Several FlyerTalkers reported that the “Hold Itinerary” button had recently disapeared from United Airlines’ website, United.com. United allowed customers to hold itineraries until midnight, eastern time, the next day, while preserving the itinerary’s fare and seat selections. At the begining of the thread, many FlyerTalkers hoped it was simply a glitch.

It wasn’t.

United has officially eliminated the ability to hold itineraries purchased through their website. While it’s not a decision that’s excessively dastardly (say on par with if United removed mileage bonuses for elites), but it’s a decision that results in an inordinate amount of hassle, annoyance, and collapses many of the features of purchasing fares through the website that only result in even more irritating recourses.

First, it was simply nice to be able to hold an itinerary for a bit, especially when booking mileage runs where one has to examine many itinerary options, and know that your fare remained protected while the fluxuations of airfare and the chaos of life swirled around it. For students, like me, I liked having the option of holding a few itineraries when the dates of when I would return home after exams were ambiguous. Now, I’d better know my travel plans in advance.

In terms of inconvenience, annoyance, and hassle, United now abolishes the ability to hold itineraries and ticket them with vouchers. For voluntary denied boarding, United issues a type of voucher that one cannot redeem online, and can online redeem at the airport. Now, one must head to the airport without a held itinerary online, and must experience the hassle of working with an agent to try to create an itinerary to specifications. Yes, I suppose one could attempt to hold an itinerary over the phone, but at times, phone agents are unable/do not have the wherewithal to reproduce the desired itinerary.

I’m simply puzzled – United has been trying to eliminate interactions between customer and human in many respects of the ticket purchase transaction by offering many ticket purchase features online – including refunds, bag check, and those stupid Travel Options by United. They’ve scaled personnel numbers in call centers, have tried to promote communication almost completely via e-mail. Now, United , in an another management-headscratcher, increases the need for the human interaction they have tried to curtail, and makes it more inconvenient for us all.

Of course, I understand I am writing about a relatively small demographic of United flyers, here. I’m sure many of United’s customers, simply traveling from Point A to Point B on the cheapest fare Orbitz offered, don’t really care, or didn’t even know about the hold itinary feature. Regardless, though, it’s a patently poor decision for some of the people who fly United the most, and pour money into the works with frequent travel. I cannot wait for the fun of calling United to hold a mileage run itinerary, with seven stops, crazy connection times, and specific fare classes. Poor form, United.