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Best Practices for Filing EU 261 Claims Against United? {Archive}

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Best Practices for Filing EU 261 Claims Against United? {Archive}

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Old Dec 12, 2016, 3:00 pm
  #721  
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Originally Posted by jimcoddington
Are these EU Reg 261 forms easy to pick up at EU airports like AMS, if so, where?
There isn't an EU 261 clain form per se but there is a leaflet explaining your rights.

So just email the standard Customer Care method or if an elite, the elite email on the back of your MP card, and ask for the cancellation compensation, 600 euros per passenger. There may be some addition items to claim but read the links in the wiki. Most just go for the 600.
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Old Dec 12, 2016, 3:03 pm
  #722  
 
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Originally Posted by jimcoddington
Are these EU Reg 261 forms easy to pick up at EU airports like AMS, if so, where?
You don't have to pick up any forms. Just send a Customer Care message on united.com/feedback and that should do it.
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Old Dec 12, 2016, 7:03 pm
  #723  
 
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Originally Posted by Buckdany
My experience with United (I was successful in claiming over $2400 - trip for 4) is to just follow-up with United. They will deny your claim (likely more than once) but write back referencing European laws and jurisprudence widely available on the net. At the end they will pay. In the meantine, they will just not answer or send you canned answers that your event does not qualify.

An agency is great but you're loosing some money there.
Following up with United got a rather brusque, EU 261 does not apply, we will not have any further discussion. I really feel they are shooting themselves in the foot here - it's riled me up enough that I will most definitely be fighting them legally for the money and as noted above, the UK authorities feel I have a case.

Does anybody have a claims agency in the UK they can recommend. I'm debating between giving it to them or doing it myself - both have benefits.
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Old Dec 13, 2016, 10:46 am
  #724  
 
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Originally Posted by Productivity
Following up with United got a rather brusque, EU 261 does not apply, we will not have any further discussion. I really feel they are shooting themselves in the foot here - it's riled me up enough that I will most definitely be fighting them legally for the money and as noted above, the UK authorities feel I have a case.

Does anybody have a claims agency in the UK they can recommend. I'm debating between giving it to them or doing it myself - both have benefits.
Before you give away money/time - reply to UA to explain that EU261 does very much apply (and give specific reasons/examples for your specific case). Most airlines will try to deny you on the first claim, following up hugely increases chances of success.

Even if that fails, I'd recommend small claims court first, to avoid losing money to claims agencies. Might not be an option if you aren't UK based though.
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Old Dec 14, 2016, 4:31 am
  #725  
 
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Originally Posted by televisor
Before you give away money/time - reply to UA to explain that EU261 does very much apply (and give specific reasons/examples for your specific case). Most airlines will try to deny you on the first claim, following up hugely increases chances of success.

Even if that fails, I'd recommend small claims court first, to avoid losing money to claims agencies. Might not be an option if you aren't UK based though.
There are also services that legally process the claim for you for free, but they get a cut out of your compensation.
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Old Dec 18, 2016, 5:56 am
  #726  
 
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If you accept the compensation offered by UA in the "appreciation" e-mail, do you in anyway limit your rights under EU 261? Or can I get the $500 (or 25K miles) offered plus 600 euro?
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Old Dec 18, 2016, 7:57 am
  #727  
 
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Also curious about the above. I have a RT where both flights were delayed by over 6 hours. I did accept compensation on the outbound, but not on the return
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Old Dec 18, 2016, 10:00 am
  #728  
 
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Originally Posted by joseeantonior
There are also services that legally process the claim for you for free, but they get a cut out of your compensation.
Which can make sense if you'd need to file in an EU court and you're US based.

One of those agancies filed for me in German court against Lufthansa and won. The filing fee which the court sent me a copy of directly, was more than their 25% extra they charged (50% total) for going to court.
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Old Dec 28, 2016, 9:03 am
  #729  
 
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This might belong on a different thread but can anyone comment on how long it typically takes for United to respond to EC 261 claims filed via Customer Care? It's been ~12 days (6 or 7 business days depending on whether Monday was a business day or not) with no response whatsoever after UA 941 and UA 2099 were canceled and delayed 5 hours, respectively. I filed one claim for each flight.
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Old Dec 28, 2016, 8:54 pm
  #730  
 
