notquiteaff

I'd ask for a $200 voucher or a thorough root cause analysis with a subsequent email from a UA manager explaining what happened and what they will do to prevent future occurrences. Hopefully they will choose option 2. If neither is offered, DOT complaint.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

What exactly would your DOT complaint say? United provided the transportation at the price paid. It would be better if government employees only had to deal with complaints that actually have a basis. This has zero.

Maybe it's time to say "You should sue and never fly United again!".

notquiteaff

United canceled reservation without justification. You are welcome to accept that when it happens to you. I want them to fix the root causes. If they can't keep track of who is on their aircraft, they have all kinds of problems beyond lost seat assignments.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Read the post. United restored it. She flew on the flights she paid for. What exactly is the DOT complaint? "UA cancelled the flight and she couldn't fly on it"? Or "United cancelled the flight and she flew on it"? Pick one. Use logic - your logic is the second choice, which would be a real head-scratcher to most. Do you pay $200 for every mistake you make to "fix the root cause"? Is this a systemic, wide-spread problem?

emcampbe

I've had this happen to me...on DL. I was not happy, I'll tell you.

I'll tell this as best as I can...thunderstorms in ATL which was a mess (and I was only traveling through as my originally booked non-stop was schedule changed to depart 8 hours earlier). We board 2 hours late...I think around midnight, and about 2 dozen of us (rough number, but no, not a typo), including me and my wife have the reader beep when we try to board. Agent boarding clearly wants to get the flight off, even with all waiting at desk to get this solved, even if it means leaving this many people behind at gate...agent at desk finally realizes what was happening and tells us all to board and take any empty seat we see. It was a long night...we just wanted to get to MSY, but I realize the potential complication (thankfully, flight itself was uneventful - would have been a records mess if something happened to that plane). After arriving in MSY...poof, the return is gone.

Due to the IRROPS, it takes me until sometime mid-afternoon the next day to talk to a human at DL, and believe I finally did only after aiming for skymiles line...because of the IRROPS, and return flight finally gets reinstated.

Few weeks later, I get a letter from DL letting me know they've put 2000 skypesos in my account due to the 'weather' issues (yeah...that is the one part of the problem I actually was sympathetic with them for, so no, I don't care about that). So that was my comp, I suppose. This was in about 2010, I think, and the first time I have voluntarily bought a ticket on DL since, in large part because of this, was late last year (and on that flight...bag got delayed).

To be fair, this can happen on any airline, though the treatment we got from DL was awful. I've never had this on UA, but especially right after the merger, there were a lot of reports of itineraries with protection flights that got canceled like this, as PMUA agents got used to the system where they had to specially code flights, or put segments at the end of the itinerary rather then in time order, to avoid having downline flights canceled.

mduell

I had this happen at least twice flying CO 2008-2012, but not since. Not surprised it still happens.

ws8n

Just file with DOT and let them grovel their way out of this ��

username

I am not sure what you mean by "IT thinks" and "falsely believing".

It could be as simple as gate agent not scanning the boarding pass properly or some kind of re-accommodation happened on the outbound and made the system think she was a no-show on some additional flights booked.

emcampbe

sure, and call the CC issuer to chargeback...why not while you're at it?

seriously...what will the DOT complaint say? I had an itinerary on United - the return segments were dropped, but then I called in and UA reinstated them, and I ended up flying on my originally booked flights, albeit one of my seat requests needed to be changed

is this another campaign to simply get the published number of DOT complaints on United up? What recourse is being asked for here? Which DOT regulation is at issue?

Michael899

Wow, I'm surprised this is still happening at post-merger UA. I was nearly stranded by UA in the summer of 2013 in Copenhagen on a return leg of a paid business class ticket (on UA stock) in which I flew to BRU on UA metal and onwards via Brussels Air. When I checked in for the return trip, Brussels Air said that UA had canceled my return because I supposed had not flown the TATL outbound leg. Luckily, I retained my UA paper boarding stub and she found my BRU-CPH flight in the Brussels system. That was sufficient for Brussels Air to try to restore the original ticket, but not for UA, which insisted that their systems "were never wrong." She had to wait until the "proper" Houston department opened (pre-merger UA had a 24-hour intra-Star Alliance service desk, according to her, but not post-merger). Even then, she had to spend an hour on the phone with UA to try to rebook me.

In the end, Brussels had to escalate this to "the VP level in Houston" to finagle me a return seat via Lufthansa as UA had "already re-sold" my original business class seat (this was during the height of the summer travel season). Brussels Air agent also shared that they've "had it up to here" with the archaic CO SHARES system and the "multiple redundant bureaucratic layers" instituted by post-merger UA to resolve the many CO IT errors.

I wrote the 1K Desk upon my return and wanted to find out what had happened. Other than a standard form letter referencing vague system issues, there were no additional explanations nor goodwill gestures. Ironically, on my Mileage Plus statement, the outbound flights (which UA claimed I never took) were recorded the day after I flew them; while the return flights never showed up. After a half dozen additional frustrations and a near-replay of the same situation in HKG (all without acknowledgement or apology), this 2MM 15-year 1K left for AA, and , I have yet to experience a similar issue.

halls120

When MsHalls120 and I started flying together, she was initially puzzled as to why I always retained our boarding passes after completing a flight. Then, on a post merger IAD-DEN-IAD flight where UA claimed we never flew the first leg, she quickly understood.

I get it that mistakes happens. What I don't get is UA's reluctance to say "I'm sorry, we screwed up."

eng3

Showing a boarding card does not prove you were on the flight. It only proves you were at any UA airport and printed a boarding card. I think I read about someone else that had the same issue (years ago). UA cancelled onward flights, pax provided boarding card, but UA said that doesnt mean they boarded the flight. I've never been in this situation but I would think a baggage tag would be more proof in a way since one likely wouldnt skip a flight but still fly their bag. Though it is still possible you can get tagged at the gate and then turn around and not board the flight. I don't know of any way to prove you actually flew. Maybe if you were able to catch a connecting flight where there are no other airlines flying the route.

It is pretty easy for this to happen. Boarding is a busy time, its possible that you think you scanned but it didn't take and the GA wasn't paying attention. I recall a few weeks ago, I tried a $600 VDB but was told they didn't need me. I boarded. One standby boarded but someone was at her seat. Turns out that guy some how boarded without properly scanning. Luckily, they decided to give me VDB and have the girl sit in my seat. But thats one easy way you can take a flight without any computer record.

Artpen100

I saw last week where in Group 1, people were scanning their passes so quickly it was kind of hard to tell when one beep ran into another beep. I could easily imagine on BP not getting recognized and no one noticing it.

Mary2e

Yes, UA cancelled my husband's return flight from HNL. We upgraded our flights LAX-HNL in the UA Club and apparently the person made a mistake and he was listed as a no-show even though he flew.

We did not realize it until 2 days before we were to return home, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to get his seat back. We were not offered compensation nor did we request any.

halls120

Perhaps not, but on those occasions where I didn't get mileage credit for a flight, I was asked to scan and send a copy of my BP, and subsequently got flight credit.

They must be good for something.