Fly808

Traveling with the fam today back from vacation on 1161 from MCO to SFO with a connection on to HNL on UA300. Flight takes off on time at 7 am, climbs to about 20k ft when I notice pressure in my ears and the cabin was starting to get cold. Few minutes later the captain comes on saying there is a problem with the cabin pressure and we need to return to MCO. We land to a whole welcoming committee of emergency vehicles about an hour after our orig departure. Everyone gets off, line 40 deep at the counter with two agents working on connections. I call the premier desk and move our connecting flight in SFO to UA73 which buys us about 3 additional hours. Problem is United keeps updating the MCO departure time back by 60 or 90 minutes, orig departure time was 7 am, delayed to 9:30 am, then 11 am, now noon (which is in 3 minutes). Been checking all the HNL routing (DEN, ORD, LAX, SFO) and things ain't looking so good for today if this flight in cancelled. If we get moved to another airline would I still earn PQMs for my orig itinerary or is that something I need to request?

star_world

You'll need to request it, but yes - you will get PQM and PQD (and award miles) for your original itinerary. Ask for Original Routing Credit in your request. You'll also be able to earn miles on whatever airline you're rebooked onto.

Good luck with the trip!

Kacee

You are entitled to those miles (and dollars) but will have to request ORC (original routing credit) after the trip is over.

Good move going to the phones rather than standing in line. It sounds like your initial aircraft is done for the day . . . I would definitely be pursuing all available alternatives.

Good luck!

Fly808

Flight did end up being cancelled shortly after I posted..no other options available to get me all the way to Hawaii tonight so rebooked tomorrow morning from MCO to LAX to HNL. Lines at the gate and at customer service were horrendous as I was trying to get a hotel voucher..ended up walking into the UC, no one in line and agent cleaned up our itin for tomorrow and gave us our vouchers. UA put the folks up at the airport Hyatt which is actually pretty decent..I can even sit on my balcony and watch the planes land and take off . Claimed my UAL cust appreciation ($350 ecert for me, $300 each for the missus and child for a total of $950) via the website so other than spending the better part of the day in the terminal I feel fortunate that we didn't decompress at a higher altitude and everyone is safe. The email we received from UA mentions a problem with the throttle quadrant as the root cause. Thanks to all the info here on FT, I knew what to do in this situation so thank you to the many members who contribute their experience and expertise!