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Originally Posted by dc89
This might belong on a different thread but can anyone comment on how long it typically takes for United to respond to EC 261 claims filed via Customer Care? It's been ~12 days (6 or 7 business days depending on whether Monday was a business day or not) with no response whatsoever after UA 941 and UA 2099 were canceled and delayed 5 hours, respectively. I filed one claim for each flight.
Experiences reported in {this} thread seem to vary significantly (some get it in a few days, others take weeks) but I'd just send another claim to follow up.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Dec 28, 2016 at 10:27 pm Reason: Cleanup after move
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Old Dec 29, 2016, 9:30 am
  #731  
 
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Shortly after I posted that, I got a response letting me know that a check for $633.60 has been mailed to me for my first cancelled flight -- and offering me a $200 travel certificate for the second flight. I responded to contest the travel certificate and the Customer Care rep told me that a different team handles EC 261: "EC 261 compensation is handled by a special department. I have forwarded your request to them and asked they respond to you directly."

Kind of silly given that she was able to handle the first one but at least it wasn't an outright reject I'll be interested to see how much hassle I get trying to get compensated for the second flight.
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Old Dec 30, 2016, 3:31 am
  #732  
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Originally Posted by JDT1955
If you accept the compensation offered by UA in the "appreciation" e-mail, do you in anyway limit your rights under EU 261? Or can I get the $500 (or 25K miles) offered plus 600 euro?
Originally Posted by TheHolyCobra
Also curious about the above. I have a RT where both flights were delayed by over 6 hours. I did accept compensation on the outbound, but not on the return
The results are pretty mixed. Sometimes UA declines further compensation, sometimes you get double. Best thing is to not accept the compensation Email offer and rather ask for EC261.
In court you are probably out of luck since you explicitly waived all rights to further compensation when you accepted the UA offer. Agencies handling such cases will generally reject such claims since the odds of winning them are near zero.
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Old Dec 30, 2016, 5:47 am
  #733  
 
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Originally Posted by cfischer
The results are pretty mixed. Sometimes UA declines further compensation, sometimes you get double. Best thing is to not accept the compensation Email offer and rather ask for EC261.
In court you are probably out of luck since you explicitly waived all rights to further compensation when you accepted the UA offer. Agencies handling such cases will generally reject such claims since the odds of winning them are near zero.
I would really be surprised if there are mixed reactions from UA on this. I, too, had a flight from Germany to the USA with > 6hrs delay and filed for EC261 without any problems. When first contacting UA Customer Service, they also offered me compensation of 200 USD in vouchers redeemable for UA flights. The T&C clearly stated that you will waive any rights of claims or compensations. I denied the offer, asked the vouchers to be invalidated and for them to proceed with my EC261 claim. About 4 weeks later the debit cards with 600EUR each arrived via snailmail and I withdrew the money without any hiccups.
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Old Dec 30, 2016, 7:41 am
  #734  
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Originally Posted by qsharp
I would really be surprised if there are mixed reactions from UA on this. I, too, had a flight from Germany to the USA with > 6hrs delay and filed for EC261 without any problems. When first contacting UA Customer Service, they also offered me compensation of 200 USD in vouchers redeemable for UA flights. The T&C clearly stated that you will waive any rights of claims or compensations. I denied the offer, asked the vouchers to be invalidated and for them to proceed with my EC261 claim. About 4 weeks later the debit cards with 600EUR each arrived via snailmail and I withdrew the money without any hiccups.

let me ensure you that several folks here have gotten both, the ETC and the check from UA. Now, there are plenty of examples where this was NOT the case and ultimately, if you took the ETC, you are likely out of luck from a legal perspective.
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Old Jan 3, 2017, 6:49 pm
  #735  
 
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Sorry if this was asked before (it's quite a long thread)
Say I have a flight EWR to FRA operated by UA and a connection FRA - BUD operated by LH. If the first flight is late and causes to miss the connection, and the final arrival at destination is more than 3 hours late, am I eligible for compensation? The ticket was issued by UA.

This website http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens...r/index_en.htm says:
If you depart from a non-EU country to your final destination in an EU country, with connecting flights operated successively by non-EU and EU carriers or by EU carriers only, only the flights operated by EU carriers are taken into consideration for the right to compensation in case of a long delay on arrival at the final destination.
Also is it a common practice to be allowed re-book to a different destination (e.g., VIE instead of BUD) in case of a delay?

Thanks!
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