DCA writer

United really dropped the ball for my brother and his family Friday. Their SAN-IAD flight left an hour and a half late because they needed to find a new crew and new plane, causing them to miss their IAD-BOS flight last night. All of today's IAD-BOS flights are maxed out, so UA first said they'd put him on AA and apparently didn't actually finish getting those tickets reissued, so last I heard he, his wife and their two kids were flying DL from DCA to LGA to BOS.

I told him he should outline this series of screwups in an e-mail to customer care. But I don't know what he should ask for; he has no status, while if this happened to me I'm sure I'd have already been offered compensation. What would be in line for this kind of scenario?

WineCountryUA

Well sounds like UA attempted to do a reasonable service recovery. However, this is not the first report of pushed tickets to AA not working out. Of course, UA will blame AA and AA will blame UA. We will never know the truth.

I'm not sure "asking for a certain level of compensation" has any influence on what is given. There seems to be a set "process" depending on cause, severity, status, cabin, .... Just have him report the difficulties -- UA knows you are writing in the hopes of compensation and UA will decide what that might be.

DCA writer

Given what I've heard about AA's own operational issues, I definitely shouldn't rule out blaming them for the tickets vanishing..

PBAudit

Last week, was on a SFO-EWR flight seated in an aisle seat the last row (7) of business class. When I boarded the morning flight about 40 minutes before the departure time, the gate area was already empty, Boarding group 5. I went to may seat and found that there was no pillow. I mention this to the flight attendant, and he said they would get me a pillow. The purser came over to the row and asked the person next to me if she had a pillow (which she did). The flight took off and no pillow was provided.

Once airborne I asked the Purser if they were able to obtain a pillow. There wasn´t an extra pillow and so he offered me a spare blanket to use as a pillow. He also mentioned he would give me compensation. He came by and offered 10,000 miles or $200. I took the $200, which seemed quite generous.

Silver Fox

I think that is exceptionally generous. Hopefully the shape of things to come. Cough.

MJMLBBtoCPH

I have a question about compensation policies/experiences. I was on the last scheduled flight of the night from IAH to LBB very recently (around 10:10pm departure). The flight became severely delayed due to mechanical issues (I have this documented), and the delayed flight planned to go out the next day at 12:30pm (so the flight was not cancelled, but delayed 13+ hours - I saw on the app that the plane wasn't even in Houston. It was still stuck in Nashville with mechanical issues). Customer service initially offered to put me up in a hotel. But, I had to be in Lubbock by 1pm the next day, and the early 9:45am flight was full. Instead, I had them send me to Midland that same night, where I rented a car to drive to Lubbock to meet my appointment on time for the next day. I planned on submitting my rental car and gas receipts to United customer service (as well as asking for air miles). Does United reimburse for the rental car fees or is this something they will likely push back on since they sent me to Midland instead of Lubbock?

WineCountryUA

Did you get the agreement with the agent and has it noted in the record to cover the car? If not, you might get some miles or small ETC for convenience.

As for miles, isn't there less than 30 miles difference?
Award miles and PQDs will be the same, only PQMs would be different.

Were you planning on getting a car in LBB?

jsloan

Assuming we're talking about a one-way rental from MAF to LBB, I'd expect the total cost for the car rental and gas to be under $100. I wouldn't expect cash, but I don't think that asking for a $100 ETC is unreasonable, given that UA would have been on the hook for a hotel, meals, and whatever comp they would have doled out for a 13-hour delay.

MJMLBBtoCPH

Thanks for the suggestion. It was a one way rental - 62 bucks; and gas was $9.50. That seems a lot less than the hotel and food comps they were planning on giving me for a night and another half day in Houston. I submitted to customer service the receipts of the rental and gas as well as screenshots on my phone documenting their delay messages on my app. Hopefully I'll get a response in the next day or two.

HNLbasedFlyer

Nightmarish flying day on Tuesday, Feb 26 Calgary-SFO.

My original flight had weather issues on inbound from Denver. When that delay went substantially later than another on-time YYC-SFO I switched to that. Switched again to the original flight when rolling delays impacted that flight.

Then it got interesting: Pushed backed on a completely full plane (everyone moved from other plane). We sat and sat - finally pilot comes on, we've got to much fuel for takeoff. Long wait for another update, short story, they needed 9 people off the plane. 9 of us quickly volunteered. This plane had no F, the other did, and was leaving 30 minutes later. All she said on intercom was, I'll offer some vouchers. I'm first in line - she calls someone in Operations, presumably in Chicago - and they gave us $1,000 each as an oversell and got the upgrade to F. Despite being in the airport 10 hours that day, was happy. Also got a $100 additional cert via customercare email.

cheez2112

Couldn't find a thread on this, apologies to the Mods if this needs to me moved.

Flight Details
RT Miles/Copay Upgrade
UA179/180 EWR-HKG-EWR

I'm looking for some advice on a "broken seat" issue. On the return my seat started in the usual pre-take off upright position. Once we took off I reclined but I was never was able to coax it back into an upright position. It would go up a few notches then "slip" back down into full-flat with a "zzzzzzzzip" sound. The FAs fooled around with it but as soon as I sat down it would zzzzzzzzip right back to full-flat. They apologized profusely but couldn't move me because of no open seats (a non-rev in E+ took the last one after take-off!). I had to take both meal services in this manner. Granted I slept good since it defaulted into flat but for sure there must be some sort of compensation. i did end up talking to the purser and she initially offered me $250 or 12.5k miles. I was stunned, how is that even possible? Somehow she was able to max out with 20k miles which I ultimately accepted with the condition that she make a note in my file about what happened. On final descent I was able to be reseated in the pilot rest seat "for my safety".

To the FAs credit both the 20k miles and a Case# were in my inbox upon landing. I want to follow-up with Customer Service. My expectation is UA should comp me the full $600 and 30k or a GPU. What kind of compensation SHOULD I receive? What kind of compensation WILL I receive? Not sure if it's relevant but I am a MM.

Thanks for the advice,
Cheez

mr8

SIN-LAX, my seat got stuck in flat mode. There is a manual lever under the seat, that the purser was able to use to lock my seat in the upright position upon request.
Got $300 from 1K voice. No miles or GPU.

jsloan

Should is a loaded term, but your expectations are out of line with historical precedent. $250 or so is pretty standard for someone with a medium status level. $500 is pretty much the top -- a GS or 1K might receive that. $600 + 30K miles is essentially out of the question. Feel free to peruse the thread here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...on-thread.html .

From UA's perspective, business class consists of much more than just the seat. Or did you volunteer to move back to coach in exchange for your upgrade certificate back?

Kacee

Yeah UA doesn't compensate broken lie-flat as well as those who have been subjected to one think it should be compensated. Even on a paid J ticket, the standard comp is around $400.

I also try to check my seat function right after boarding. In this case, they would have downgraded the non-rev if the issue had been discovered on the ground.

findark

IME a non-rev yes, a passenger lower on the DG list and you're throwing the dice with how energetic the crew is feeling.