lsquare

I landed in KIX a few hours ago after flying UA35. I cleared immigration without any issues. Something clearly was wrong when I tried to get into the domestic departure area as my UA-issued boarding pass gave back an error message. I went to the NH ticket area. Due to a language barrier, it took a while to figure out the flight was canceled. NH staff said all remaining flights left for the day are fully booked. They can only give me a refund in cash for ¥17,000. The staff said it should be enough to get me to Tokyo. The key word is should. It was a take-it-or-leave-it offer. No negotiation. I have never been in a situation like this with an airline before. The NH segment is part of a UA fare. The NH staff said I needed to write my name and number on a Japanese form. Initially, I refused because I can't read Japanese. The rep said she can't give me the money without signing it. I was so mad. I wrote down her name and ID info. I also wrote a comment on the form complaining about how I was treated. Is Japan even a first-world country for asking me to sign or agree to something that I can't even read? I tried calling UA using Skype, but after waiting an hour and no one picked up, I gave up. I grabbed a bowl of ramen at KIX and here I am taking the train to Tokyo. I'm not scheduled to get to the ANA Intercontinental Hotel until about 11 PM, more than six hours later. What is making this trip even crazier was my connecting flight to SFO was late. It was very tight and I was the last person boarding UA35. Does UA owe me anything? What a way to start my trip.

jp12687

for what it’s worth if and when you speak to someone at UA I’d leave out the editorializing like “is Japan even a first world country” stick to facts only.

narvik

In the grand scheme of things this doesn't actually sound all that bad, but likely not what you want to hear right now.

From the outside looking in (and not actually having gone through the intricacies):
1) You are getting to your booked hotel still on the same day;
2) You received 'some' refund immediately without having to wait or go through any hoops

What is it you are expecting from UA? I am not clear on this. Flights cancel, it happens.

AND you got to eat Ramen in Japan: sounds awesome to me!

lsquare

Except I paid for it.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I doubt United has a version of their forms in all languages. I’d leave the language complaint out of it. Part of international travel is different languages and it is a bit of a stretch to expect an airline to have copies of different language versions of every form that they might provide a passenger.

1700 yen is definitely enough to get from Osaka to Tokyo. Did you ask for accommodation on an ANA the next day? Kayak? Train? Obviously got to be flexible when trying to get to final destination in situation like this and worry about getting recompensated later.

Of course, travel indusurance would come into play for something like this, but some (like me) take the risk.

lsquare

I wouldn't have gotten the money if I didn't sign it. I find it outrageous that I have to sign something that I don't understand. Who knows what it's actually stating on the form?

You left out a zero. My meal at KIX was almost ¥2000. I already have the hotel in Tokyo booked. I didn't ask about flights leaving tomorrow. I only asked about today. All remaining NH flights were full. I asked if they can try JL and the rep said no. It was Shinkansen or nothing.

narvik

Regrettably this is just not all that uncommon: our main local health care provider here in USA has one sign an electronic pad numerous times after they read from a screen; consent stuff mainly. One has to 100% rely on them actually reading what one is signing for.
Just giving an example; not saying it's right.

I get the frustration, but hopefully this won't put a downer on the rest of your trip, and I hope you'll see things in a more positive light tomorrow.

lsquare

I think I could have signed away my life...

It's a good thing I didn't pay for lounge access at the ANA Intercontinental Tokyo. It would have been a total waste of money. Sucks that I won't be spending much time in the room. Instead, I spent it at KIX and the Shinkansen. I got on the 19:54 Nozomi Shinkansen so there are still plenty of time before I get there.

JimInOhio

I'm sure that was frustrating after flying all the way from SFO. What I took away from your timeline was the NH rep found the fastest way for you to get to Tokyo that evening and handed over money to facilitate. Not sure about the JAL option... your first post mentioned "all flights are booked" and then later is was all NH flights. Are you sure JAL had availability or did the NH rep already know there wasn't?

Here in the the US, just about any agent would have booked you on the next availabile flight, presumably the next day in this case. You might not get a hotel voucher in the process, too, depending on the circumstances.

lsquare

I was just asking her to check. I don't know if JL had any availability or not. I rather fly at that point because I was at KIX. It took about 52 minutes to go from KIX to JR Shin-Osaka Station. Then it's another 2+ hours on the Nozomi to Tokyo. If the flight wasn't canceled, I would be in Tokyo by now. Of course, with no more NH flights for the rest of the day, I don't know what else I could have done.

jpezaris

My family and I had a similar situation in ZRH where LX had cancelled a flight. We were offered compensation, and, yes, the forms were in maybe 6 or 8 languages.

In a large, international airport, it is reasonable to expect legal documents to be available in multiple languages.

RetiredATLATC

Google Translate works well in these situations for reading forms and the like.

paperwastage

Because we don't have anything like EC261, there's no mandatory compensation.

Even if united canceled your United flight, they're sometimes hesitant to offer flight on AA/DL/SW/B6

The downside for using KIX after 4pm = ana only has one other flight to tyo at 9pm (which is probably full after the cancellation).

​​​​​​Other options that the KIX staff should have offered :
rebooking from ITM-TYO (5pm/6pm/7pm/8pm) + transportation from KIX-ITM
Other flight options from KIX-TYO (starflyer/JL/Jetstar/peach/...
flight next day + hotel overnight per *alliance irrops rules

(Japan being Japan, ANA staff likely won't have offered starflyer even though NH owns part of starflyer


But honestly most people would have taken the bullet train option, but I could see it being troublesome if you had bags (and asked for more to cover the Takuhaibin costs). The train costs is around 16640yen (Jr train kix to shinosaka + nozomi reserved seat), cheaper if not nozomi of course

telemark27

Wow, surprising to see with ANA, and agree this is pretty crappy conclusion. You've clearly done this before and made the most of it, and the 17,000 Yen is pretty much spot on for Green car one way to Tokyo, which was likely their intent. Was just on the Nozomi on between Osaka and Tokyo two days ago, and boy it's awfully efficient - I purposefully avoided KIX, BUT only because I had that option.

But if I was first time visitor to Japan / typical traveler, the transfer and figuring out how to even get on the darn Shinkansen would be astoundingly hard, and would have unlikely made it on their own to Tokyo that day. Keep us posted if UA has anything to say, but have never had much luck on these.

WheelsUpGal

I find Google Translate with my camera to be really helpful in situations like these and would have worked to translate a form in Japanese.