IAH-OIL-TRASH

No.

luke5111

I see it as totally legit. I'm waiting for my second UK261 in six months to show up even although I got a much lower initial courtesy gesture from UA. I figure they owe the entire plane the full UK 261 and are trying to make the passengers think they got something out of the kindness of United's heart and most of them won't pursue additional compensation and don't know it's available.

smartytravel

I'm hitting a dead end, and I'd love some feedback what to do next.

I had a flight from the EU to the US. MAD-FRA-EWR-IAH. Single reservation, single ticket, purchased with Lufthansa on Lufthansa codes.

MAD-FRA-EWR were operated by Lufthansa, EWR-IAH by United but on LH codes.

United delayed the flight from EWR to IAH by 10 hours due to its crew scheduling problems.

I've opened the case with United. I went back and forth with them several times. They lied to me and misled me in the responses, and they refuse to pay compensation.

What do I do next?

sannmann

Since its out of Germany, I would recommend opening a conciliation case with SOEP. They'll review the facts and ask United to provide a formal response. There is no cost to filing with SOEP.
https://soep-online.de/en/your-conci...e-form-flight/

smartytravel

The flight actually begins in Madrid, Spain. Germany says that they won't touch it since the trip didn't start there.

Any thoughts how to pursue this further in Spain?

Also, is my understanding correct that I'm eligible for compensation on a United domestic connecting flight?

sannmann

My apologies. Looks like you would file with AESA, since you started in Spain. See https://www.seguridadaerea.gob.es/en...a-reg.261-2004
You are eligible for compensation on a United domestic connecting flight, per the Wegener case precedent.

WineCountryUA

The USA airlines have generally not accepted this without a battle. As it was a LH codeshare, LH (in Spain) might is a better route

HNLbasedFlyer

Battle as in can try to sue them. The EU hasn’t taken any enforcement action against US airlines on connecting flights as I don’t think they want a battle with DOT or US courts.

smartytravel

I'm in that situation with now. Will it be sufficient to go to small claims court in Europe to get this settled?

smartytravel

But the law says you have to handle it with an operating airline?

mduell

What the regulation says, and how the courts have enforced it, are very different things.

WineCountryUA

I am no expert on EC261 but others have stated the ticket issuer is also has liability -- you paid them. Others can better address this, but you can be sure, short of a court judgement, very doubtful UA will response to a domestic flight issue.

swiftaw

I was on UA 21 AMS-IAH yesterday which was delayed by 5 hours leaving AMS due to mechanical reasons, and about 9 hours late arriving in IAH (due to a stop in IAD to change crew), meaning that I missed my connecting flight and had to spend the night in Houston (where I currently am, was rebooked on a flight later today).

If I understand EU261, this is a clear case and I am eligible for a claim of 600 euros.

When I woke this morning, I found I had received an email from United apologizing for the delay and directing me to the unitedcares link to offer compensation. When I used the link and put in the details, the offer was either a $250 e-cert of 12500 miles. Obviously, neither of these are as good as the EU261 compensation. The question is, if I accept one of these offers (which I haven't yet), would I then be ineligible to file an EU261 claim?

Thanks.

jsloan

The prevailing wisdom is ‘no,’ and there was a recent example of this — but most people seem to file for EC.261 first and then accept the United Cares offer afterwards, just to avoid tempting fate.

Don’t forget to save your receipts for hotel, ground transportation, and meals, to whatever extent they weren’t covered by UA. EC.261 covers those in addition to the €600.

TBD

if you accept the United Cares offer, there is language in there that explicitly waives future claims agains the airline. I can't tell you whether that's enforceable, though.