JNDinCHS

For those of you who United stranded in late June/early July, how is reimbursement going? I'm having trouble getting them to produce anything, despite numerous calls and e-mails. Any advice on speeding up this process?

Backstory: United stranded me at EWR on Wed 6/28 after they cancelled my connecting flight home to MCO as we were boarding the plane. As everyone knows, this was one of many cancellations/delays that week. It was not weather related, however, as weather was clear that day and the plane and crew were there on site and ready to go.

I had no options for rebooking through United. Lines at EWR wrapped around the building, the app wasn't functional, and we all know how bad the phone lines were that week. I tried for a few hours but gave up and ended up shelling out $700 for a JetBlue flight out of JFK for the next day. With hotel, transportation, etc, I ended up pay close to $1,200 out of pocket just to get home.

My next recourse is travel insurance (credit card plus my own policy through Arch RoamRight), but I know the airline owes me something. Any advice?

cfischer

Travel insurance. Glad you know UA owes you something - armed with that I would seek legal advice ... you might soon find out that UA owes you next to nothing, other than a refund for EWR-MCO.

JNDinCHS

Never got a refund for that leg, so yes, United does owe me something?

49penguins

yes they owe you a refund for the portion they cancelled. File a DOT complaint.

they don�t owe you anything else, start the insurance claims for that.

cfischer

did you submit a refund request here? https://www.united.com/en/us/refunds

If UA ignores that or they tell you 'not eligible', then definitely file a USDOT complaint

JNDinCHS

Yes, and then corresponding via e-mail after submitted. No refund yet, they've ignored it for about a month. Will do. Do you or does anyone else know what happens after filing a complaint? Does it prompt the airline to issue or refund or anything?

levs320

I had no issues after my flight got canceled and had to overnight at ORD. Got the 30k miles and I requested a refund for my hotel room through refund form (~$120) and they gave me a $400 ETC about a week later.

JNDinCHS

According to DOT's airline cancellation and delay dashboard, United has committed to all of the above. https://www.transportation.gov/airco...elay-dashboard

WineCountryUA

If you formally requested a refund for the cancelled segment and after two weeks have not received a response, file the DoT complain. The DOT will pass it on to UA and require UA inform you and the DoT of their response. These DoT complaints are handled by a more competent employees and it should straighten out your refund.

Also go to united.com/30k

cfischer

Only if it is controllable. With the massive mess in early July, what is controllable and what is not will very much be YMMV. What was the official UA reason for the cancellation?

File a DOT complaint and you will likely get the best outcome.

mduell

Sure, and they'd provide it; they're not reimbursing whatever you decided to book on your own.

Get your airfare partial refund from United, and make yourself whole though your travel insurance.

49penguins

I had a refund issue at the beginning of Covid. UA ignored me. After I filed the complaint a couple weeks later (not sure on the current timeline though) I got a phone call saying they issued the refund. Then they responded to DOT they had already resolved the complaint. Lol. It was absolutely the DOT complaint that got the ball rolling.

You could always ask for reimbursement of all of it in your complaint and see what they give you, then go after insurance for the rest. Just watch your deadlines and make sure none of your insurance deadlines pass while you�re waiting on UA/DOT.

jsloan

Just because the weather is clear out the window doesn't mean that the disruption wasn't weather related, even if the entire flight crew is there. Did they tell you it was a mechanical issue?

There were many reasons that UA's network had problems that week, but first and foremost was ATC restrictions limiting the number of flights that could take off, land, or pass through airspace in the northeast or mid-Atlantic.

All UA definitely owes you is a refund, which you will eventually get. You may or may not get a customer service gesture for your inconvenience beyond the 30K that they offered every affected passenger. If it was a technical issue, they should cover hotel and ground transportation, although they may limit the reimbursement amount since you booked it yourself. They do not owe you anything for the plane ticket that you decided to buy instead of accepting your rebooking options.

mduell

To help passengers better understand this, United updated their gate displays last week to show the weather further out and the impact on aircraft flight paths.

jordyn

I'm skeptical that anyone other than an airline executive thinks that making it functionally impossible for them to rebook you through lack of both available customer service staff and lack of flight availability counts as "providing it". But you're right that they'll claim they did and unlike with the refund the DOT doesn't have clear guidance here.