garykung

No, as it has commonly reported that your status has more to do with the goodwill gesture, rather than the underlying issue.

nomad420

Given it was a pricey ticket (V) I would have asked for a refund on the flight as well. Let us know if you get it.

UAEWR

1KChinito

jsloan

That is the policy, yes, and I'm actually a little surprised that Aero actually doesn't enforce it automatically. I'd write in, not so much because of the $50, but because (a) this agent needs a reminder on the policy, and (b) somebody may need to take a look at Aero to keep this from happening again.

LIH

+1

This seems like something UA would be very sensitive to given the PR mess that led to the increased VDB comp/better VDB process in the first place.

fumje

From this —

— it seems as though perhaps the agent VDB'd everyone at $1k and then tacked on $200 as some other service recovery gesture. Hard to guess if that was intentional to minimise total payout or just an oversight in a hectic situation.

skylane

Downgraded on the one hour domestic leg of an international premium economy fare. The domestic leg was a B fare with an instant upgrade to first since I am a 1K. One seat in first was broken and I was the lowest fare thus downgraded. Given a $500 etc and an E- aisle seat. No complaints from me.

jsloan

I would have jumped at that, for a one-hour flight, but there is absolutely no way that a 1K on a B fare should have been first on the downgrade list unless there was nobody else upgraded..

mynolix

Was impacted by the weather mess at the east coast flying 1816 ORD-EWR on Jul 17.

I boarded but was called by a buddy boarding later that they cancelled the flight. Announcement was made about the cancellation minutes later. I called 1K Line twice to ask for ANY kind of re-accomodation on a flight arriving at EWR the next day. None available and App only showed Standby for the entire next day. I had to make sure I was back in NY on 7/19 so I ended up sharing a rental car with some co-workers (with almost no availability at that time I called 1K again to ask if they could assist me in booking a car through Hertz. I am not a frequent Hertz user. They merely forwarded the call to the Hertz hotline that I call have also called if I didn't think that UA elites would receive some sort of priority. I wondered what the benefit is from their partnership).
Even mentioning that I am stuck in Chicago for the night they didn't even offer to look at hotels for me (obviously self-paid)
Well, got back to NY 14hrs later.
1) I wrote in NOT to ask for compensation for any expenses caused by that WX delay, I even specifically mentioned that I am not aiming for it
2) I called UA on my drive to announce that they won't have to bother about the flight and may free up space if they had ever considered that
3) They offered me $200 ETC which barely makes up for the flight
4) I did mention that I missed out on the PQMs and such they disregarded the fact entirely

I already replied implying that I believe they should at least give me my PQMs as it is - in my opinion - definitely under their control to provide appropriate (as in the next day) re-arrangements for WX cancellations. Especially between ORD and EWR.

Any thoughts?

onthesam

At minimum you should get a refund for your flight. Further comp depends on clarification.

- Did they deny you a hotel?

- What did it end up costing you to get to NY?

-What did you call to cancel when you called ua with your announcement?

FWIW the PQM are practically worthless -- try not to waste time on pqm.

mynolix

1) I briefly mentioned that I could use a room but haven't elaborated on that, so no (did not complain, was just thinking this could be part of a standard IRROPS handling - like a checklist or whatever)
2) Only Premium SUV available, shared: $450
3) 1K line (telling them that I made other arrangements, was even proactively asked if I am asking for compensation which I denied saying I would have to get back first and only then worry about it)

So what could or should I ask for? This kind of being a grey area I am really not sure what I am entitled to. I mean ultimately they can say WX is outside their control not giving me anything.

onthesam

Hah I was unclear. 3) by 'what did you call to cancel' (presumably the next available flight, that they booked you on) I meant 'what flight did you call to cancel?'

You may have been entitled to a hotel, but didn't ask for one. They may have comped you your cost of getting to NY but you declined. You can call and try to request this. They issued you an $200 ETC as a courtesy. You can also get a refund for your cancelled flight if you ask for it. What else were you expecting?

mynolix

I cancelled the original flight which had not been rescheduled at that time. in two calls they haven't provided any feasible option so I decided to do that.
I really wasn't expecting much except for a reimbursement of my flight. I understand this is what they may consider doing when I call in again.

jsloan

1 - I'm guessing your message was too long and thus got skimmed.
2 - At that point, you could have requested a refund. You still can.
3 - Consider ETC as compensation for the hotel.
4 - You're going to have to choose between the refund and original routing credit.
5 - Never imply. Customer service agent are readying tens or hundreds of emails a day. Ask for what you want, clearly, preferably in 3 sentences or less.


How do you figure, exactly? Are they just supposed to kick people off of the next day's flights?

If you had kept an eye on inventory and called when some appeared, or showed up to stand by, you would almost certainly have made it to EWR as a 1K. (Also, did you check LGA? HPN? PHL? BDL?)