Kacee

Ouch. If you missed check-in cut-off, that's a silver bullet for UA, and you bet they will use that in an oversell situation to cancel your reservation and free up a seat. If you just missed the bag check cut-off, that's slightly more complicated, though as a practical matter UA at that point has no obligation to take your luggage and if it's too big to carry-on, you're kind of out of luck.

dsf25

Should I just reply back to their e-mail and not mention me missing the baggage check-in time (which I haven't yet)? Is this something that would be noted in their system? I guess they could've noted that the flight was oversold, rather than my bag being late?

cmn.jcs

That's what eyeshades are for. Not trying to be snarky, simply pointing out that nothing guarantees a dark cabin (save for a power failure of some sort, I suppose, but then you've probably got bigger problems).

Kacee

Especially on a westbound TATL. That's really not a sleeping flight.

skycrab

Oh I might disagree!

Our model for flying westbound TATL has always been to stay up the night before the flight, so when you board, you're inherently tired, and sleeping at 9 am London time is like sleeping at 1 am Pacific (3 Central), so we're convinced it helps reduce jet lag, especially when you're only on the ground for 4 days before turning around again.

Having done it the other way has always left me feeling tired and awake at stupid o'clock, but that's just me!

JVPhoto

On the LH 748 in F there are window curtain shades and with the flick of a button the FA can open up the entire cabin.

ucsddeej

Was on a BWI-DEN-SFO. We boarded the BWI-DEN flight on time, but a mechanical delay slowly grew from 15 minutes to nearly an hour, causing me to misconnect in Denver. It was only 6:45PM, but because it was a Tuesday there were no other SFO flights. Tried to get onto the flight to San Jose at 7:10PM, but the gate agent closed the flight (with 3 empty seats) at 6:45PM. What annoyed me the most (but was not surprising in the least) was that the wifi wasn't working on the plane so I couldn't try and change to the SJC flight prior to landing.

I got two 7-dollar meal vouchers, a flight out the next morning and a voucher for a night at "The Timbers".

I emailed Customer Care and told them all of this, and that this made me miss an early meeting in Palo Alto on Wednesday morning. Got a nice reply back within 48 hours and 7500 miles.

Globehopper

To update an earlier post...

5+ hour delay from LHR to EWR in September, arriving EWR ~ 02:45!


1. Read this forum for advice, plus contacted certain FT'ers for advice.

2. Read email from UA apologizing for delay. Link to webpage offering lowball compensation--as I recall around $125 travel credit or 4,000 miles. Since I couldn't decide...

3. Emailed Customer Care requesting 600 Euros compensation in accordance with EU 261. Used an on line form (available via Google) and modified to suit my circumstances.

4. 15 days later (need to be patient) received email stating my compensation request has been approved. One has to print out a personalized form, fill in the form by hand (no typing here; form states "illegible" forms will not be processed) and post it to UK (no online webpage to facilitate or expedite processing).

Not sure why a form is needed with all passenger information on file. But like a good seal, I jumped through this hoop.

Done!

UA states it can take up to 30 days for processing. If US resident, payment made via VISA card (as mentioned by others).

Xyzzy

I'm surprised at this. I've seen UA ffer an ETC (or the 600EUR and the standard process) in this kind of situation as they can benefit from breakage (if it's not all used) and everyone benefits from faster processing. Was this option offered?

ElDie

Hi all,

last week flew UA TATL (7hr flight) revenue ticket in coach. Had an aisle seat and passenger next to me started behaving oddly. He suffered from dementia and after a while, talked with FA in order to be moved, since it was getting really really bad. Issue is, there were no open aisle seats, so I ended up moving to a middle seat, but in an exit row.

After a few minutes, more passengers had to be moved, as situation became worse. FA approached me, took my info, and said he would ask for some compensation (no written proof).
This was a week ago, but so far I haven't heard of any compensation.

What do you think is reasonable here?

Thanks!

wharvey

ZERO... not United's fault that a patient has dementia.

They tried their best to accommodate you, that is sufficient.

What do you THINK you deserve?

ElDie

I really appreciated the FAs effort and let me be clear that I don't feel entitled here. In fact I felt really sorry for the passenger and the FAs.
I'm asking out of curiosity, since I'm sure there are plenty of cases like these, where you get affected by something that, even when not under the airline's control, is not your fault either. And also the fact that the FA took the initiative to talk about compensation.
Thanks!

escapefromphl

You should fill out web form. You wont get more than $250, and probably more like $100.

bruceba

They may throw a few thousand miles but don't lose any sleep over it. Try the online complaint form. Good luck.

jewels421

I got the $75 or 10% off card a couple of years ago because I was seated in the same row as a woman with some sort of mental illness or disability who became disruptive. After a couple of drinks, she was clearly very impaired (interaction with meds, perhaps?)-- a bunch of outbursts about various things and just generally causing a ruckus. She also began inappropriately touching the poor guy sitting next to me in the middle seat (head on his shoulder, rubbing his arm/chest). He and I did our best to calm her down and keep her in line -- after a bit, the FAs got involved. I actually was thoroughly impressed by how the FAs handled her, they spoke in just the right tone and really took command of the situation in an effective way. Eventually, she fell asleep and I went to the back to buy a beer for the very patient guy next to me -- FAs comped us drinks and gave us the cards.