RobotsRock

Was on UA1582 yesterday (Dec 24) from TPA to EWR. Original aircraft was put out of service due to maintenance issues after multiple delays and we flew to EWR in a replacement aircraft, arriving 6 hours and 35 minutes late.

We were all in first class - 2 RPUs used to upgrade parents + myself as a 1K who was CPU'd. Given the delay, nearly everyone else had already switched flights while we had stuck around since I wanted to take my parents at least once in their lives in first class - the 737 ended up flying with just 9 passengers and 5/6 crew!. Supposedly the lowest number of passengers they have ever flown a 737 for - EWR gate agents were in disbelief when we deplaned. They ended up seating everyone in first class anyway given the number of passengers, so the treatment wasn't the special experience I had hoped for my parents and a waste of RPUs given that everyone sat there anyway and all boarded at once.

The appreciation website automatically provided me $125 e-cert as a 1k and parents $75 e-cert each with no status. I found that a bit low for being in first class for over a 6 hour delay on Christmas eve, but would appreciate any thoughts on whether to pursue further, especially given the RPU experience (but all booked in economy). The pilot told our family it was a miracle we were flying to begin with given the number of passengers left, otherwise we'd have missed Christmas day entirely, so glad it didn't come to that at least.

joe_miami

Seems tough to request additional compensation here. By your own admission, you could have flown out earlier but chose not to, and then UA flew a 737 with 9 people onboard. The fact a few other pax got op-ups to F to simplify matters for the crew (or to allow the plane to fly with fewer crew) shouldn't really affect anything here. It's not like F is worse if there aren't people in the back.

garykung

I am not sure fare classes play any difference.

I will actually surprise if UA will increase the offer, at least significantly.

While in some cases, UA may, in its discretions, to increase the offer, usually that kind of offer is take it or leave it.

Flying Machine

RobotsRock

Thanks all for your input. To be clear the next flight alternative was an hour earlier than the updated delayed departure time for our flight, so the gate agent advised it probably wasn't worth giving up first class for that hour. Only afterwards was it pushed back another 2 hours. Still amazing to have flown in a 737 with only 6 other passengers on a commercial flight!

WineCountryUA

They needed the plane at the next airport or another set of passenger would be delayed and a set of crew will be out of place. There is a set of cascding issue from a canceled flight.

threeoh

Well, they can deadhead the crew on another flight, but harder to deadhead the airplane :-p

Kacee

It does not. And upgrades are treated the same as paid F/J for purposes of standard comp offers.

syoung123

Dec 26/27 - United Express (Skywest) 5293 - CLT to DEN - 4pm departure
Seat 1A - I used 15,000 miles to upgrade to First Class on this flight. I was to continue on a connecting United Express flight to Aspen that evening.
Due to low visibility in Denver, we sat on the ground in Charlotte for 1.5 hrs. to be released to fly to Denver. It was decided we would divert to Colorado Springs and assess weather from there. We were in an Embraer 175 and wouldn't have had fuel to circle if visibility was at 1/2 mi. as predicted according to pilot. So we took off for COS.

The gentleman seated behind me was using a piece of electronic oxygen equipment for breathing assistance. About an hour and half into the flight - the battery on his device ran dead and would not charge (we had AC plugs). At that point he had to switch to using the plane's onboard oxygen - which only lasts for 1 hr and so we were forced to divert again to Nashville.

The plan was to offload the gentleman, refill the oxygen, refuel, and continue on our way. While all of this was going on the lavs became full and would no longer flush. We were not being allowed off the plane in Nashville because the airport was closing for the evening. Things got a little heated in economy for a bit over this I believe, but it was resolved in 10 minutes or so . They did put out snacks in the jetway and allowed everyone to go help themselves. Our flight attendants and pilots were amazing throughout the whole ordeal - as I there was a lot of activity going on over the course of about an hour.

While we were on the ground we learned that we would be allowed to fly directly to Denver, unfortunately, shortly thereafter the pilot timed out. So after about an hour of ground time, we were all told to deboard the aircraft and proceed to the gate agent to be given a hotel voucher + $40 in meal vouchers for the evening. They must have sent half the plane to the Hotel Preston to be accommodated. This is where the first class upgrade became priceless in dealing with this situation.

