I had a ticket to fly CLT-IAD-LGA one Friday night and back the next Sunday. I ended up having to go to NY on Friday morning and at the airport was put on the stanby list for both outbound flights. I am Chairman's Preferred on US Airways (roughly equal to 1K on UA) and had called UA to add my US Airways frequent flyer number to my reservation and was told that it had been added.

I made the CLT-IAD segment I wanted to make, but noticed that my US number wasn't on my reservation, so I asked a gate agent to add it. I also used an Easy Check-in machine to add it. But when waiting for the IAD-LGA flight I wanted to make, the gate agent cleared a few standbys, called my name, and said, "Sorry, no more seats." My US number hadn't been actually added to my reservation; if it had, I almost certainly would have made the flight as I would have been near or at the top of the standby list rather than the bottom. The rest of the flights on Friday were way oversold, so I took Amtrak from DC to NY. I called UA to say that I wouldn't be taking my later flight to ensure that my return flights wouldn't be cancelled, and was told that as long as I was un-checked in (which I called to do next), my return flights wouldn't be cancelled.

Today I arrived at the airport and was told that my ticket had been cancelled since I hadn't taken my prior segment and that I'd just have to buy a new ticket. I bought a ticket on American.

If UA had (1) actually added my US Airways number I almost certainly would have made the IAD-LGA flight I wanted to catch, and I wouldn't have had to buy an Amtrak ticket and my return reservations wouldn't have been cancelled, and (2) told me the truth that my ticket would be cancelled, I would have had time to round up an award ticket somehow and wouldn't have had to by an American ticket. My total losses on the tickets I had to buy plus an IAD-downtown DC taxi ride are $450.

Can I get at least a credit on UA for the unused portion of my ticket? I guess I should have not skipped the flight, but UA agents didn't tell the truth about adding my US number to my reservation or about my reservation being cancelled, and I lost $450 because of that. Can I please have some suggestions about how to get at least a credit for future travel on UA?

Thanks very much.