cfischer

General consensus is to request EC reg 261 and then afterwards once approved go for the CS gesture. There is no harm to wait for the $400 and technically it can get you into muddy waters ... so why risk it?

Aussienarelle

I have had a number of EU261 claims with UA, and at no time did the customer appreciation gesture negate the payment of the claim. For my first one or two I went the cautious route of waiting but now accept and make the separate claim. Like a previous posted I send it to the Customer Care e-mail as Other and then note EU 261 claim and provide the details of the flights - original arrival time at my final destination and time I ended up arriving at my final destination. Always out of the EU to the USA. It is one way with UA claims. :-)

Productivity

So to close the loop, I ended up sending this out to one of the automated claims shops due to it being a lot less messy than having to schedule my business trips around it. In their words they took UA to court and before getting to a hearing, UA settled for the whole EU261 value. Hope that helps someone in the future that you may have a claim to make - if knock on effects are having an impact at an airport where a carrier has other planes, it may be worth a try, if only with a claim shop.

WormGod

Thanks all for the advice! I submitted the claim, and United responded about a day later stating that my claim was valid and offering me EUR600, $900 travel voucher, or 27,500 miles. Anyway, I replied to their email and took the $900 travel voucher because I know I will be doing at least that much travel with United over the next year.

I also claimed the $400 voucher that their automated United Cares Customer Service offered for the "inconvenience" BEFORE I submitted the claim. I did this first because I was concerned that if UA offered me a $900 voucher for EC 261 via their "United Cares" website that this one would override the other and I might lose access to the $400. I needn't have worried because the $900 voucher came in a separate email from their Customer Service department without requiring me to go through the "United Cares" site.

A final thought - I really don't understand the logic of the 27,500 mile choice for the EC 261 compensation because it is worth so much less than either of the other two options. Plus, they offered me 20,000 miles (instead of the $400) for the "inconvenience." Just seems that if they wanted people to choose the miles, they would need to seriously increase the amount of miles they offer.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

The value of the miles varies significantly based on when/how you uses them. If I want to fly round-trip from Maui to Houston at the last minute, UA may have only a $1600+ round-trip fare left. I can book a saver award (45k miles r.t.) for the same flights. The value of 27k+20K is now $1600+. Of course, the ETCs are usually much more valuable if you plan to use them and book in advance. I think the only people who would ever take the miles are those who don't know better or those w/ few miles in their account and who often book at last minute.

Kacee

But there is a standard UA valuation of 2 cpm for purposes of customer service comp, and the offer to OP did not match that, which is I think what he was commenting on.

Flying Machine

LondonElite

When all that's left is a $1,600 fare, are there many saver awards on the flight?

Kacee

It can happen due to advance purchase requirements. There can be plenty of inventory but sky-high fares due to an AP requirement. I've redeemed at over 4 cpm on domestic routes under these circumstances. It's why awards can be good for things like travel to funerals.

LondonElite

I did not know that.

quikshifter

Can you tell me about the $400 united automated voucher? I dont understand how to claim this?

Oh - United Cares website, got it. Sucks! Our records indicate that the flight you were on did not experience an incident that qualifies for compensation,

I did get the full 600Euro approved after a week of emailing "Other"

gaia14

I was scheduled to fly from Madrid to Newark on Feb 18, 2017. However on reaching the airport and just before checking in we were informed by the passenger behind us that our flight was cancelled. No reason was given whatsoever by the airline. No sign was put up, we got no email! On talking to a person behind me, I was told that there was snow in New Jersey and as a result the flight from Newark has not come into Madrid. Does this qualify as a weather related emergency even if the weather in Madrid was sunny and perfect to fly? Am I entitled to 600 euros?

LondonElite

Welcome to FT! Cancellations due to the type of weather in Newark at the time does not qualify for EC261 compensation. The airline's duty of care still applies, however; you should have been provided with hotel and food and put on another service to EWR.

exerda

Though my long-haul flights were UA, in my circumstance, it was my LH connection that caused the delay. Half the delay was WX... Other half was on the airline & ramp staff, as once we'd boarded, sat an hour due to refiling the flight plan, we sat another 45 minutes due to LH and the ground staff not coordinating and not having a cart to push us back.

Missed the last UA flight out in FRA by 10 minutes. LH did put us up at the Sheraton and provide semi-adequate food vouchers... But I'm still tempted to pursue an EU261 claim due to the pushback delay (which wasn't WX). Any chance, or will the airline simply insist it was weather?

Germanfflyer

YES you are entiteled to EU261 as the weather in Madrid was fine and the reason for not having an aircraft in Madrid was operational and not due to weather as they knew hours ahead that they would be short of an aircraft in Madrid they could have hired one - but they choses not to for finacial reasons!
The weathr exeption is ALWAYS only for the airport you derpart from not for any other airprt in their system around the world...
Also weather exeptions are VERY rare as the weathr condition has to be very rare - in German courts any weathjr situation that occurs more than 3 times a year will not qualify as rare....

Wrong information!

Weather does NOT exempt them! Only in very rare cases!
Again any weather condition that occurs quite often will not be considered rare by the courts....
German courts in general will NOT exept wetaher as an excuse - as long as the aiport was not closed!