Originally Posted by
mauld
At the time of my rebooking, I didn't request any specific flight. They booked me on the DL 5pm, which had been delayed at that point from leaving at 10:20am. When I asked about compensation, I was told none was to be given, other than a rebooking. Now I'm looking at $200 to get to NJ ( Newark or anywhere) at 8 pm
At time of rebooking (or when they notified you), you had the option to accept or decline the alternatives given to you. Given that DL is the first MAD-NYC flight out, UA probably rebooked you on that flight to make sure you got to NYC in time. UA would not have had visibility to the operations or delay that DL encountered. If you knew DL flight was delayed, you could have requested to be rebooked on AA (dep 10.50) or DY (dep 10.55), or even later flights on IB/UX. UA duty was to rebook you to get to your destination within 4h of scheduled arrival, which they did on the DL flight.
Now it's unfortunate that you suffered another delay on DL but that's entirely up to DL to compensate you. Only compensation that UA would offer is the $200 to get you from JFK to your NJ destination. I suggest you save the receipt and write to customer care to get reimbursed.