Help with misconnect at IAH
 

Today we were flying CUN-IAH-CRP.

When booking, the only flight available was arriving IAH at 2:39pm and departing at 3:57pm.

This is considered a legal connection and we had no checked bags. We are also US citizens and really don't fly enough that I considered Global Entry.

Our flight arrived E17 5 minutes early, but the line for immigration and customs was really long and we missed the flight to CRP by 10 minutes or so.

It departed B64 1 minute ahead of schedule and was definetely gone by the time we got there.

We tried for stand by on the 5:30pm but didn't make it.

There were two more flights but they were both booked full and not even selling Y seats. We could have remained and tried stand-by but we had to be back in CRP tonight. I figured with no status and with the flights completely full that our chances were fair at best.

We decided to take a cab over to HOU and buy tickets on the last WN flight of the night at 9:05pm.

I know CO isn't responsible for the immigration and customs operation at IAH, but shouldn't they try and coordinate with them to have more booths open at peak arrival times if they are going to market 1 hour 18 minute connections. And by the way, we couldn't book a later connection as at time of booking, these later flights IAH-CRP were full.

I am now out the cab fare IAH-HOU and two WN tickets which cost me $390. I was also on a BA0NN fare CUN-CRP which was $622 one-way and I know the fare to IAH would have been about $67 cheaper per person.

Any suggestions or do I just have to drop it?

I fear with the merger coming that any email to refunds/customer care really won't be responded to.

My good friend is a Presidential Platinum and he wrote customer relations. He got a generic reply saying they were researching his issue and they never got back to him. That was 4 months ago.

I hate to say it, but you were the one who choose not to at least let CO try and get you home, and as such, merger or not, I do not see you getting much of anything back from CO. Maybe, if you are lucky, you will get the difference in fare for the unflown IAH-CBP


Regarding the 5:30pm flight, its odf that you did not clear, as the seat map shows a number if empty seats.


Also, am I reading correctly that you were on a B one-way fare ticket CUN-CRP, priced at over 600 one-way? Despite having no status, and being a misconnect on a high fare ticket, you should have been at near the top of the standby list for every flight.

Lastly, did you consider a rental car for the 5 or so hour drive, or a potential reroute to SST, plus a rental car?

You are entitled to a partial refund of the ticket.

If CO is non-responsive after four (4) months, consider filing a DOT complaint. That may compel CO to respond.
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Wouldn't it be United now?

I have a few unrelated thoughts:

• A little confused by the last sentence in this story -- did this happen 4 months ago when you were traveling with a friend who is a PPlat, or did something else happen to him back then and you're just recounting it as an example of a time CO's customer service was unresponsive?
  
  (My understanding is that if a Global Services passenger misconnects, UA guarantees them a seat on the next available flight, even if they have to force the flight oversold and VDB someone. If the PPlat passenger were traveling in this case, it's interesting to me that CO did not offer this amenity to someone at the GS-equivalent tier.)
  
  
• Regardless, that must have been the worst feeling in the world, being stuck in a long customs line and watching the clock tick by as it gradually became clear that you were going to misconnect.
  
  I think you'll find that CO sells travel insurance, but if you didn't buy it, all their contract of carriage says that if you misconnect, you'll get a confirmed seat on the next available CO flight or at the very most a refund. Not much else they can do for you if long queues and bad luck (and, yes, poor capacity planning) conspire to keep you off a flight and there's no more room that night.
  
  
• Was flying to CRP really cheaper than a last-minute, one-way car rental?

It's clear the friend who was a PPlat wasn't flying, as space would've opened up for him/her, and with a B class, that friend would've been in International Business.

It's also the OP's choice - if it were me, I'd have waited around for the next two flights. Someone would cancel..

Keep in mind that CO does not treat people with travel insurance any differently. Travel insurance is provided by a third party, and you have to deal with them to get any money out of it.

I was watching on the internet and saw the empty seats open up about 12 minutes before departure. We were number 1 and 2 on the stand-by list, but they could only clear 1 person. We did not want to split up so number 3 go cleared as he was traveling alone.

I'm not sure why all those seats opened up. Is it possible those were customers without preassigned seats who were confirmed on the flight?

Do those seats not show taken on the map so close to departure?

Maybe the flight was weight restricted? Is that possible on such a short route? There weren't any weather issues that I know of.

We chose to take a cab and fly as we didn't want to mess with the car and having to navigate Houston traffic. I know others may think that is silly, but that is just what we chose to do.

The trek from terminal E to B is rather long, and even domestically can take upwards of 30 minutes... I have missed B gate connections that departed early, as well. I now only book IAH mainline to Express with over 1 hour connect times. Internationally, I am looking at 2. Flying back from MEX in early March and 2.5 hours... a pain, but a safer routing.

Also, it's too bad they could not accommodate you on the next flight, they aren't as understanding at IAH as some airports. With that said, it was your choice for the cab and WN tickets... you might get a small refund if you get a sympathetic agent- or you may get nothing at all.