Yes, birds are flying backwards, rivers are running in the opposite direction, and UNITED saved me from potentially disastrous agent errors on a Continental-ticketed reservation. My DFW-ICN mileage run underwent numerous itinerary changes and ticket reissues due to a combination of upgrades clearing, CO and other airline schedule changes, and the Japan travel waiver. Along the way, I had multiple segments that were ticketed (or at least booked) on other carriers. Apparently, in rebooking flights as needed, CO agents did not always properly cancel out the other airlines' space -- so over the past 2 days, numerous segments from the likes of Asiana, Thai, and even Korean Air (!) started appearing in my PNR. As you know, this is especially troublesome in an era where airline systems will cancel out all return/onward space -- even that operated by other carriers -- when a passenger is deemed a no-show. I went to the United Seoul city ticket office, and explained what I was seeing. After a few brief moments of disbelief, the UA agent dug into the record a bit further, and realized that the problem was occurring because CO did not properly send messages to the reservations systems of the other airlines -- and as a result, my trip could have been ruined if even one of the "phantom segments" was allowed to remain. She took over the reservation from CO, managed to reissue my ticket (going from oo5 to o16- ticket stock), and called all of the other carriers that were at any time involved in my reservation to confirm the unneeded space was cancelled as that was the only way she could be sure no more phantom segments would enter my reservation. The agent explained that UA and CO ticketing staff in international locations were recently briefed on how to take over each other's reservations and tickets, so that customers living/traveling in an area where only one of the airlines had a presence would be able to receive assistance. This certainly came in handy, as CO does not have ticketing staff in Korea.
