WineCountryUA

This is a long standing push back by UA --- EU-EWR-SFO (on a single ticket) as to whether solely domestic segment delays are covered. Yes, the EU courts has suggested they are but the US domestic carriers have been reluctant.
You will find multiple reports in this thread. Surprising UA appears to have covered some cases.

Did you use the specific EC261 UA customer complaint site?

Other then to try UA once again, you will need to do a court filing in the originating EU country or go to one third parties litigators

DoT will not enforce EC261, a non USA regulation

auorab

The delay was a mechanical problem with the incoming flight caushing it to leave EWR for Lisbon late.

It was ticketd LIS-EWR-SFO

I went through the specific steps for filing on United's site, and even quoted the court case where a European court found United required to pay for delays such as this. There were actually 4 emails back and forth with United over this.

I am 100% confident that I covered every possible base in my responses to United being clear concise and their answer is simply, no.

I included the court case because it was the ruling that substantiated the claim that United has to pay when the delay is to the final destination.

One other response that made me scratch my head is below.

We understand that the disruption was very frustrating, and we regret that our performance this time disappointed you. The flight in question did not originate in an EU signatory state; the European Regulation EC261/2004 is therefore not applicable to this case, as United is a U.S. flagship carrier and not an EU Community carrier. Your understanding is appreciated.

I'll go through one of the third-party litigators, especially as it was for 6 passengers. Any suggestions as to which one?

jsloan

Was the EWR-SFO flight also delayed? That seems almost mandatory for a 3 1/2 hour delay on that route to turn into an.8 hour arrival delay, although perhaps not for six people.

WineCountryUA

Perhaps getting space for six people became an issue.
Wonder how EC261 handles the issue of large parties.

jsloan

:-) Just like EC261 handles almost everything else -- by leaving everything to the discretion of a judge.

I suspect, but don't have any case law to prove, that someone can turn down re-accommodation on separate flights without affecting compensation. I'm less confident that the same would hold true if there were six seats available, but not together. Realistically, OP has already indicated a desire to have one of the contingency-fee attorneys take the case; I'm sure they'll be able to poke any holes in OP's situation.

auorab

The EWR to SFO flight was not delayed. Arrived in EWR 3 hr and 45 min late, missed connection (which was a 3.5 hour layover), and the next flight wasn't for several hours.

The entire party of 6 was on the next flight out.

mpiotrow

I've had great luck with AirHelp the 2 times I've had pushback from United on similar issues as yours...one time my flight from EU-EWR was on time, but the connecting flight from EWR-SFO was delayed, causing me to misconnect on my final flight from SFO, and ended up having to overnight in SFO. All booked as one ticket, but UA claimed that the EU portion was on time, so no EC261 compensation was due, even though I arrived at my final destination more than 10 hours late. AirHelp got me the compensation (minus their fee, of course, but it was still nice to get something, and required no additional work from me)!

jsloan

That's... odd. Looking at today, anyway, the LIS-EWR flight arrives at 1:05 PM. A 3.5-hour layover would mean a ~4:30 PM departure. If you arrived 8 hours late into SFO, and EWR-SFO wasn't delayed, that means you'd have been on a 12:30 AM departure, which I don't see on the schedule. The only way I can see to have the next flight be 8 hours later would be if you were scheduled on the last flight of the day and have to spend the night.

Were you on UA for the entire trip? Or were you inbound on TP?

hughw

I posted this story (see post #747) about success with a similar situation with Air Canada...Perhaps something here might help...At the end of the day, knowing the facts, the Euro court decision, and escalating to someone at a high executive level probably all helped.

Best Practices for Filing EC261/2004 ( EU 261 ) and UK 261 Claims Against United?

auorab

Jsloan, this was from August, the flight times were different. It was actually a 3-hour 15 min layover now that I look again.

There was one other flight from EWR to SFO that was entirely sold out before the flight even left Lisbon to go to EWR, however it would have also put us into SFO later than the allowed time.

jsloan

Fair enough, but EWR-SFO is one of the most frequent routes in the system.

Having an intermediate flight that was sold out makes a lot more sense. There are fewer afternoon flights than morning flights.

As much as I'm not a fan of the ECJ expansions of the EC.261 text, this one seems pretty straightforward -- the missed connection was due to the delayed flight, and everything was on UA. I'm not really sure why they're pushing back. Filing in Europe is your only option, I'm afraid.

auorab

Regardless, due to arriving so late, the next flight out would have would have still put us in SFO more than 4 hours late.

hughw - I feel like I laid everything out fairly clearly in my emails, and they are just saying no without any explanation to why they are saying no, so I don't even know what to push back on.

They are saying "The flight in question did not originate in an EU signatory state; the European Regulation EC261/2004 is therefore not applicable to this case, as United is a U.S. flagship carrier and not an EU Community carrier."

cardinal98

Is there any way to determine the cause of a delay for UA-operated flight from Europe?

Today UA declined Mrs Cardinal98 (and child)'s request for 261 compensation for an Aug 8, 2023 flight due to:
Mrs. Cardinal98 reports that the Captain (or FO) reported the delay to the passengers after boarding and that it was "mechanical."

seanp7

I used AirHelp for a case against Iberia that went to court. It took two years, but we won. Sure, they take a sizeable cut but, as you noted, they do all the work for you provided you upload the details. I was happy with the experience and not having to do much at all.

I just had a recent positive experience with UK 261:
- 2 Oct: I filed the claim (LHR-EWR delayed 6 hours due to mechanical)
- 1 Nov 8am: mail from UA with compensation options.
- 1 Nov 9am: I accepted compensation ($1000 TC)
- 1 Nov 11am: I received TC by email and shows on united.com home page.

hughw

Auorab --- They said they considered the case closed and wouldn't budge. With the help of reading some stories and forum communications on Elliott.org https://www.elliott.org/?s=eu+261 and finding personal email information of Air Canada executives, also on elliott.org, https://www.elliott.org/company-cont...ited-airlines/. I escalated the request directly to Twyla Robinson, Air Canada Director of Customer Care and International Operations, and they finally gave in...I would be happy to share the email I sent to Ms Robinson if you would like me to PM you.