Forced to drive to another airport for international flight

easykristine · Nov 16, 12, 10:26 am

Woke up to find the beginning leg of my flight cancelled. When calling United 1K line, no alternative routing available other than arriving a day late. The only other option was driving 150 miles to an alternative airport, on a moments notice, and I took that option. Can I ask for compensation and should I expect it when having to drive 300 miles roundtrip. The cancelation was not weather related, but I suspect it was an underbooked flight.

aacharya · Nov 16, 12, 10:36 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by easykristine

Woke up to find the beginning leg of my flight cancelled. When calling United 1K line, no alternative routing available other than arriving a day late. The only other option was driving 150 miles to an alternative airport, on a moments notice, and I took that option. Can I ask for compensation and should I expect it when having to drive 300 miles roundtrip. The cancelation was not weather related, but I suspect it was an underbooked flight.

1. You were not forced to drive - you offered it versus waiting a day. I'd have done the same thing, but you were not forced.

2. Your suspectedness of "underbooked" is something a kettle would say.
That simply isn't how flights are cancelled, and as a 1K you know better.

3. You should have asked for rebooking in Y (so you could upgrade with miles) for your trouble and appropriate cab fare. Were there
no other flights, even on * or non-* airlines?

4. I think you should ask for compensation, though again you should've asked for it before the rebooking. Not sure if they'll give it to you now.

GBadger · Nov 16, 12, 10:44 am

Hard to say without more specifics. What was the flight? What was the reason for cancellation? What was the drive involved? Did you look into other options yourself? Did you ask to be rebooked on other airlines?

craz · Nov 16, 12, 10:47 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by aacharya

4. I think you should ask for compensation, though again you should've asked for it before the rebooking. Not sure if they'll give it to you now.

You can ask all you want, lately its been falling on deaf ears. I had a flight dropped from the schedule which meant either a 5 hr layover or leaving @ 6am in order to connect to an earlier flight and avoid that 5 hr layover. I asked about changing my O/D to another airport 30 mins away and was told sure for $xxx the difference in fares

Of cause i didnt have to endure that 5 hr layover or leave 2 hrs on an earlier flight to connect, I could always simply get a 100% Refund, of cause I was using an eCert and fares were 2X+ what I had paid, so said the Agent

aacharya · Nov 16, 12, 10:51 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by craz

You can ask all you want, lately its been falling on deaf ears. I had a flight dropped from the schedule which meant either a 5 hr layover or leaving @ 6am in order to connect to an earlier flight and avoid that 5 hr layover. I asked about changing my O/D to another airport 30 mins away and was told sure for $xxx the difference in fares

Of cause i didnt have to endure that 5 hr layover or leave 2 hrs on an earlier flight to connect, I could always simply get a 100% Refund, of cause I was using an eCert and fares were 2X+ what I had paid, so said the Agent

That's insane. 30 minutes away? What two airports?

channa · Nov 16, 12, 11:06 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by aacharya

2. Your suspectedness of "underbooked" is something a kettle would say.
That simply isn't how flights are cancelled, and as a 1K you know better.

Actually load often plays a role in cancelling. If X aircraft is broken, they will reallocate available aircraft and most certainly prioritize which flight or set of flights to cancel, factoring in load and other factors.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aacharya

I think you should ask for compensation, though again you should've asked for it before the rebooking. Not sure if they'll give it to you now.

The OP is entitled to a refund for the unflown portion.

aacharya · Nov 16, 12, 11:15 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by channa

Actually load often plays a role in cancelling. If X aircraft is broken, they will reallocate available aircraft and most certainly prioritize which flight or set of flights to cancel, factoring in load and other factors.

Your assessment is fair. Simply stating a cancellation is due to the plane being "underbooked" especially for international (not sure of OP's routes) flights is not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by channa

The OP is entitled to a refund for the unflown portion.

