jjmoore

I think UA's view is indirectly pretty clear - just look at the changes to the awards program next year. Spend more and get rewarded more. If you are not an elite / don't spend a lot of $$ with the airline, they don't care (and compensate accordingly).

ljwobker

No, but it certainly helps. Given that *most* people who are flying with UA and have no status are there strictly because that was the absolute lowest-price ticket they could find, UA has very little motivation to try and retain them.

Now, if one happened to be on a full fare Y or (as if) a J/F paid ticket, then I can see it being infinitely easier to get compensation for things going wrong.

But again, I'd contend that almost anyone flying with zero status is not a customer that United is all that worried about retaining.

CMK10

FWIW, I have no status and I got preemptive compensation from UA this year from a m/x delay.

tornado163

I'm currently Silver on a status challenge. Suitcases arrived 2 days late travelling to London. UA's response is that they will reimburse me and husband for interim expenses (~$200), but no goodwill gestures beyond that. UA has lost my baggage 3 times in the last 15 months, and in addition to paying for my emergency clothing and toiletries on 2 of those occasions (3rd time they told me to ask the hotel for toiletries), they have given me a combined whopping 2000 miles. I'm unimpressed with the overall compensation from UA.

DeterminedToUpgrade

I had a bit of a time flying BOS-ORD-IAD in paid F. Weather was horrid and led to a ground stop at ORD, so boarding at BOS was delayed about an hour, we sat on the plane for two before deboarding for an hour, reboarded and sad for another hour, and finally left. By the time we arrived at ORD, I had missed the last flight of the night to IAD, so I overnighted at the airport.

I wrote to UA and said that the FAs took good care of us during the delay to ORD, that the TA at ORD did a great job finding space in F for me the following day, and that I understood why I was not given a hotel room, since the weather delays were not UA's fault. I added that as an elite member traveling on a paid premium fare, I did not expect but would have appreciated some additional consideration beyond what I received (a bag of toiletries since mine were checked through to IAD).

I figured you don't get what you don't ask for, right? I received a $100 e-cert this morning along with a nice email. I think status and revenue generated definitely affect compensation. I agree with those above: UA has more to gain by compensating someone who has spent money with them regularly before and is likely to do so again.

farnorthtrader

Recently had a 90 minute delay due to staff/weather (reroute around a storm, which then needed more fuel, so sat at the gate for 30 minutes and couldn't make it up),which caused me to misconnect and arrive 3 hours late into final destination. Wrote to UA to tell them that delay meant I missed my ride and had to take a cab, they compensated 3000 rdm. Certainly seems fair to me, as I didn't expect anything.

Global321

They are required by law to reimburse for "essential items" until they deliver your bag. So in my book, that is no compensation at all.

xolerf

On 6/29, I was scheduled to fly on UA219 from ORD-HNL. There was a long delay due to mechanical issues and eventually the flight was cancelled after ~4 hours. I was inside the UC when the announcement broke and the agents inside were very helpful and rebooked me on the flight for the next day, but were unable to offer any sort of flight voucher or miles. They also put me up at the Crowne Plaza and gave me $14 in meal vouchers. I thought it was weird that they said they had no choice of which hotel to put me in as I wanted to stay at a Hilton property, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I ultimately arrived at my destination 25 hours past the original arrival.

Once I got back home, I sent off an email to UA saying that I wasn't very happy about my flight being cancelled and wanted some compensation for my inconvenience. Several days after that, I got an automated email from UA about a customer survey. I always take hotel/airline surveys and so I took this one as well. After the survey, it offered a $100 ETC or 5K miles. I chose the $100. Several days after that, a UA rep responded to my complaint and offered and additional $100 ETC.

So, ultimately I got two $100 ETCs, meal vouchers, and a hotel for my cancellation. I was happy with this because I was in no rush to get back home and was actually trying to get bumped. Did I mention that this trip was covered by another UA ETC that I had from a past cancelled flight?

JVPhoto

I flew HKG-NRT-SFO-MRY and my NRT-SFO flight ended up leaving/landing about 45 min late (but with sitting on the runway it was more like 55-60 before we got to the gate). This meant that I missed the baggage drop (I could have got on the plane) for my SFO-MRY connection. While crossing the Pacific I saw they protected me on the 10pm SFO-MRY flight but I had them cancel that segment and I would just rent a car and be down there in 2 hours.

I sent an email to 1K and 3 days later while on my flight LAX-JFK I got a voicemail AND an email saying that I would get a refund for the flight and also to send in my rental car receipt and they would make up the difference in cost.

Segment refund was $35 and the rental car cost me $250 but they asked if I would take a $300 voucher which I ended up taking because I'm about to book a TATL flight.

CMK10

You're happy with $200 for a twenty five hour delay getting home due to m/x? You do realize your compensation is $8/hr? That's pretty awful.

itsMoe

Slightly belated, two separate flights:

1) ORD-LAS about a week ago. Plane went MX, then missing crew for 3 hours. Everyone boarded, plane went MX again, pax deplaned. Gate switch, plane switch, crew timed out. New crew was delayed. Finally left 4h57m late. Compensation was announced by the captain in-flight, and found an email waiting. 1k got a choice of $100 ecert or 5k miles. Non-MP member next to me got offer of $50 ecert. Overheard MP gold saying they got offered $75 or (unintelligible) miles.

2) Not sure if this fits - it was the usual LH/UA ASR and check-in mess that resulted in me somehow only getting a BP for the first leg of the flight and nearly missing my connecting TATL flight because I was denied entry to the international terminal in FRA (no BP, no entry!). This was a UA flight, LH metal. Complained to both UA and LH. UA gave me nothing. LH gave me 5k UA miles, which was both unexpected and nice.

LukeRB

Wow, that's low—I would have expected $200 / 20k miles. I'd push back for more comp.

CMK10

I agree. I got offered basically that for no status on a 2.5 hour m/x delay recently.

ruthenium101

Interesting routing. Sick of RJs too?

xolerf

Meh, I'm a student on break. My time's not that valuable right now.