bioyuki

Looks like UA 872 has returned to the gate and United is providing the generic delay message: "We want you to know your flight is departing late because we need additional time to assist customers on this flight. We value your time and we're sorry for the inconvenience. (Estimated Departure 2 Hours Late)"

mduell

Returned to the gate for about an hour, but well on its way now.

dchobo

UA2 8/8/2022 SIN-SFO canceled "because we needed to take the plane out of service to address a technical issue".

Automatically rebooked on UA3014 SIN-SFO for 8/9/2022 - one day later.

We had checked in smoothly earlier using the app. But then just saw the cancelation status in United app. No text or email or phone calls. Nothing about compensation on meals or hotel rooms.

EDIT: I called United reservations phone number and got a live person on the phone but she might as well be a robot. She plainly said in the most monotone voice that there's no other flight nor route I can switch to (did she even try??) and for any compensation request, go to united.com/feedback and there's nothing we can do at reservation.

Lux Flyer

That's because you called reservations, which UA has decided should be focused on dealing with getting people booked/rebooked for pre departure and day of travel issues. Your probably not the first person to call on this route so the agent probably has an idea if anything is available already since they likely looked for someone else already, and it doesn't take long to quickly scan the inventory to see that nothing else has opened up (in these cases, if you see an alternative yourself, your better off feeding those specific flights you want to the agent, else they're just going to go with what the system shows you). In fairness - you were rebooked on a recovery flight (3000 flight series are for recovery legs of cancelled flights), airlines aren't in the business of operating a recovery leg if they have availability on other flights/routings.

Regarding compensation - again you called reservations, which is not customer care and doesn't have any tools to reimburse/compensate passengers. The only thing they can do is cancel/initiate refund requests on tickets. UA has decided unless your 1K/GS, customer care isn't a phone department for you to talk to, which makes sense for multiple reasons. First it's probably a lot less efficient to look through an itinerary and decide what is going on when you have someone blasting you in your ear about how horrible this experience was. Second, travel isn't complete, so a compensation package would be premature as they don't know how things are going to finally shake out with your overall itinerary (nor do you even know what additional expenses you're going to incur for them to reimburse); they could offer you compensation, then your flight gets delayed/cancelled further, and now you're back asking for more compensation. Instead of addressing your case once which the current method does, you're having to get in touch (and wait on the phone) multiple times for every new change to the itinerary or expense you incurred. It's just overall more efficient to have customers fill out the form on united.com, collect all the necessary information up front, the representative can review the entire itinerary and the story of what happened, as well as all the additional expenses that incurred/need to be reimbursed.

Hugerush

Dchobo's issue was of course caused by the cancelled inbound, but what of the practice of cancelling two flights then renaming the second flight a different flight number?

Example - United cancelled UA Flight 1 (SFO-SIN) on Saturday night for a mechanical.
Overnight they cancelled the Sunday UA Flight 1 using the 'unexpected operational issue' excuse.
They then created United Flight 3012 which departs 11:00PM on Sunday from SFO-SIN (exactly the same as the original Flight No.1).
Of course 3012 is just flight no. 1 renamed (it was even the same exact aircraft).
Now when they cancelled the Sunday UA 1, they made the passengers 'rebook' on 3012 (if it was 'available').
As they now have two nearly full business classes they are trying to fit into one, guess who is suddenly in Economy plus on a five figure business class ticket?
ME!!!
And, to add insult to injury, THEY STILL HAD BUSINESS CLASS SEATS on UA 3012 that they WOULD SELL while they were 'denying' me access to one.
WHY WHY WHY?
I ultimately moved my departure THREE DAYS to accommodate United's woes with their single flight to Singapore and they didn't even give me a 'thanks'.
WHEN will this country see these giant monopolistic merger ANYTHINGS are not the best idea to preserve capitalism? (I know, too late)

dchobo

Hugerush so did UA inform you via email or text or phone call or did you find out about the cancelation on the app like I did?

The UA website is full of how they are customer focused and the agents are out to help you and of course every link I clicked somehow got to a generic help page and I even tried chat but it's a 60 min wait time... lol. I guess it's must be pilot error that I couldn't find the number for customer care instead of reservation (oops, no pun intended.)

I guess it's also comforting to know that I shouldn't expect any compensation in the mean time because they may screw up even more, so ya, let's wait for all the screw-ups to happen and write them all in at once (because hey com'on who has time for a lowly silver?)

