A friend and I recently traveled round-trip from Denver to Honolulu on United Airlines, connecting through Los Angeles. We had each purchased first-class seats using 60,000 frequent-flier miles. On the return leg of the trip, our flight from Los Angeles to Denver was canceled. The airline automatically placed us on the next available flight to Denver but downgraded us to coach. Since we had paid for first-class seats, I assumed that we would receive mileage credit because we'd been reassigned to coach.
Back home, I called the customer service department of United Mileage Plus (the airline's frequent-flier program). The agent said that I needed to call United reservations. I did, and was thenceforth caught up in a game of telephone Ping-Pong in which I was shuttled between the two departments. Eventually, I got through to a reservations supervisor, who instructed me to send him the Los Angeles–Denver boarding passes and a letter of explanation. Once he received these, he assured me, the mileage credit would be posted to our accounts. I did just as he instructed, but three weeks later we each received a letter stating that United was denying us compensation because "the records indicate this was an award ticket or a fare which is not eligible for Mileage Plus credit."
At about the same time, I got a letter from a customer service representative saying that since award tickets are issued only for round-trip itineraries, I would not be credited miles for portions of flights that were downgraded. This directly contradicted what the supervisor had stated earlier, so I contacted Mileage Plus customer service again to inquire about a credit. The representative reiterated everything that had already been explained in the letters, and then added that the gate agents in Los Angeles should have given us compensation at the time of the downgrade. Yet when we showed the gate agents our first-class boarding passes and made it clear that we were being downgraded, they said nothing.
This seems like a poor way to treat first-class passengers. We paid for first-class travel but didn't get it. Isn't it only reasonable that we should receive some mileage credit?
Steven Coppola
Denver, Colorado
Ombudsman is inclined to agree, especially after examining United's Mileage Plus rules, which are posted online. These state that "travel on Mileage Plus award tickets will be subject to the…contract of carriage…of the carrier on which travel is scheduled," and United's contract of carriage states that "if space is only available and used on a UA flight(s) of a lower class of service acceptable to the passenger, UA will provide a refund of the difference of fares." This wording suggests that Coppola and his friend were due some sort of compensation. We contacted the airline for its feedback.
In a rather hostile response, a United representative explained that while Coppola and his companion were not actually entitled to have miles credited to their accounts, the carrier would work with them to reach an agreement. Eventually, United refunded each of them 5,000 miles, which it posted to their Mileage Plus accounts—without any explanation to Coppola or Ombudsman. Ombudsman is satisfied with, though puzzled by, the airline's impulsive gesture.
Equally puzzling was the United representative's explanation of why the travelers were not eligible for compensation. We were told that although Coppola's itinerary comprised four flights, the airline considered it to be two segments: Denver–Honolulu and Honolulu–Denver. Since only one of the four flights was downgraded—not an entire segment—Coppola was due nothing, despite the terms in United's contract of carriage. So the 5,000-mile credit was not a refund based on airline policy but a conciliatory gesture. Ombudsman tried to obtain an explanation of how the airline arrived at this amount, but our repeated requests received no response from the United representative.
Under slightly different circumstances, Coppola's right to compensation would have been more clear-cut. If an entire segment had been downgraded, he would have been owed recompense. If he were bumped to coach for all four flights, he would have been reimbursed the difference in mileage between the first-class and the coach-class award tickets (25,000 miles). Ombudsman also contacted American Airlines and Continental to see how their policies compared with United's. Both carriers said that the scenario described by Coppola is very rare and thus would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The spokesperson for American added that if a passenger were bumped to a lower class as a result of something the airline had done (a canceled or overbooked flight, for instance), the carrier would provide restitution. (Note, though, that certain itineraries require a connection or flight on a small aircraft that has no premium cabin. In this case, a passenger with a first-class award ticket will still be charged the full first-class amount of miles—since other flights in the trip will be flown first-class and award tickets are based on complete round-trip itineraries. An airline agent should advise the passenger of this prior to any ticket purchase.)
Some may wonder whether Coppola's difficulty in obtaining compensation stemmed from the fact that he was traveling on a frequent-flier ticket. The answer is no. Award tickets do afford passengers the same rights as paid tickets. Though it is true that they do not have a cash value, they grant equal rights to a seat and are governed by the same regulations as a purchased ticket: the conditions or contract of carriage. This means that passengers flying on award tickets should be due compensation if they are bumped down a class or off a flight completely, just as normal ticketholders would be. Having paid an airline (in miles) for a specific level of service, a passenger should expect to receive that level of service. But as Coppola might argue, the theory is not always put into practice.