John_v

November 13 trip was Kansas City via Denver & SFO to Melbourne (Australia) but it took 72 hours! Advised at KC airport that our leg from Denver to SFO was delayed for 90 minutes and would miss the 11.00pm connection to Melbourne. We had booked Premium Economy but there were no spare PE seats on the next day's flight so we were sent to LAX to connect with the United flight from there to MEL the following night. Was put up at very poor hotel with no dining room and a bunch of meal vouchers which had limited use.

Next day at airport, boarded the 10.30pm flight to MEL and sat going nowhere for 2 hours and then told the captain hadn't turned up. So at about 1.00am all 300 or so passengers are asked to disembark, collect their checked luggage and told United will email hotel booking email & vouchers. Told that we can board the next flight to Melbourne at 10.30pm the following night.

As hotel check-out was 12.00 noon the next day we asked United to allow for a late check out. They did but in doing so and without advising us changed the hotel (from Sonesta LAX to Sonesta Select) which we had initially booked with. Got the shuttle to the first hotel only to be told we were at the wrong one and then had to get a cab. Got into a hotel room at 3.00am exhausted. Hotel meal the hotel had was breakfast - nothing more. The meal vouchers United provided could only be used at the hotel or at the airport food outlets.

Out to the airport the following night, boarded and finally took off an hour late for the 16 hour flight to Melbourne.

Email from United arrived with apology and giving a link to their complaints website for compensation - options were 10,000 points or $200 United e-travel voucher - not much use in Australia. Sent a letter to United and got a standard response directing us to the complaints website where we were offer the same voucher or points. Both my partner and I took several days to recover.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

The printed hotel vouchers one usually receives has the hotel name on it as it comes directly from the reservation system. Tough trip all around.

ContinentalFan

As long as you realize that United, like many businesses, issues “fauxpologies.” Any compensation isn’t designed to right a wrong, it’s intended to fix you. If you complain, you are the immediate problem that needs to be addressed. The goal is to get you to stop complaining and to move on.

United is balancing the short term goals of investors with the longer term goals of customers. Investors have bigger guns, so they tend to win. Customers ultimately have more firepower, but they’re not organized and don’t give feedback in a cohesive manner, so they can be ignored. United just has to address problems, not fix them.

What happened to you is horrible. A $200 voucher lets you know what United thinks you and your experience are worth.

restlessinRNO

John_v - First, welcome to the United Airlines FlyerTalk forum. Sorry your first post has to be about this disaster. “The captain hadn’t turned up”. So UA cancels the flight (and the return flight from MEL)! Is there not another captain at LAX available? So 300 people wait 24 hours. I agree, the offer of 10,000 miles or $200 is pathetic. Do you have elite status with UA, such as Silver, Gold, …?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

LAX doesn’t have as large a pilot base as SFO to draw on, and obviously UA would have to find one w/ the type rating and isn’t on rest (or off on vacation somewhere).

rogngo

This post, along with the recent incident with the doctor and the overpriced flights is why I never fly United.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

“Recent”?

Delta staff very recently (and later admitted, wrongfully) threatened removal of a disabled passenger from a plane “by TSA officers with guns”.

Pricing is variable for itineraries across airlines. Show me a comparably more expensive UA fare and I can show a comparably less expensive fare.

But you’re right - other airlines never have problems like cancelled and delayed flights. It only happens at United.

uanj

I really, really like that comment! And I had the same thought.

But to be fair, I have had some surpirisingly good service recovery with UA and some experiences that were just awful. I am pretty sure that UA executives are not aware how bad their service recovery can be and equally sure they don't care. It's just not a big enough deal for them to make it a priority. (Unless it hits social media.) If you have not done an absolute ton of flying and you have this type of experience the OP's reaction is understandable. And what is flyertalk if not a great place to vent?

IAH-OIL-TRASH

The flight reliability / IRROPs nadir for UA was 2012-13. UA really is not markedly worse than other legacy carriers. Each has had (and will have) horror stories.

sunhoo

By the moment that the flight was cancelled by absence of the captain, United should arrange passengers to alternative routes, to lessen final delay. At least passengers with elight status should be protected.

HNLbasedFlyer

Probably not a lot of alternative routes to Australia at 1am

sunhoo

Alternative routes at the next day daytime would be reasonable, lessening ultimate dalay by several hours from a full day.

restlessinRNO

Well there is the LAX-SYD flight. When the captain did not turn up for the LAX-MEL flight, maybe the LAX-SYD flight had some empty seats. That might be preferable to just throwing up your hands and telling the 300 pax to come back in 24 hours.

sunhoo

And perhaps there are alternative routes like LAX-NRT-MEL or LAX-SIN-MEL available. By offering such options United could show its care to passengers. It's making every effort to reduce final delay.

WineCountryUA

Less than 20 minutes in departure difference, so the decision to move a small number would had to been made long before the SYD departure and the original MEL departure.and suspect UA still to get the MEL out that night.
Can you find such an improved routing?
Given the flight was cancelled after midnight, it would been at least late the next morning to get something going and then with a 1-stop with extra flight time, the net improve would be just a few hours at best and likely in poorer seating options for a fraction of the passenger.
In this case the options were very limited -- not alot of TPAC options nowadays