cfischer

You'll probably get a $500 UA travel voucher for the maintenance cancellation (if you are in BF); should be enough to cover the hotel. Doesn't hurt to ask for more, but I recently ran into an issue where a trip in vain ended up getting me back to PVD instead of BOS (no seats to BOS) and I ended up with $40 cost to get me to BOS ... UA refused to pay claiming I got a $500 voucher for the cancelled flight and this covers getting myself home ... didn't feel like arguing.

Zip

I assumed that the poster was referring to the LHR Airport Hilton. Several poster above stated "thanks for the warning" about this hotel not being flexible. Surprised be, because the LHR Hilton has always given excellent service to me.

But I noticed in the Hilton Forum, the OP is referring to the Hilton Metropole, and NOT to the LHR Hilton.

garkster

In some markets, sure. "Usually", implying the most frequent case, no way.

I'm basing this opinion on 100+ nights per year over the last 5 years, and decades of business travel.

Back OT, I have had good experience calling the hotel directly (central 800- reservations generally can do nothing) and explaining the situation. At the hotel in question, I woud escalate to the GM, and then to HHonors.

mahasamatman

I'd say more than 90% of my bookings over the past five years go non-refundable no later than 6pm the day before arrival. Though I book publicly available rates, not specially-negotiated corporate rates.

I'd guess those hundreds of nights are at special corporate rates that have lenient cancellation policies.

I will, however, say that I do not know the policies of every chain, so I can see where some people will have difference experiences than I have.

LaserSailor

All of my bookings go non- refundable after 1800 local time.

I have never had trouble canceling without paying at Hilton, a Marriott, Hyatt with one exception that I can remember at Hilton LAX, in which case I got a future value credit from Hilton corporate.

lensman

When my flight is canceled I always call the hotel front desk and tell them that my flight is canceled and that I will be arriving the next day.

In every case where I have done this the hotel did not charge me for the first night despite the fact that I was past the cancellation deadline.

I have not had to do this on a prepaid reservation.

spin88

First, as others have said, a good hotel will waives the cancellation. I had a cancellation recently when UAL had a MX, it was past the cancellation point, and *wood did not charge me. But I'm lifetime PLT, and that may have played a part.

But lets be serious, if you can a non-refundable ticket on UAL, and you no showed due to someone else's fault, and wanted to go the next day, with no status, UAL would tell you to jump in a lake.

If marriott will not waive the charge, and UAL refuses to cover it, file a complaint with DOT. http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint

United will then cover the charges.

Kacee

They vary, but my reservations almost always go non-cancellable at some point the day before arrival.

I once had Hyatt refuse to cancel a very expensive room in Chicago despite the fact that ORD was basically shut down by a nasty storm.

Interestingly, Shangri-La will let you book without a credit card guaranty. They just won't guaranty you have a room if you arrive after 4 p.m.

dyons

I did call the hotel directly immediately after I got news of the cancellation. They were particularly adamant that I could nto be refunded. I did repeat my request at check-in the next day. Again, the same.

I will try to escalate further by writing to the manager.

Thanks everyone for your sympathetic and informative responses.

emcampbe

This has nothing to do with Marriott as the OP stated his reservation at a Hilton.

Why is your solution to complain to the DOT (again)? On what grounds? UA had a contract with the OP, as laid out in the COC, to get them to LHR. They did that. Not at the time planned, admittedly. But the COC doesn't say anything about that. OP should certainly get additional comp as a courtesy, but has nothing to do with the hotel stay. And comp. is also not technically even required - by the DOT or any other authority.

MX is MX - I'd rather get there late and safe then go up in the air with an aircraft that isn't fit to fly. The $150 or $200 on the missed night is not worth risking my life over in an unsafe airplane. I'm glad UA would cancel the flight rather than put a couple of hundred people in danger.

The problem is the OP entered into a separate contract with Hilton that happened to be non-refundable. One contract has nothing to do with the other. Say the OP, instead of having a hotel reservation, had booked a separate ticket on BA to, say, JNB and missed that as a result. It's the purchasers risk. Separate tickets means that if the connection is missed the passenger is on the hook for that. And most in here, I think, would agree.

This situation is no different. Many hotels have been flexible in certain situations similar to the OP. Unfortunately this one is not, and the OP loses out. Its unfortunate, but sometimes in life, stuff happens.

UA, nor most other carriers, would not do anything about this. Comp, sure. Paying for a hotel if they had to overnight at the origin until the next available flight, sure. But the second contract has nothing to do with UA. DL wouldn't cover it. Neither would AA. Spin, would you suggest, if this was either of those carriers involved, that the OP should file a DOT complaint against them? I'm guessing not.

HeadInTheClouds

Yes, but this of course confuses two important and different angles to these situations.

If it is pre-paid, in advance, then the hotel has your money already - usually weeks or more in advance. In this type of situation, getting someone to actively push through a refund would be very difficult. Though, as noted above, it is frequently possible to get them to apply the credit to future dates, etc.

For the reservation with a normal 24 hr (or 48/72) cancellation policy, they probably wouldn't be charging you until either late at night or the next morning. That is a much easier situation to get someone to "waive" in the event of a canceled flight. Even if an authorization had been run, still pretty easy to erase a reservation - most especially if you're elite. In some high profile resort/event times, they may run this further in advance but I find that much more the exception than the rule.

The distinction between "pre-paid" and "within the cancellation window" are very different in this type of situation.

If you have a pre-paid room, the strategy should be to get the credit used for a future date. Or, just ask to change the arrival date if it's for multiple days, and then let incidental charges like food/drinks/laundry/internet eat up the balance of the credit. If you have a normal reservation, you're just asking for a simple exception.

I can only remember getting dinged once out of dozens times I've had to cancel within the normal 24/48 window, but I have never had pre-paid money given back to me.

kaell

travel insurance or cc insurance?

1fan

Small claims court. I have a friend who does it all the time with the airlines

Tchiowa

Same experience for me. It hasn't happened that much, but the hotel has always accommodated me. Tell them I'm arriving a day late because of a cancelled flight, they say OK.

I'm not sure that legally an airline can be held responsible for a hotel charge like that. If they cancel a flight and give you a hotel at your departure city, they probably will refuse to pay for a second hotel the same day at your destination city.

kaell

My flight was cancelled (3 leg of intercontinental flight from Europe) filed a claim to United 1kvoice - *** This is an automated response confirming the receipt of your email. Please do not reply ***Please use this Case ID number if you need to contact us regarding this inquiry: xxxxxxx
Thank you for contacting United Airlines. Our Customer Care team is currently responding to most inquiries within 1 business day. it was 9 days ago