Lemon law for flights?
 

Does it exist?

YYZ-IAH-SCL APR16 2015 Premier 1K

I left YYZ on the 16, UA5265 delayed 5:57 due to mechanical/plane stuck in ORD, at check in I got told plane would be on time... I got rebooked on 5091 giving me very short but doable connection in IAH, boarded 5091 and my seat 8A was occupied by a person with same seat, agent moved me to economy 20C. We left 30 minutes late due to missing gate agent. Inflight we diverted to Shreveport Louisiana due to weather. We got to Houston at almost 1AM.

Connection to SCL lost so I went to customer care line and waited 1 hour in premier line (5 premiers in front of me, 3 of them left out of desperation, there was only one agent and about 300 people in general line), expecting a hotel, meal voucher and compensation as my initial flight went mechanical and caused all of this, only got 21$ (7$ x3) meal voucher and no hotel, none available.

Tried to find a hotel but everything was full due to weather, spent night at the airport and finally at 10 am managed to get a day room paid by me at IAH Marriott, got rebooked on 9PM IAH-SCL.

Boarded UA847 IAH-SCL 30 minutes late due to mechanical, in flight seat 1L broke, no recline.

Got to SCL 1 day late missing client meeting and of course luggage was not there. Did a claim and asked for amenity kit for basic needs, they don't have any, they said luggage be here this morning, it isn't.

Trying to call SCL airport office, nobody answers, UA Premier Line say they're willing to give me 200$ for clothes, I've left 3 days ago now, 200$ won't cut it.

Really, I'm expecting to be paid back for hotel in Houston, clothing, lost hotel night in Santiago and compensation for this whole mess, now I'm stuck in Santiago waiting for luggage with a flight booked at 2PM. What can I expect? Remember all of this mess started because of a mechanical and not weather!

Thanks to those who will answer!

I would have been proactive leaving YYZ and got booked on the Air Canada non stop. Weather has been real bad around IAH midweek until today.

How short was your initial and rebooked connection in Houston? I think some of UA's answer will be dependent on that because you did have a weather diversion mixed in.

Based on previous responses by UA, I would expect a $300 or so e-cert to cover everything. Rarely do they reimburse expenses. Check out the compensation thread.

Unfortunately not.

If you e-mail 1kvoice, they should offer you some level of compensation for both the forced overnight and baggage delay, though they likely will not reimburse the hotel. If you purchased items due to the baggage delay, submit your receipts.

The fact that you were diverted to Shreveport due to weather could be a complicating factor, as UA often seizes on this type of fact to deny or limit compensation.

I actually initially got rebooked on the direct AC flight (although it took about 10 calls to 1K desk to do that), United agent at gate said bag would not make it on that one, that's why I got back to United.

Remember the weather in Houston didn't affect my initial flight, it was mechanical.

Thanks for your answers though!

delete

Guys, I rebooked on AC via phone and UA rude gate agent rebooked me on UA saying "if you want your bag, you gotta fly United, I won't be able to get your bag to baggage claim now I'm too busy".

The rebooking in Houston I did via phone after a 1 hour wait on premier 1K line, Copa was full, not available. Only option was UA at night.

The line I did was for a hotel, United booked a bunch of people delayed due to weather in hotels, meanwhile the guys that got mechanical like me slept in the airport cause hotels filled up!

In order to come to an answer, you have to look at each piece of the loused up journey.

Answer to OP's bottom line question is that any delay compensation he received was likely due to his status and not any COC provision. The ultimate reason for OP's delay at IAH was the WX diversion, not the original MX. Nonetheless sounds as though UA would have taken care of a hotel, but nothing available due to WX. Nothing to be done about that. Day rooms aren't generally reimbursed unless authorize in advance.

As to baggage delay, $200 seems quite reasonable. Given generous carry-on allowances, while 3 days is an annoyance, there shouldn't be that much required after carryons. If there is some particular item which takes you over $200, it's worth submitting the receipt plus an explanation for the item.

You are also entitled to a refund of the fare difference between F/C and Y for your downgrade. That is a simple refund request and has nothing to do with compensation.

Above and beyond compensation, as a 1K, UA will likely throw some form of customer service gesture such as miles The items which might make this up are:

1. Delayed baggage
2. Downgrade
3. Delays

I would suggest a very short and concise webform to UA upon return (sending it now may not capture the luggage if that does not arrive). Stick to the relevant facts because the other annoyances are all apparent from your PNR.

You should have invoked the trip in vain rule the moment you figured out the client meeting was going to be a miss - UA would have been forced to fly you back to YYZ from IAH and refund the ticket.

[When checking a bag], at least have a carry-on with enough clothing and essentials to last a couple days so you can let your checked bag arrive later if you need to be separated from it in order to make a critical trip.

I usually call while I'm standing in line.

There was no downgrade. The OP was moved from E+ to E.

Moderator Note

OP came asking for specific advice and too much of the response have been OT or unhelpful or snarky to other posters.

Please remember

The more egregious posts have been cleaned up.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

YUp. The original poster's thread title asks whether there is a "lemon law for flights". There is. It's called the "trip in vain" provision and it's a rule (or internal policy/customer service convention) on United that says that if your travel gets badly messed up by irregular operations before you get to your destination, and if the trip is no longer useful (e.g. you're gonna miss a client meeting), you can ask United to fly you right back to where you started AND give you a full refund.

That's sort of like the "lemon law" for cars where in some jurisdictions if you buy a car from a dealer and the car turns out to have a lot of problems with it (it's a "lemon") you can return it and get a refund.

The closest provision for flights would be UA's trip in vain rule, which would have allowed you to return from IAH to YYZ on the next available flight if your trip to SCL was no longer useful to you.

I would expect:
- Possible reimbursement for your hotel in Houston; possible since you're a 1K, possibly not since it was daytime (rather than overnight) which would not normally be covered.
- $200 reimbursement for clothing (keep your receipts!).
- Nothing for the hotel night in SCL.
- Nothing for the lost day since the proximate cause of your forced overnight at IAH and missed day in SCL was weather, not mechanical.

I would advise:
- Book the AC nonstop when offered on a route rather than a UA connection.
- Press hard for the OAL nonstop when UA's operations begin to go sideways.

This is key.^

However, since the OP did continue to his destination, that wouldn't apply. Basically, once the trip is "consumed", you don't really have much recourse. It seems to me what the OP really wants is a "satisfaction guarantee" where he could get something back after the trip is fully completed.

(I'm not trying to contradict you, just expand on and clarify what you said.)

It's extremely rare that I check bags, but when I do, I always carry a minimum of one week's worth in my carry-on.