Originally Posted by
jp12687
This is one of those interesting points that I wonder if it’s worth holding UA accountable.
i routinely fly LIH-HNL-EWR on miles. The first leg is Hawaiian and they always charge me bags.
even though my receipt from UA says I get 2 free bags on the route up to 70lbs
hawiian says they charge based on the originating carrier (them) vs what United might offer you.
is that a violation of DOT rules since united shows it as free bags but o get charged?
So, it looks like UA has changed their receipts, and
boy is this a bad change.
The previous receipt format included the struck-through values that I mentioned earlier, showing the regular fee and then replacing it with a zero. The accompanying text indicated that the free bags were only available if checking in with United.
The new receipt format does
not do that. It just has the zeros, with the disclaimer. "Baggage check-in must occur with United or United Express, and you must have valid MileagePlus Premier® 1K® membership at time of check-in to qualify for waiver of service charges for up to three checked bags (within specified size and weight limits)."
What a
huge can of worms they've opened. If I didn't know how UA's baggage rules worked, it would be easy to read that table as "two bags are free, and the third will be waived if I'm still 1K." And this really doesn't comply with the spirit of the DOT regulation; if I were checking in with another airline, or losing my status, there is no way for me to tell what the baggage fees would be by looking at my receipt. So, that dovetails into your question: whose rules are supposed to apply depends upon whether your flight is a one-way or outbound (HA's rules) or the return flight of a round-trip ticket (UA's rules). However, if UA is printing a receipt like that, that just shows zeroes when it shouldn't, and you still get charged, I would be tempted to complain, not because I thought the fee shouldn't apply (it should), but because UA needs to prioritize getting this right for the millions of its customers who aren't experts in its broken IT systems.
OP: I suspect that you'll find similar text to mine just underneath that table on your receipt.
Originally Posted by
emcampbe
Just curious - what does the online bag calculator say (I mean the one where you type in your PNR and last name). That theoretically should give you the same thing an agent will get - though it’s completely possible it could change at some point - like the mileage accrual line that can go from one number to ineligible to another number (though almost always credits like it should, no matter what the predicted number is).
Agreed; this is worth checking out.