Originally Posted by
cfischer
UA can and often will re-book OAL (e.g. DL) if the delay is controllable. They not required to do it, but they often will. If the OP would post the flights they were booked on - one could certainly look up the reason for cascading delays. While multiple cascading delays can be interpreted in many ways, e.g. a maintenance delay on the outbound will show the inbound as 'due to late aircraft' and I have been quite successful in pointing out the reason for the inbound delay to get UA to re-book me.
I've found UA unwilling to rebook me on OAL for MX delays. I've done more cancels for refund and rebookings on another carrier in the last 3 years than in the previous 33+ that I've been a UA flyer. Once things start to go sidewise, I'm always on my laptop looking for alternate flights to my destination. It seems that UA expects the average pax to be happy with, "We'll put you on the next available UA flight.", which often means the next day. I can't wait until the next day on most of my business trips, so I'll end up buying a last minute ticket (cash or award) on the airline with best timely routing to my destination. Yeah, I've had to spend a lot of extra money to make this happen but I need to be where I'm supposed to be on time, so I have no choice.