Hugerush

I awoke Sunday to the text cancellation notice on my phone (for Sunday nights flight no.1).
After firing up the app (and then a Mac), I was quite surprised when it only offered two rebooking options, both leading to the newly created mystery flight 3012 (in actuality my original flight renamed). However, as the passengers on the cancelled SATURDAY NIGHT flight No.1 had the entire overnight to snatch up all those newly available 3012 seats while I slept, I was OUT of business class and into economy plus (on a $10K+ ticket) - and oh yeah, there were THREE large F fares they would sell all day Sunday and yet I cant have one Pretty slippery on United's part, and certainly not the way they handle the average domestic cancellation, by a long shot.

They have no dedicated customer care line I know of, and maybe rightly so as that would be a literal impossibility to man... If you call the 'secret' (not at all) 1K number and HOLD you will eventually get somebody with odds they are actually in the US (at least during the day). They typically at least attempt to help. I also think they have internet access, which the folks in the overseas call centers (India?) do not. It's always nice when the person on the phone can actually SEE United.com! As far as being Silver, me too, but not always, and not when this trip is over (whenever that may be), I will then be 1K.

The pathetic part is United airlines is one of the worlds largest carriers and yet their longest scheduled flight, a single daily to the other side of the world, exposes their crooked underbelly (they essentially shifted the administration (aka the burden) of the Saturday cancellation to the passengers of two flights - YOU ALL GO FIGURE IT OUT). That's messed up at best.

Best of luck in all your travels - at least the 787-9 is pretty cool!

dchobo

Hugerush - wow. Biz to economy downgrade should mean a partial cash refund (not just credit)... IMHO...

My Tuesday's UA3014 (SIN-SFO to replace the cancelled UA2 flight) was of course completely packed. Long lines at check-in counters. United app showed plane at F gate but didn't show the terminal. Stupid me googled it and found it to be at Singapore Changi Airport T2 but guess what, T2 departure is under renovation and I was supposed to go to T3. Luckily a kind "auntie" at T2 redirected me (and driver) to T3 where we checked in and then after immigration the skytrain shuttled us back to T2. (Later found out that Changi airport website was showing the correct T3 as the check-in terminal - so yes, it's my fault again.)

Agent at the check-in asked if I was on the cancelled UA2 day before and took down my email address saying that UA will email me some form of compensation but it's been crickets so far. That's all I have heard about cancelation. No other text/email/phone, even the pilots/crew didn't utter a word about 2 flights being packed like sardines into one. Oh wait, I did get an email survey from UA about my experience with my cancelation but I'm sure my submission will go into the trash bin like my earlier message via united.com/feedback. It's unfortunate that after decades of flying with United I'll now lump them with other budget airlines like Frontier and Spirit. Oh well.

EDIT: UA Customer Care came back with 7500 miles:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34510424-post641.html

Winkdaddy

Does any know why UA1 (SFO-SIN), departing at 11:00PM seems to be constantly delayed recently in last few days? And this last Sunday the flight was canceled for some reason.

Just curious as I am flying this route next week

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL1

Kmxu

Here is one report. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34501738-post625.html
Good luck with your flight.

malgudi

So who should people call? Do tell

WineCountryUA

Compensation is not handled on the phone, email customer support or your elite line. Been that way since forever.

worldtrav

Aug 10

989 IAD FRA 4 hrs late
880 IAH LHR 8 hrs late
82 EWR DEL Canceled
982 IAD ATH 5 hrs late
139 KEF EWR Canceled (2nd day in a row)
986 CDG ORD Canceled
22 DUB EWR Canceled
842 SYD LAX Canceled

Aug 11 bad day to be in Portugal. LIS-IAD Canceled and OPO-EWR canceled.

Lux Flyer

If you still need to be rebooked, call reservations.

If you want compensation. contact customer care on united.com/feedback that way the case can be routed to someone who actually has the power to reimburse expenses and issue compensation. Plus it keeps the phone lines clear for those of us who do still need reservations for rebooking assistance.

If you want a refund for airfare for a partially used ticket and you didn't fly because of the cancellation/delay, open a case on united.com/refunds. If the ticket was completely unused (ie. never boarded the plane) you can call reservations for them to initiate the refund, but your best bet is still united.com/refunds because reservations probably won't check for any ancillary products to refund, unlike the web form/refunds department. If you flew the delayed/rebooked flight but want a "refund" for your inconvenience/experience, then contact customer care because that is a compensation request not a refund. Their refunds department only deals with refunds for unused products/services.

worldtrav

Aug 11 OPO-EWR Canceled
Aug 12 OPO-EWR Canceled
Aug 13 OPO>EWR Canceled

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