Example (pure randomness, since EWR-SFO has a direct flight)

EWR-IAH-SFO, rerouted PHL-IAH-SFO.

I don't see the "unflown" portion.

MSPGabe · Nov 16, 12, 11:27 am

Flights aren't cancelled due to low booking, and it's rarely even a contributing factor.

I had half a dozen flights this summer go out with ZERO passengers. Another half dozen went out with less than 5.

channa · Nov 16, 12, 11:38 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by aacharya

Example (pure randomness, since EWR-SFO has a direct flight)

EWR-IAH-SFO, rerouted PHL-IAH-SFO.

I don't see the "unflown" portion.

True. Often in these cases, one is driving the feeder flight (e.g., MRY-SFO-JFK, MRY-SFO cancelled, drive to SFO). That's what I'm referring to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWMRamper

Flights aren't cancelled due to low booking, and it's rarely even a contributing factor.

I had half a dozen flights this summer go out with ZERO passengers. Another half dozen went out with less than 5.

Though it's a safe bet that like equipment type failed for an IAD-BDL-IAD turn that was full, and IAD-PWM-IAD was empty, they would have swapped it out (provided it's the same UX carrier, they knew ahead of time, etc.).

klakhav · Nov 16, 12, 11:42 am

Send a thoughtful email to Customer Care email address and I am certain they will send you a couple of hundered dollar voucher. You could have also asked for taxi fare and meals voucher at the time of the issue

craz · Nov 16, 12, 12:02 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by klakhav

You could have also asked for taxi fare and meals voucher at the time of the issue

This wasnt a VDB. They offered the OP a flight the next day which for whatever reason wasnt good for the OP. So the OP had 3 choices 1- go the next day,2- get a full refund, 3- drive to the other airport

UA did NOT force the OP to drive to the other airport it was their choice to do that so that they could get to their final destination ASAP.UA doesnt owe the OP a taxi, bus, gas expenses involved in getting to the other airport

Often1 · Nov 16, 12, 12:32 pm

It's unlikely that UA will give any compensation after the fact for this. They might have issued a taxi voucher. But, to be fair we're talking about $150 in mileage and maybe $20 in good, so less than $200. For that, they might toss OP some miles or a small cert.

I don't buy the "underbooked" thing either. More importantly, I wouldn't allege it if I didn't have real facts.

DeaconFlyer · Nov 16, 12, 12:39 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by craz

This wasnt a VDB. They offered the OP a flight the next day which for whatever reason wasnt good for the OP. So the OP had 3 choices 1- go the next day,2- get a full refund, 3- drive to the other airport

UA did NOT force the OP to drive to the other airport it was their choice to do that so that they could get to their final destination ASAP.UA doesnt owe the OP a taxi, bus, gas expenses involved in getting to the other airport

If this is your argument, then UA never owes someone compensation for a cancelled flight. While this may be technically true, its not a great way to retain customers.

sinoflyer · Nov 16, 12, 12:55 pm

Similar thing happened to me last summer: Thunderstorms in ORD so the aircraft never made it to MBS. I was offered a flight the next morning, but I chose to drive my rental car to DTW instead. I also negotiated for a $150 voucher right there at MBS instead of dealing with 800-WE-DONT-CARE later on.

This might be too late now, but FWIW I suggest dealing with compensation at the cancellation airport instead of the rescheduled airport or, least preferably, via phone or email. Good luck.

aacharya · Nov 16, 12, 1:17 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by sinoflyer

Similar thing happened to me last summer: Thunderstorms in ORD so the aircraft never made it to MBS. I was offered a flight the next morning, but I chose to drive my rental car to DTW instead. I also negotiated for a $150 voucher right there at MBS instead of dealing with 800-WE-DONT-CARE later on.

This might be too late now, but FWIW I suggest dealing with compensation at the cancellation airport instead of the rescheduled airport or, least preferably, via phone or email. Good luck.

You did the perfect thing re: the cancellation.