Flight disruption question
 

Currently on delayed PEKORD. I have a connection that is also delayed 2 hours. This will get me into my destination city later than I wanted for an event. Am I allowed to just cancel my connection and go home? Not complete the trip as ticketed. I don't want to get in trouble for hidden city

To where are you trying to connect?

LAX. wedding reception I was hoping to visit and top off my end of year pqm. I live in DTW and would rather just buy a ticket home

Yeah you can do pretty much whatever in IRROPS. Either no show or tell UA to cancel the last segment due to the delays.

Well, first check to see if there’s an alternate routing that would get you to LAX in time for your event, if you still want to go. If not, when you get to ORD, explain what’s going on. They may be willing to send you to DTW for no cost. If not, ask them to cancel the last segment, purchase ORD-DTW, and then apply for a refund of the unused ORD-LAX flight, or, if you prefer, for original routing credit for the LAX flight.

PEK-SFO-LAX is an option. But you will have to exit immigration at PEK and get a new boarding pass at checkin desk. Good luck.

Thanks for your help. Don't want to go to l.a. now, but don't want to entangle with UA over rules

well that's easy then. Stay on the delayed flight to ORD and go to the service center there and tell them with the delay your reason to go to LAX is mute.
Do you need the PQM ORD-LAX? Any other segments on that ticket?

What was the reason for the delay? Are you currently in the air on flight UA850 - November 30?. That flight looks to be arriving in ORD soon (~45 minutes late; although departed about 1.5 hours late).

Doesn't really matter at all how late the flight from PEK is going to be or what the reason may be. The OP is likely on UA566 ORD-LAX which is 2 hrs late due to maintenance issues. The earlier flights are sold out.
A CS agent can simply take out the ORD-LAX segment and if the OP wants to try for ORC perhaps add an INVOL annotation to the PNR. Worth checking if ORD-LAX could be turned into ORD-DTW ... that's a long-shot though.

If LAX was just a stop and you want to reroute to a destination in a more direct manner, that is not an unreasonable request and worth raising with UA.

However if LAX was the destination and there was a separate ticket to get to DTW, that is going be more difficult. How late is the arrival into LAX?

So without understanding the full trip routing, this is hard to answer.

As I understand it, OP just wants to know if he can walk away from his final segment. The answer to that is "yes."

I know everyone's trying to be helpful, but I think folks are reading too much into OP's question. The issue of ORC is an interesting one . . . with an estimated 2 hour mx that request may be viable.

Yes, if it is the final segment and no reason to worry about HCT on a one-off.

But unclear how the OP was finishing the trip to DTW, so if there were additional segments, it gets a little less clear -- especially if the segment earnings are needed for status.

I would clarify this - whatever OP wants to do, he needs to tell UA about it in ORD. Just no-showing ORD-LAX and buying a new ticket is a bad idea.. go to the counter in ORD and ask to get ORD-LAX canceled and whichever of refunded, ORCed, or rerouted to DTW (depends on how nice UA is feeling) first.

This is good advice. At a minimum I'd call UA to cancel, though I wouldn't worry too much about the consequences of simply no-showing (provided he doesn't make a dupe booking on UA).