sbtinme

Hi all --

I'm sharing this story with you in hopes that you can offer your best suggestions on how I should proceed with UA customer service on this.

Long story short:

My elderly father was flying to a family wedding here in Maine two weeks ago connecting from US to UA in EWR. Flight on UA was EWR-PWM.

UA flight scheduled departure time = 1:26pm.

My father makes the distance from the US gates to the UA gate in terminal C and arrived at 1pm sharp. When he arrived, there was a couple shouting at the GA who, apparently, simply closed out the flight early. The couple was demanding to be let on the plane since there was still 26 minutes before published departure time. My Dad was totally bewildered, so he called me at once. (that's how I know he was at the gate at 1pm -- the time stamp on his call to me was 1:01pm.)

UA's own guidelines state that pax must present themselves at the gate not later than 15 minutes before departure at EWR. My Dad was there 11 full minutes before that, but found the flight closed and a GA who was entirely unwilling to help reaccommodate or offer help whatsoever.

So, Dad walks to the UA Service Center and joins the long queue of pax. He calls me back and I conference call in UA res to look at options. Given that he was flying midday Sat and this is peak season into Maine, no options whatsoever. So, we had to choose between a reroute into MHT or BOS.

BOS was the final choice, but it meant that I had to drop EVERYTHING I was doing that day (getting ready for wedding guests, working with caterer, lots of last minute details to be pinned down), and drive the two full hours to BOS and back.

Bottom line = the GA in EWR that day closed this flight out WAAAAY too soon leaving at least 3 confirmed pax behind -- a full 26 minutes before published departure. That's unacceptable and it required a lot of extra hassle on our end due to no fault of ours.

Based on your wealth of experience here on FT, I'm interested in your best suggestions on how I should present this to UA.

Many thanks in advance.

Often1

Your father, not you, should send in a web form complaint which states:
1. That he was at the gate at 1300 for a 1325 flight,
2. That the flight was closed early,
3. That he was denied boarding as a result and had to be rebooked to BOS, thus inconveniencing his family.

Make it simple and sweet. All of the stuff about others yelling at the GA and your work with the wedding caterer isn't relevant to UA.

If UA's records reflect what you suggest, your father will likely see a travel voucher of some kind.

aacharya

It is a little too late, but once the flight was done, your dad should've waited for IDB. It is almost impossible to get IDB after the fact though.

Nothing else you really could've done.

CPMaverick

Submit a DOT complaint please. Unacceptable behavior, and your father is owed cash compensation (IDB).

I agree with making your UA complaint 'short and sweet' but also mention that your father was 'involuntarily denied boarding' and that you will be pursuing a complaint to DOT.

bldr1k

I've never seen anything like this. The only flights I've seen closed out early are ones where every checked-in passenger is on board.

Ari

Can flight status be looked up 2 weeks later?

emcampbe

Not on UAs site, but with a free flightstats account, you can see flight status several years back. Flight aware, also with a free account, should go back a month or two.

mduell

When you say two weeks ago and on a Saturday, I assume you mean August 10. That makes this UA flight 4902 operated by Republic: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/R...EWR/KPWM/times

As far as I can tell, that flight was scheduled for a 13:21 departure from the time the departure was moved into the 1300 hour (sometime in April 2013 - previously a 12:12 departure) until the flight date, never 13:26 departure.

I see the flight pushed at 13:13, but I have no way to know what time the GA closed the gate.

xliioper

Was this flight 4902? Was it on 8/10 or 8/17? Flightaware lists scheduled departure time for the 8/17 flight as 12:47PM with a 1:01PM departure. For 8/10, scheduled departure is listed as 1:21PM with a 1:52PM departure. Perhaps there was a schedule change after ticket purchase? DOT IDB compensation is specific to oversold flights. If the flight was not oversold, you will likely have little chance of collecting.

mduell

The 17th only had flights scheduled at 12:47 and 15:11, nothing near "13:26".

Note 13:52 is the runway departure time on the 10th - the gate departure was 13:13.

xliioper

Which is why I suggested the possibility of a schedule change after purchase which perhaps OP was not aware of.

Often1

DOT rules regarding IDB only cover oversells, not early departures. As soon as you start saber rattling about things which don't apply, UA just laughs it off. DOT does too.

I've taken OP at her word regarding the schedule. If she hasn't checked that, she should before she complains. If the schedule changed and OP's father simply showed up late, e.g. less than T-15, he's SOL.

CDKing

It would be next to imposssible to prove now at least for this flight. That and UA could claim weight and balance as the plane size is small for that exemption to IDB compensation rules

sbtinme

Thanks, all.

Okay, so my initial note was typed from memory and I've gone back and pulled the file to review details.

Specifics = flight was on 3 AUG (sorry, it's more like 3 weeks ago)

Flight was originally booked with a 1:26pm flight time, schedule change did occur and new flight time was established at 1:21p. My bad.

Flight stats data shows a pushback time that day of 1:11pm, but as has been noted, only the UA system would show the time of flight closure by the GA.

Like most everyone here on FT, I'm a very experienced road warrior. I've got bigger fish to fry than to try to chase down a travel voucher from UA, but I know for certain that the EWR GA made a decision that really inconvenienced both me and my Dad. 5 hours of road time to pick him up was due to the GA's decision to close the flight out before published timeframe parameters.

I will compose a concise note to the DOT later today. I'm appreciative to all of you for your thoughts and help. I'll update when/if there is anything to update.

Often1

So this is now a fight about 5 minutes.

OP says father called at 1301, flight scheduled for 1321, so T-15 is 1306.