IAH-OIL-TRASH

Houston is not in the EU. If it was weather-related, no compensation. UA has no obligation for your or your friend's expenses. If you did not want UA's option, and if they did not offer flight to destination on another operator, you could have requested a refund.

As for your miles, did you end up contacting customer service (if they didn't contact you, you should have contacted them - Airline 101) or did you just no-show w/o cancelling reservation? You probably can get UA to refund some of the miles, but it does sound like you dropped the ball after leaving the gate. You should have been proactive and contacted UA to find out the disposition of the rest of your ticket.

Your situation follows under travel insurance, not United. If you booked part of all expenses on a credit card that cover trip interruption, that might be a path. I think you're expecting too much from UA - your desires are beyond their actual obligations.
Edit - Yup UK - is not inthe EU either

WineCountryUA

have them go to Customer Care, Complaints, International Passenger Rights, ...

Note UA has been reluctant to offer UK261/EC261 for domestic leg issues, and may quote the domestic WX policy but they should try do to the extent of this situation

As for other compensation the CS offer is about all they will get, I would not expect any miles refunded as traditional there has been no difference in mile redemption for a domestic leg on an international trip. Today that may or may not be true but still would not expect any mileage refund.

jsloan

Neither is the UK.

I don't think there's any question that UK.261 is intended to apply from the UK origin to the final destination. And I don't know about the UK courts, but the pre-Brexit EU courts were of the opinion that airlines should have infinite spare planes and staves available at every location, so if an IAH-STL flight was canceled due to conditions in the Northeast, rather than in Houston or St. Louis, I expect UK.261 would still apply.

Even for uncontrollable delays, the government of the UK is of the opinion that airlines should be on the hook for a duty of care. The hotel should be covered.

None of this is to say that UA will see things this way, necessarily; a lawsuit in the UK might be needed.

I'd ask for a prorated refund, which is what you'd get for a cash flight -- the fact that LHR-IAH might have been as or more expensive than LHR-IAH-STL isn't supposed to matter for involuntary refunds.

WineCountryUA

Prorated refund has not been traditional for UA awards.
Personally energy should go into the UK261 (for three passengers) is decent cash or ETCs

jjuengel

Not sure of the confusion here... the flight departed the UK (LHR) and UA cancelled the connection while my friend was in the air. It was booked with miles from my account. I was not traveling with them (I returned from CDG without issue several days later). But they spent 4 hours at the airport until CS and the GA told them there was nothing they could do for them (could not rebook them). UA failed to get them to their final destination. That is certainly UA's responsibility.

I'm an ex-long time 1K flyer with UA, so I know the drill. I'm not too worried about mileage replacement -- only mentioned that with my question to state there has been zero compensation to date. Nor has UA made an effort to rebook him to date.

jjuengel

I appreciate the feedback from you all! I thought that a UK 261 claim might be my friend's best bet, but I'm new to having to utilize this path. I thought I'd check with the experts before advising him on his next steps given that they were award tickets.

I'll advise him to file a UK 261 claim & see where it goes.

RobOnLI

FYI, a full 7 weeks is now the norm for hearing back about 261 claims. I filed a second one in early June and just today I heard back (7 weeks, 2 days later).

-RM

jsloan

There are sporadic reports of UA refusing responsibility when the delay is purely on the domestic sector. If the European flight is delayed for a covered reason, and you misconnect, they don't tend to quibble, but if the European flight operated successfully, they've occasionally pushed back. That, plus the fact that UK.261, since it is based on EC.261, has different remedies for controllable and uncontrollable delays, are probably leading to said confusion. The only thing that I think is an absolute slam dunk is reimbursement for the hotel.

I would also point out that this is another case where "there's nothing we can do" is a temporary state. Somebody who got rebooked onto the next day's IAH-STL flight might have been in the middle of canceling it because they were stuck in Boston or wherever. The key during IRROPS is to check constantly to improve one's situation. For a party of three, I suspect something would eventually have opened, especially if they were amenable to separating.

Majuki

I'd pursue the UK261 option via the Customer Care form, but you might need to go through one of the third party services if UA has any pushback.

Also, welcome to the FlyerTalk posting world!

threeoh

The pre-Brexit UK regulator opinion on this was that 1st order and 2nd order weather effects were extraordinary but 3rd order ones were not.

For example, if LHR-BCN was cancelled for weather, and the return flight BCN-LHR was cancelled because no plane in Barcelona, those were both extraordinary (so yes hotel, but not cash comp), but the subsequent LHR-FRA flight that can't operate because the crew was coming in from BCN was not extraordinary (so yes cash comp) because that's a 3rd order effect (the flight the crew was supposed to be on was not itself cancelled directly for weather).

I have not kept up on weather this is still the case post-Brexit.

kirkwoodj

Pun intended?

goldelite8

I’ve already gotten UA to agree to give me 600 Euros in connection with a very delayed flight. My question is whether the law requires the 600 Euros payment on top of reimbursement for accommodations/meals or is the 600 Euro payment meant to include those costs? Thanks!

RobOnLI

Duty of care (hotel, meals, phone call or fax) are separate from the compensation you are owed up to the 600 Euros. So in this case United will offer you the $1,000 ETC and separately should also pay your hotel and meals if you have receipts to prove your out of pocket expenses.

The duty of care reimbursement may come in the form of a check mailed from corporate or as another ETC. I believe they are still favoring checks in this case.

-RM

fed planner

How long does it typically take to get reimbursed when filing through United for a cancelled flight? And is it typically a mailed check or how do they reimburse. We filed for a cancelled KEF-ORD on 6 JUL (flew on 7 JUL), and anticipate it taking 6-8 weeks, but curious on actual experiences.

WineCountryUA

the 6-8 weeks (closer to 8 weeks) fits the multiple recent actual experiences posted in this thread