US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Compensation?

I was scheduled to fly ATL-CLT-BOS on US departing ATL 1:30 arriving BOS 5:30. My original CLT-BOS segment was cancelled due to weather before I departed from ATL. I was offered rebooking on Airtran, which I refused. Instead, I was rebooked on a flight leaving CLT at 6:55 and put standby on a 4:30 flight. Upon arriving in CLT I found the 4:30 flight was also cancelled due to weather, and somewhat later the 6:55 was also cancelled because of weather. I was rebooked on the last flight to BOS, scheduled to depart at 10:35 and told that if that flight was cancelled it was unlikely that I could be put in a hotel, due to a convention. This flight was not cancelled, but was delayed, and I arrived in BOS at 1:30 AM. My bag was delayed two days, for which I received $50 compensation.

My question: am I entitled to any compensation for the delayed flights? If so, what do you think is fair?

You have to ask Special Services before you leave the airport. Also each ticketing counter and boarding gate should have the rules of compensation available. Yeah right! I asked for them and showed the reference on the inside of the ticket jacket, but the agents could not find the rules. Good luck!

I assume this was last week, because CLT did have it's largest convention ever last week that filled every available hotel room within 20 miles of the city or so (at least that's what the news folks claim ...).

Because they offered you a reroute, even though you found it unacceptable, I'm not sure you are entitled to compensation, it was your choice to be so delayed in this case since they offered you an alternative.

Nomad-
I would say probably not since you refused to be rebooked on Airtran, which I don't understand (unless you question the safety of the airline). From a mileage standpoint, you could have called the Dividend Miles Service Center the next day and they would have posted your miles since the flight was cancelled. Whenever you get stuck and they offer to reroute you on another carrier-take it! Not only do you get home sooner than waiting for the next flight on the original carrier, but you get double miles-meaning on both carriers.

In a rare case, I was headed to Amsterdam recently, but my DCA-PHL flight cancelled and no one else flies to PHL from DCA. So they offered me ground transportation to PHL or to be rerouted on United from Dulles to Frankfurt, with a connection on Lufthansa to AMS. I took the reroute from Dulles, not only because I feared being stuck in traffic trying to get to PHL, but also because I ended up with both UA and US miles and I was only a couple hours late getting to AMS, even with the connection in FRA.

Consider yourself lucky that you made it to Boston at all. I was scheduled to fly RDU-CLT-BWI last Friday, but once we left the gate at RDU we were put on a ground hold delay due to weather in Charlotte. Once we arrived in CLT, I discovered that my connecting flight had also been delayed arriving in CLT due to weather in Orlando and was being held at the gate due to weather in BWI. We eventually left the gate only to be held on the ground for 3 hours waiting for clearance to take off for BWI. Then the flight crew ran out of legal flying time and the flight was cancelled. They told us the next flight to the Baltimore/Washington area that they could confirm us on was Saturday EVENING, and that the hotels in CLT were sold out (but if we found one on our own USAirways would reimburse us up to $75). The best they could do for me was send me back to RDU that night, and then book me on a commuter flight direct from RDU to DCA the next morning. (The commuter flight had also cancelled by the time I got back to RDU and I ended up driving to Rockville, MD arriving there about 5:30 AM Saturday.) I'm sorry, I don't think that USAirways owes me anything except a refund of my ticket - It's not their fault that the weather prevented me from flying to my destination.

[This message has been edited by rtpflyer who can't spell worth #@!*& http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif (edited 06-28-2001).]

[This message has been edited by rtpflyer (edited 06-28-2001).]

I'd have to agree that compensation is probably not warranted because you refused the rebooking. In general, weather-related delays are not subject to compensation and you subjected yourself to those delays by not taking the AirTran flight out of ATL. The others are correct -- involuntary reroutes will get you your US miles. Sounds like it was a terribly long day in CLT.

It's unanimous that weather cancellations do not require compensation.

US may provide compensation anyway for customer goodwill.

However, because you refused their offer of a flight on an alternate carrier, you deserve absolutely nothing. It was a non-stop as well. What is your problem with AirTran?

I actually *am* grateful that I made it to BOS that night, however late, and that is why I didn't ask for any compensation at the time. But I have a very high opinion of the judgment of flyertalkers and so wanted to get your take on it. Since everyone agrees that I shouldn't get any compensation, I will not ask for any.

As for Airtran, I absolutely *hate* Airtran. I would rather have cancelled the trip than flown Airtran. They are a shoddy operation. I have not flown them since they switched their name from Valujet, but I have friends who have, and their experiences are enough to make me avoid Airtran at almost any cost. From firetrucks chasing the aircraft into the gate to *all* their computers beaking down and having to issue all boarding passes by hand (both these things happened on a single trip), the range of reasons not to fly Airtran has virtually no limit. Recently a friend of mine was forced to fly Airtran (her company was paying) and she was refused a glass of water by the FA (who was standing right next to her)!

Any of these things could be written off in isolation. But there is a *pattern* of incompetence and of an unwillingness to help the customer. I genuinely believe that if I had accepted the offer of rebooking on Airtran I would not have reached BOS that night. The problems US was having were due to ATC imposed delays due to the weather-- they said an extremely limited number of planes were being permitted to land in BOS. Given that and given Airtran's dismal record of customer "service", I expect that not only was that flight likely to be cancelled, but that they would do everything they could to make it as difficult as possible for me to be rebooked on some other flight. Whatever delays I experienced on US I am grateful that I was flying them and not Airtran.

As for double dipping wrt FF miles, that would presume I had some intention of ever flying Airtran again, which by now it must be clear that I would not.

Thank you, everyone, for your replies. I have a different, but related, question for you now. Under what circumstances do you think compensation for delayed flights is appropriate? This is a hypothetical question in case I someday may be in such a situation.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by nomad_2000:
Thank you, everyone, for your replies. I have a different, but related, question for you now. Under what circumstances do you think compensation for delayed flights is appropriate? This is a hypothetical question in case I someday may be in such a situation.</font>

I usually go by "if it is the airlines fault" (eg, not weather). On US, I've only really had something completely outrageous happen once:

Flying from PIT-BNA. Board the direct flight at 1700 or so. One hour later (with no AC in August and lots of futzing), the flight is cancelled. Troop to special services. Next direct flight is sold out, so they send me via CLT and provide $10 worth of dinner vouchers.

Flight to CLT goes without incident. Flight from CLT to BNA is supposed to leave at around 2100. Upon deplaning in CLT, flight is already pushed back to 2300 (original equipment was DOA, replacement equipment and crew coming from IAH). That crew/equipment pair was then allocated to go to DCA. Finally at around 0100, US managed to pull a crew and a DC-9 that looked older than me out of the hanger at CLT and get us to BNA. I arrived at about 0130 local in BNA. My luggage arrived _after_ the wedding I was in the next day. The letter to US customer service yielded me a $250 flight voucher and 5k miles. The money roughly covered the emergency tux rental and other expenses resultant in the delayed luggage. I thought it was fair.

As always, YMMV.



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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

The legal requirements are found on the US website under terms of transportation and their policy under customer commitment. www.usairways.com/customers/index.htm (http://www.usairways.com/customers/index.htm)

Basically, cluebyfour is correct, if it s their fault US will usually compensate but not for weather. Their legal obligation for their delays includes amentites (4 hours in the rules, 2 hours in the policy) such as meal vouchers, taxi fare, and overnight depending on the circumstances. But they have the right to exclude weather delays. Therefore, many times, what you get is due to cutomer service and not a legal obligation and any additional compensation such as a fare voucher is due to cutomer service for delayed flights. If bad enough, write Customer Service and see what you get.