mduell

I'm not, it improves connection opportunities, which gives them more possible and more competitive itineraries to sell.

With a 2-4% payout rate, EC261 comp isn't a big concern.

Kacee

I'm surprised it's that high. Is that calculated based on eligible passengers?

mduell

Yea, I believe it was a Dutch study but I can't find it at the moment.

nadox

Travel certificate that expires in a year.

scubacat1

I was booked on a flight from CDG-ORD-LAX but did a same day change to a flight from CDG-IAD-LAX to be on the same flight as my travel partner. The new flight out of CDG was delayed by 4.5 hours, and I arrived at my final destination 7 hours later than my original reservation. Will I qualify for the 600 Euro reimbursement given that I requested the change to this flight and I could have arrived on time if I kept my original reservation? It was not possible to be booked on an earlier flight from IAD-LAX, so can UA try to claim that I still made it home "on time" given that the rebooked flight from IAD-LAX was on time (my understanding is that the length of delay is based on the time you arrive at the final destination)?

I have found a sample claim letter on the UK Civil Aviation Authority website (https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Res...n-complaining/). Should I just copy and paste this onto the form at United.com/feedback on the "Other" section, or is there an email address I can use?

jsloan

You should. Don't make it too complicated -- you had a confirmed reservation on a covered flight and arrived late at your destination. The fact that you changed to that flight shouldn't be relevant.

threeoh

Did you know the CDG-IAD flight was delayed when you made the SDC?

scubacat1

Thanks, that's what I thought. I'm going to submit the request anyway.

srodr

I'm currently sitting in an Uber going from PHL up to EWR. Why am I taking this $150 Uber ride? Well, cause I was once again screwed by United today.

Things started out normally as we arrived at Madrid airport at 9:15am for my 11:35 flight. But that's when they decided to announce that the flight was canceled. No call or email ahead of time, they waited until we had made the 2 hour drive to the airport and turned in my rental car. At that point they were so kind to rebook me on Friday instead. Yes, 2 days later. I told them that wasn't good enough as many airlines fly to Newark and it wasn't even 10am yet. So they found us an AA flight to LGA via PHL departing 3 hours later. Great I told them, the problem now was that I had to go from terminal 1 to terminal 4 and at Madrid, that journey is like going from PHL to 30th street train station. At best, a 15 minute bus ride. Oh, did I also mention that I'm traveling with my 76 year old mother that can only walk about 500 feet before needing to sit down for 5 minutes. And of course, we were also dragging our luggage on this journey. But skipping the details of the many many elevators, escalators, busses, trains, stairs, etc, we got to the gate at 1230. I was lucky enough to snag 2 aisle seats near each other, but my luck ran out when I got to the seat and discovered that the guy next to me in the middle seat was about 275 pounds with no physical ability to not protrude over the armrest into my space. But what the heck, its only an 8 hour flight, so no need to sit comfortably. But little did I know that my adventure with that seat mate had only just begun... shortly after sitting down he began to blow his nose without a tissue every 30 seconds or so. After this happened a dozen or so times, I finally looked over at him to see what in the world was causing him to make these disgusting gurgling snotty sounds and saw that he had a tracheotomy. OK, now I at least had a little sympathy for him, but that only lasted about 10 minutes as the sound of him clearing his proverbial blow hole constantly made me actually start to feel ill. Imagine the sound of someone with a bad cold blowing a 'snot rocket' over and over again and that's what it sounded like. I put on my earphones at full volume to drown it out as much as possible, but it wasn't very effective. So after 8 hours of that we finally found ourselves in Philly at 4pm. Now our LGA connection wasn't until 8pm arriving after 9, which would have been followed by a long ride back to New Jersey probably arriving home after 10pm. So completely drained by this time, we decided to just pay the $150 to Uber for the 70 mile drive back home arriving 2 or 3 hours sooner.

So all that said (if you read it, thank you for listening to me vent) I am actually interested in what UA may owe me. They did rebook us on AA today, but at best we will arrive 6 hours later than planned and $150 poorer. I know there's a European law for delayed or canceled flights that get you there >3 hours late, but I do not know any of the details. I also don't know why the flight was canceled since we were way too rushed at the time to remember to find out. I plan to call UA tonight and ask them for the reason. Can anyone provide some guidance on the best way for me to proceed here?

Thanks.
srodr

threeoh

Info on the law here:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...united-75.html see the wiki

You are owed money unless it was "extraordinary circumstances", in which case you are not owed money but are owed a standard of care including hotel, meals, etc.

United also may or may not reimburse you for your uber if you send them the receipt.

Also this person seems to have been on your same original flight, rebooked on Delta and also delayed significantly. They said it was cancelled for mechanical, so if that's true then you are owed the EUR 600 (per passenger):

Consolidated delayed/cancelled international flights (2018) post 496 et seq.

Kacee

600 Euro under EC261, as threeoh noted above. Since the Uber was your choice (over flying PHL-LGA), there's no obligation on UA to reimburse that.

I doubt UA was deliberately attempting to inconvenience you.
I'm not sure why any of this is relevant to United. Perhaps there is an appropriate rant thread on the AA forum?

srodr

All this is great info, thanks. I've read through about 20 of the 75 pages here, but still not clear on what is being suggested as the right way to claim this apparently legally obligatory compensation from United. Is it just sending in an email or online message saying 'these are the circumstances and therefore you owe me this much'? Or is there an actual form or similar to send somewhere?

mauld

cesco.g

Thanks for the feedback, mauld. Glad to learn that UA CS followed thru without any delay or stalling (LX comes to mind).

srodr

Thank you all so much for the guidance here. I did submit a claim to UA and got a positive response offering 600 euros, $900 voucher, or 27500 miles for each of us, so I'm very happy with the results. Once again a huge benefit only gotten thanks to all the info shared here on Flyertalk.