polandspringuy

Today's details:

Originally booked UA6146 MFE-IAH / UA1632 IAH-LGA

I saw delay and threat of misconnect at IAH and had her changed to UA6146/UA1453 with the same routing.

UA employee at MFE thought she was protected on AA and had her check in and check bags on AA333/AA1154 thru DFW.

After check in she was not allowed to board the AA flight and forced on to a UA flight (don't know which flt# yet). She mis-connected and missed last flight to LGA. She was just able to catch UA1236 to EWR.

Now I have to rent a car to pick her up at EWR and not sure how to get her bags from AA at LGA.

Any advice?

WineCountryUA

How was she able to checkin on the AA flight? did AA do that or UA agent?

For now focus on getting your mom and getting the bags. You will need to go to LGA. Probably need to go to the AA bag office. You might get AA to do a bag delivery but would not count on it.

LaserSailor

Cab to EWR, meet her, the rent car to get home. Obviously depends on where you are coming from.

Find out where luggage is and put your home address into claim- my guess is you can get it delivered home.

polandspringuy

Thx so far. Flight now delayed till 1 am. On my way to get car. Anyone know when lga bag claim closes? Do I deal with UA or aa?

No idea why they told/allowed checkin with Aa.

WineCountryUA

you need to deal with AA if the bag was tagged by AA and flown on AA aircraft.

keisari

You are in NYC, right?
can she just walk out of the terminal and take a cab?
send her a car service to bring her back to your house and then just go tomorrow to LGA to claim the luggage

LaserSailor

You can be in greater NY area and still 2 hours from EWR by car.

MileageAddict

Another suggestion: http://www.zipcar.com/

LaserSailor

You need a few days to open a zip car account

Often1

Focus on things in this order:
1. Get mother home (she can't be replaced)
2. Get bag (it can be replaced)
3. Figure out what happened and if something is due to your mother. (this can wait)

As to your mother, have a car service pick her up. They can meet her at baggage claim for her flight (although she doesn't have checked bags). NOTE: Have your mom read you what's on her baggage claim stubs. There is the possibility that she's confused and the bags were actually checked on UA. In that case they might actually come off the belt at EWR. You will be able to tell.

As to the bag, call AA and report what happened. They may or may not simply deliver the bag to your house. You will need your mom's bag tag.

As to what happened, you need to get a better sense of the facts. Something is missing factually. For your mother to check in, check bags and obtain a BP for the AA flight, she had to have a ticket. So it's not making sense that she was denied boarding.

Calmly sit down when she has had some sleep and interview her. Once you know all of the facts, you can figure out whether UA or AA did something wrong here.

raehl311

Reading the tags isn't going to be definitive. She checked her bags at origin, and we don't know if she checked them before or after the flights were delayed (if we're accepting that she may be confused). They may have originally been tagged all the way through on UA, and then when she changed flights they might have gone and changed them to AA, and then when she changed flights again they might have changed them back to the UA flight again... who knows.

You'll have to get the bag tag numbers and call UA baggage services. Alternatively, if you know the eticket number, UA may be able to look up the claim numbers from the ticket and tell you where the bags are.

WineCountryUA

this is what OP stated (which is all we have)
This is why reading the tags are import -- who issued the tags is the first piece of info needed (after getting the passagner to safe / comfortable place).

raehl311

Agree figuring out how they were tagged is important, but he shouldn't rely on what's on the tags issued at origin alone to determine where the bags are going to end up, as that may have changed after the bags were originally tagged.

And if he has the eTicket number, having the PAX find and read the tags may not be necessary as the tags may be associated with the record in UA's system, so a call might do the trick.

polandspringuy

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions. I ended up renting a car as I wanted to be there to pick her up. I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

It's after 2am here and I just got home. Mom is comfortably resting.

Here are the facts:
-Ticket was booked using my UA account, domestic saver @ 12.5k (don't know if relevant)
-I originally booked UA6146 / UA1632 arriving LGA at 22:08
-UA6146 delayed
-I called agent to change to UA6146 / UA1453 arriving LGA at 23:17 due to delay and subsequent mis-connect
-UA proactively moved her without notice to AA333 / AA1154 arriving LGA at 23:20
-Check in at MFE was with AA and bags were checked thru DFW to LGA, where they currently sit
-Ended up on UA5805 / UA1236 arriving EWR at 23:59 (actual 24:38 +1)
-I don't have the AA BPs as they were tossed. I do have the *Not Valid for Travel* AA itinerary printed on UA paper. Along with the AA baggage check tags.

I am unclear of the following:
-Timing of when I requested the change relative to when UA put her on AA
-Why UA would put her on AA (there were several UA options I believe)
-Why UA would instruct her to check in with AA and get AA BPs only to have AA deny boarding at the gate
-Finally put on UA5805 scheduled to land at IAH at 18:19 (actual 18:32). Connecting to UA1453 at 18:55 (actual 18:50). I believe A8 to E16, in 18 minutes?! Obviously missed, but not for lack of trying. Don't know what MCT at IAH is...
-Reason for the initial delay of UA6146 that started this whole mess and the additional "bonus" delay of her EWR flight.

Most important thing is that she made it one piece, though there were some worrisome moments for both of us. I had to rent a car to pick her up at a different airport than planned and a few hours later than scheduled. I also have to head over to LGA today to deal with AA to get her bags. The only bright spot is that I'm surprising her with a trip on LH F tomorrow (which is why I can't wait for the UA baggage claim & delivery).

Could/should I have done anything differently? I kept an eye out on all her flights and made the change as soon as I saw the delay. I thought I did well getting her in what I thought would be only an hour late. I usually deal with this stuff pretty well but it's a completely different story when it's a loved one. Felt completely helpless.

LaserSailor

I think you did well. I bring my parents over from LAX about 4x annually, the best thing I ever did for that trip was getting Mom an IPhone.

You should look into Zip car living in NY, though....renting cars by the hour rocks. You probably have one walking distance from home in Brooklyn.

It sounds like AA were the bad guys here, denying boarding with BPs. UA gets credit for trying to keep her destination LGA which, as you know, is very different than arriving EWR.

You might get 10k miles comp back if you write a polite letter, especially one that covers both the positive aspects and the areas of improvement you see.

Of course. Pay no attention to west coast customs...