Boleslav

Thank you for the quick reply.
My question is - should I wait for them to offer something or should I let them know what I expect (which I have no idea what to expect, ei what is reasonable)

Repooc17

What was/were the reason(s) for the delay on both ends - e.g. atc, mx, weather?

If it is weather related, you are likely to get nothing. Last year, I spent 4 hours flying to/from LGA-ORD and 15 hours on various weather delays, including about 3 hours in the plane.

Based on my experience, UA is generally proactive about compensation. I usually get something without asking before my flight departs/arrives.

Mike Jacoubowsky

I've read & re-read the original post several times and don't find anything related to the cause of the delay. SFO is my home airport, and the weather here the past two months has been abysmal (for us). Delays caused by the incessant rain, if that's what caused them, are beyond United's control and more a function of SFO's too-close parallel runways. If the delays were due to equipment issues, certainly compensation would be in order. But compensation for weather delays shouldn't be expected; if they offer anything, it's out of an abundance of good will.

While typing looks like several others have mentioned the same thing. Will be interesting to see if UA comes through with anything. Tempted to joke about the old days any my unofficial role as leader of the lowly 2Ps here, given the flyer's status. :-)

usbusinesstraveller

Over on TripAdvisor - https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...ir_Travel.html

Mike Jacoubowsky

Excellent catch. Might add that anyone really concerned about weather delays flying into or out of the SF Bay Area should use SJC (San Jose), which is rarely impacted. When UA issues a waiver, I'd highly recommend switching from SFO to SJC if practical.

Boleslav

- You have probably a lucky star.

Kacee

As a multi-year 1K, that has not been my experience at all. I am contacted proactively maybe one time in ten.

Repooc17

To clarify, I had described about UA generally being proactive about compensation for exceptions under its control.

1) Weather/ATC related, for example, you shouldn't expect any type of compensation/goodwill from UA.
2) Equipment/mechanical issues, on the other hand, yes, you should be given something from UA for the delay/cancellation outside of its standard policy.

Kacee

False.

Repooc17

To clarify, I had described about UA generally being proactive about compensation for exceptions under its control in my experience.

Happy?

My (limited) data points from last 12 months+:

1) January 27, 2019: equipment issue - received an email from customer care prior to landing
2) July 23, 2018: mechanical issue - received an email from customer care while waiting for a new plane
3) June 17, 2018: mechanical issue - received an email from customer care while waiting for a new plane
4) January 7, 2018: mechanical issue - received an email from customer care while the new plane operated the next day; I had already re-routed the night before

jsloan

Assuming that this is the same situation:

OP -- in situations like this, it's important to understand each cause of a delay. The United flight status will capture the most recent one. If a delay is purely due to weather, UA will not compensate except where required by law (e.g., flights from Europe). If an earlier mechanical or staffing delay leads to a weather delay, you may be able to argue for compensation.

For the second flight, where it says "an earlier delay impacted this one," you need to know what caused the earlier delay. The United app and United.com flight status both have a great feature -- they allow you (in most cases) to track the incoming plane (even after the flight, you can often still find the link that says "where is this plane coming from." Back up the chain to see if the previous delay was mechanical or weather.-related.

Finally, as to what to expect -- if either delay is UA's fault, they will provide an electronic travel credit good toward a future United flight. (At your request, this can usually be converted to miles, but if you fly United regularly, the ETC is generally the better deal). They appear to use a random number generator to figure out the compensation levels, but in general for a 4-hour delay as a Silver, I'd expect $50-$100.

Boleslav

Thank you very much for such a prompt replies.

wxguy

I recently received a compensation voucher from UA for $40 for food at EWR. When I went to use it at an OTG sit-down vendor, I was told (after the meal) that it only covers the base food cost. Tax and gratuity is not covered. The manager was "quite certain" about this, and that the "system" would not allow her to cover the entire tab, even if food+tax+gratuity was <$40.

Any others have experience with this?

HNLbasedFlyer

This thread suggests vendors are only reimbursed actual goods/services - not tax and tip

Food vouchers for delayed flights. How do you use them?

lincolnjkc

My gut reaction is Bull. The voucher is essentially a pre-paid debit card (on ATB paper stock) -- as long as it's used at a merchant with a permitted MCC it is like cash up to the full value of the cert. The last time my wife and I were both sidelined, she ran up an order to 75% of the voucher value at the ORD Starbucks and tipped the barista the remaining 25% to use it up; and I've never had a merchant claim I had to come out of pocket for taxes -- which just seems both absurd and insulting ["Have a meal on us because we're sorry for the inconvenience we've caused... well... we aren't sorry enough to actually cover the full cost of the meal..."]

My last voucher experience was at the ORD [notice a trend here?] Auntie Annes where I had a $20 voucher and barely hit $10 with tax and the clerk was practically begging me to add things ("How about another soda? More pretzels? Another dipping sauce?") and wanted to make absolutely sure I understood that it was a single use thing (Yes, thank you, I'm not really that hungry and would rather waste funny money than real food).

The only possible case I could think of that would make the manager's excuse valid is if OTG's POS has some limitation on manually keyed cards for fraud purposes -- but even then it doesn't really make sense and "not my problem".