UA is giving you exactly what you should get. Rerouting on the next available flight with a carrier it has such agreements with in the class of service you booked. If you paid extra for E+, then you should get a small rebate for not having E+ on the DXB-FRA segment but that's it. If you flew E+ because of your status, then nothing else is due to you. Sorry but CO Silver is pretty low down the totem pole for much more priority treatment. It likely got you and your family onto the DXB-FRA flight ahead of a few dozen others.
If there is a STAR flight you get the STAR flight since STAR tickets are endorsable on STAR carriers only. In the "good old days" when fares paid were higher and Y was Y, airlines easily endorsed tickets to one another because they got compensated similarly. Today, your fare could have been much lower than available fares on the DL flight, so UA was in no position to reissue tickets on that non-STAR carrier.
YOU GOT WHAT YOU WERE ENTITLED TO. SUCK IT UP AND GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE AND TRAVEL! You're getting home a few hours later but you're getting home under the terms of your contract with UA.
Originally Posted by
MarkXS
Geez, as both a former UA1K & CO Platinum, I'd be happy that they got all 4 of us rebooked so quickly, on an EQM & Elite bonus earning carrier, that only got us in 8 hours later than originally planned. This is excellent service given the total systems meltdown.
Was the outage UAL's fault? Sure, whatever the root cause it was their responsibility, and I say that as a 20-year + big systems IT guy. But their response to you was superb under difficult circumstances.
What you should expect is a good flight on LH, and refund per UA policy of any Economy Plus seating area charges (E+ is not a separate class of service nor is there any concept of"upgrade"; just a "more legroom" seat in Economy Class").
Given you are in onepass where it is EQM not BIS miles that counts for lifetime miles, you don't even have reason to request Original Routing Credit for not being on UA.
Now if they were taking days to get you out and only offered a 5-hop through central Africa connecting to the CO island hopper, maybe then I'd expect compensation. Though really I'd probably love the adventure, but maybe the family wouldn't.
^^^^^^