may check in using either locator.

    Looks like they will duplicate all PNRs in the UA RES system  (Apollo) to CO/SHARES and build an RLOC table for cross-referencing. So if you have a UA Reservation you can use the RLOC of UA  (in Apollo or FastAir)  to find the RLOC to be searched in SHARES.

    I suggest to use Online Check In (OLCI) the day before so you can make sure your records are in SHARE’s Departure Control System.
    If you can online check in, then there is less to worry about.

  • Anonymous

    I made my own 8 point to do list for travel agents. Please feel free to comment.

    (1) Stop ticketing CO 005 plate. Ticket UA 016 plate instead.

    (2) CO flight Availability will disappear, sell UA segments instead

    (3) All reservations with unflown CO flights will change status to UNABLE, FLT NOT OPERATE (UN). Each UNed CO segment will have a new UA segment with status code TK Schedule Change Confirmed. Remove the UN segments and change the TK segments to HK.

    (4) Check All Special Requests (i.e. Wheelchair, Meals, etc.) See if they were
    ported to the UA flight segments. If not, then request them again (Re-enter SSR).

    (5) Start using the new 8 digit alpha-numeric United Mileage Plus FQTV codes. Note the old United Mileage numbers were 11 digits.

    (6) Check if advance seating assignments were retained/transferred to the new UA flights - 
    Previously assigned seat assignments might not be shown in the PNR. The seats assignment are still there and can be verified by two options:
    · A generic seat request(aisle, window)will return a confirmation of the original seat.
    · Seat assignments can be viewed on United.com

    (7)  All PNRS will receive a new record locator, which will be cross-reference with the old locator. Customers may check in using either locator. If a PNR hasn’t been ticketed, agencies will need to wait until the new record locator is received before the ticket can be issued.

    (8)  Some records might be lost. You may need to rebook if records are lost. United has provided a WAIVER CODE applicable for use for through Thursday, March 1.

  • Jeanstravelletters

    Hubby and I are using OnePass miles to fly international from Phoenix through Houston on March 6.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that because United and  Continental are both in Terminal 2 in Phoenix and Houston is CO hub, all will go smoothly.  We are checking bags and again, hope it all goes well.  But it does add an element of unease.  Neither of us had any miles on United to confuse the issue.

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