The Hotel Preston only had a 7 passenger shuttle and United never asked them to send the shuttle. I was among the first seven at the shuttle pickup. We were waiting on the shuttle for about 10 min - so I finally called and they said United had never called for the shuttle. They came to pick us up and we arrived to a desk staffed only by one staff member - clearly wearing a trainee nametag. It was 9 pm at this point. It took almost 20-25 min. for the 4 people in front of me to be checked in because the phone was ringing off the hook at the same time - he was completely overwhelmed and the line had built 30-40 people deep behind me. I finally got checked in, opened the door and went to my room to find other folks' bags in the room I'd just been assigned. Had to go down and get another room - finally got settled in at about 10.

I had supposedly been rebooked on the same plane with the same crew the next morning - there had been some back and forth on whether the flight would be delayed until 7:15 the next morning or cancelled and a replacement flight rescheduled at 7:15. Either way it was going with the same crew. I originally saw my reservation update in the United app, however that eventually disappeared. I was asking other passengers while I waited in line whether the same had occurred for them, but it had not. So I figured I'd call United while I waited to check in to the hotel. The agent said she had fixed something and that I was still booked in seat 1A going out the next morning at 7:45. Everyone else said they thought the flight was at 7:15.

The next morning I decided to split the difference and arrive at the airport at 6:15 I went to the priority lane to check my bag and was informed that I had in fact not been rebooked on the new flight. I also had lost my upgrade and was forced to pay another 7,500 miles if I wanted to fly in First Class that day. The agent was nice about it, but there was just no time to deal with it any other way - she recommended I call in to have it refunded later (turned out the flight was actually scheduled for 7:15, but we didn't start boarding until 7:45 - annoying). At this point I had already backed up the First Class line for 15 min while she fixed their earlier screw-up.

The flight finally successfully departed for Denver at about 8 am. I was supposed to have a 5 hr. layover, since the Nashville gate agent couldn't confirm me any earlier the night before. I tried to register for the standby list - but the app wouldn't allow me. The standby list for the Aspen flight was about 9 people long once I got to Denver, but had a couple of open seats. I went to the kiosk to try and register for the standby list for the next flight out about an hour later and it immediately assigned me a seat. I didn't understand that, but was happy none the less. I then waited through another 1.5 hr. delay related to the Aspen/Vail airspace recovering from air traffic backups caused by a Vice Presidential visit during Christmas Week. I then finally completed my journey arriving in Aspen exactly 24 hours after I was supposed to depart Charlotte.

I got the customer appreciation email with an offer for $200 e-cert or 10,000 miles. They also preemptively refunded both upgrades - the 15,000 initial one and the second 7,500 one. I appreciated not having to fight to get the miles back - although they never notified me of that. I just saw it in my account when I checked. As mentioned earlier, the crew - both flight attendants and pilots were fantastic throughout this whole ordeal. So kudos to Skywest. However, all of the other United departments really bumbled through this whole situation in my opinion. There really is no reason why I should have arrived at the airport without a reservation the next morning, even after reconfirming with the phone agent the night before. While I appreciate the preemptive service recovery, United really needs to address their in the moment customer service - as it is adding a lot of unneeded stress to other factors which are outside their control.

I think the compensation was generally fair - as I to be honest wondered if we would be given a hotel at all, since it all was really outside their control - other than the way it was handled contributing to the time out situation (bumbling through the operational decisions).

zeer0

Last flight of '17 for me, SFO-LHR, again broken wifi on the brand new 777-300 and 90 minute late.

Nada. United got tired of sending me vouchers for broken wifi . Customer Care wrote to me that they had already received the exact same emails from me earlier this year... well maybe that's because they don't fix the same issue. Has anyone else encountered pushback on that?

I'm pretty upset because I had planned to work the entire flight, and couldn't even get to the payment page for wifi.

In fact, in the email Customer Care sent, they said I should ask the flight attendants for compensation for broken wifi next time. I had asked them to reset the wifi twice, but I thought they don't give goodwill vouchers unless it's a delay or broken seat??

CMK10

I've stopped writing in about broken Wifi, it seems to not work far more than it works and I've stopped even trying to log on.

WineCountryUA

Time to close and archive these 2017 posts,

The active thread is https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...on-thread.html

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator