100% Green

UA Flight (UA952) was cancelled due to mechanical, and I was rebooked on another flight departing a few hours later (UA932). I missed my connecting flight in FRA, and United rebooked me in economy on a non-partner airline even though my flight was originally booked with a partner airline in Business. My connecting flight's business class was completely empty.

Does this count as IDB? Can flyer talkers point me to what the correct compensation would be if so?

TIA

aisleorwindow

Were you upgraded from economy to business class on the original UA flight, or were you on a paid business class fare?

If the former, then UA acted appropriately. If the latter, you got royally hosed and you are due the difference between the business class fare and the economy fare.

aacharya

Downgrade compensation, not IDB. Alternatively, you can ask for a refund of the UA flight.

SEA1K4EVR

This is not an IDB. IDB does not apply to flight cancellations..only denied boarding due to overbooking. So there is no official denied boarding compensation in this case.

Because of the downgrade you'll be entitled to get some of your miles back or your upgrade instrument..or if you paid for the ticket..a refund of the fare difference. You'll likely also get a travel cert for the inconvenience. Write customer relations and tell your story.

100% Green

Paid Business Class.

Would I be asking for the difference just for that leg or for the entire flight? How do I know what the difference is since the date has already passed?

Thank you.

SEA1K4EVR

They will tell you what the fare difference is based on the published fares at that time (they have the info).

Often1

Involuntary Denied Boarding means you were denied boarding. By its own terms it does not apply.

You accepted a reroute which included a segment in Y. Your options were to wait for a flight where C/J was available to accept the Y downgrade.

You are entitled to a refund of the difference between the flight paid (C/J) and flown (Y). If you look at UA's contract of carriage, it explains how that is caculated on a multi-segment itinerary where only part is downgraded. Presuming that you flew USA-FRA and then somewhere relatively close xFRA, it's not going to be a large % of the itinerary and the difference between Y and C may not be much (particularly if you paid any form of discounted C).

UA will handle this with a phone call.

CASAFlyer

Given you had paid for C, you could have demanded to be rebooked in C, even on non-partner airlines. This is standard *A procedure.

That said, if the flight you got rebooked on was a short hop within Europe, chances are that the C seat was the same as Y with a middle blocked and a bit of food. So you'll have to decide if/how much is worth pursuing the matter.