Zealex

Hello!

I booked a round trip via United.com from USA to Poland in August. When booking the flights, I noticed that my selected fare was basic economy that didn't include any checked bags. The website was advertising that for 120USD more I can upgrade to premium economy that included checked bags for both flights among other goodies. So I thought, great! I booked this ticket options for 120 more, and my receipt included that my 1st checked bags to and from Poland were a part of my ticket.

So my departure flight to Poland from USA was with Lufthansa(StarAlliance partner). They asked if I wanted to check a bag in, since they said my ticket included 1st checked bag. No issues, went to Poland fine.

Here's where the issues begin - my return. My original return flight was with Brussels Air and it got cancelled so I got autobooked with a Finnair Flight departing two hours later. Finnair also got cancelled, so they rebooked me with Polish Lot to Italy and then from Italy to USA I flew a Delta plane. With my flight finalized and wondering what the heck is going on after 5 hours of cancellations, I checked in at the Polish lot front desk. I get my boarding pass, and am told that I need to pay for my 1st checked bag(and only) because my ticket didn't include it. I tried showing them my United receipt, and calling United but the automated ETA bot said the wait was 2 hours long(I'd miss my flight waiting), so without much choice I paid for my 1st checked bag that totaled around 130USD to Polish Lot.

Upon my arrival home, I reviewed everything. My receipt clearly states that I had one checked bag under 50lbs/23kg for my arrival and departure. So I called Polish Lot, and they stated that when Finnair book with 'em that it included no checked bag. So I called Finnair, and they stated that when Brussels Air booked with them, they never included a checked bag. So I called Brussels air, which stated that when United booked tickets with them it never included a checked bag.

Next day I call United, explain how I called every airline that processed my return flight home, and how I finally got to the end of the chain with Brussels saying United never included a checked bag for me even tho my United receipt stated so. So the lady asks for my info, and confirms that I paid for 1st checked baggage to and from, and that my return ticket should have had a checked bag and that I need to fill out a refund form since United didn't do their part. Okay cool, I filled the form and they got a response today that basically said "sorry we didnt meet your expections, we hope to better serve you in the future" aka they aren't gonna refund/help me at all.

What should I do here? I'm running around like a chicken without it's head, should I just initiate a chargeback? To me it seems United is at fault because I paid for a "upper level" ticket that included checked bags, but then wasnt honored when they booked with their partners. I've tried calling, etc, no help here. I would do a chargeback against the original booking, since it was supposed to include the full services mentioned above but didnt. Wouldn't make sense to chargeback LOT since they didn't do anything wrong, they got the "wrong" details to begin with.

Am I missing overlooking anything? Any advice?

Thank you for reading!