[sonoman]

Got e-mail from United saying I can check in for my flight tomorrow. I went through all the normal steps then I got a message saying, "Unable to complete check-in" and below it, "We are unable to complete the check-in process at this time. Please proceed to the airport for assistance."

What is going on? I am a million miler 1k on united and I fly dozens of segments a year and this has never happened before. I called the support desk and they don't know what is going on. They passed me to IT and the IT guy gave me an ear-full about how they are the bottom rung "carrying the entire airline on their backs", not the CEO and they are over worked, blah blah blah. In other words, he didn't know and had no interest in helping me.

I called back and the support supervisor said, "check back in a couple hours and see if that works". That's reassuring. I asked them what Plan B is when waiting doesn't work. And after waiting 5 hours, it still doesn't work. What do they say about trying the same thing and expecting a different result?

I have a 6am flight tomorrow and I will have to leave my house at 3am to get there because I live 2 hrs away from the airport. I really don't want to get there with no boarding pass and have some United employee who hates his job almost as much as he hates customers tell me "I don't know why this isn't working". I also don't want to show up to have 1000 people in line ahead of me (major United hub) because they had the same problem. I did that last week when I had to wait 45 minutes to get through security in the Premier line because my Pre Check didn't clear.

Anybody else have this problem? What is going on? This is basic blocking-and-tackling...it shouldn't be such a mystery to the support and IT people. I am so frustrated and irritated at United...but I live in a town where they get 2/3 of the take-offs

[Sidewaysrob]

I have no idea why your ticket and reservation did this.

What I do know, if you are randomly selected for a Government required ID check before issuing a boarding pass then this will happen.

If the flight is overbooked, (most Likely) this can happen as they will not confirm some peoples seat assignments.

If your name is similar to a flagged name or someone on the do not fly, this will happen.

The last time this happened to me I got the "I have no idea but it could be (see above) and it can only be rectified at check-in at the Airport."

I accepted it and showed up a few extra minutes early before the lineup got overfull and had breakfast in some crummy fast food place just down from the gate.

Less stress than you are giving yourself.

Good luck and have a Boring flight.

[sonoman]

Hi Sidewaysrob
I checked in at kiosk at SFO with no ID check...actually less than normal since they don't require a PW on the kiosk. Went through TSA with no problem...other than no Pre-Check because I don't want to pay $85 for what I got for free last year

Flight was boring. Got in early but sat on the tarmac until it was late...you gotta love United. They pat themselves on the back for an early arrival but I don't consider myself arrived until people are getting off the plane