- We all feel your pain
- you actually made out well from UA in terms of refund and miles offered
- UA’s obligations under the COC aren’t what you wish they were
​​​​​​- you would likely be best served by moving on and not putting your mileage plus account at risk

Can anyone point to a documented case of small claims action leading to an account closure and/or a bill for UA's legal fees? While possible, I am not aware of UA exercising that option for any others who have reported going the small claims route.

The negative PR, much like the PR blowback AA is getting for closing accounts would be a factor for UA to consider but AA is claiming fraud, a very different situation. UA has closed accounts for fraud and selling upgrades / miles but the again is a very different situation.

The reality is all the US airlines have agents that STILL don't know how to push e-tickets to other carriers. While it should be seamless, you're at the mercy of the skills of the agent. IME, there is a significant population of agents that would struggle working the counter at your local fast food joint.

I don't hang-up, leave the club, or check-in counter until I have possession of the BPs, electronically.

There are many possible outcomes going this route, and this one doesn't seem too likely. And I don't have any information about how UA might respond, but ...

If you pursue, the bigger concern is whether UA has a firm(s) on retainer with barred attorneys in the states where they operate. They may have encountered such challenges often enough that it's worth their while/pays for itself. And if they do, are you prepared to retain your own counsel, or to go toe-to-toe yourself with an attorney that does this for a living? Be ready.

The OP should consider whether UA is ready for such things; IMO, it's a mistake to just assume UA won't bother with it or won't show up.

You mentioned the auto booking led to your special needs 6 y/o daughter being booked on a different flight from you and your wife since you were flying under different confirmation codes. Certainly this complicated rebooking. With the potential for IRROPS on a busy holiday weekend, I have to ask why the family wasn’t booked together?

It would certainly be a factor when pleading for compassion in front of a judge. UA did rebook you but you found the option unacceptable due to your original decision to book your daughter on a separate reservation.

Section 3(Q) just says that a passenger has to attempt to email customer care with their complaint before initiating legal process. There's nothing more complicated there, and if a passenger does so (like the OP did) and provides up to 60 days for customer care to respond, UA can't collect attorney's fees.

OK I'm curious what that looked like. Customs isn't run by the TSA guys. It's a sterile area with real armed CBP officers present to keep it that way. Even the baseline agents are far more serious about things to the point of being rather abrupt. United GA's can't just wander in and take over a Federal government function. Or so I thought.

I'm curious what time frame you worked in that capacity. Till about 5-10 years ago everybody signed tickets over to everybody else (except of course Southwest). Now they all but refuse to speak to any carrier outside of their own alliance--and barely to them.

I was wondering if someone was going to catch on to that detail. Customs is definitely off limits to any gate agents, that’s their domain and they don’t mess around.

While you need a customs seal on your badge airline agents can be present in the CBP area (I passed a half dozen people with UA name tags/uniforms providing direction between gate and Global Entry kiosk just a few minutes ago at IAD) I do strongly doubt a customs sealed UA agent just "commandeered" the GE lanes without CBP's approval -- CBP certainly does not mess around...

I believe I have seen UA escort (@SFO), to the head of the line or far lest CBP position, passengers on very tight connections. Seem to remember they were more suit types and I suspect proper arrangements were made in advance with CBP knowing this would happen.

I’m almost surprised this thread is still open now.

For years, I flew UA out of DL-dominated CVG - well before the likes of WN, etc. was flying there. Yeah, I had to connect 95% of the time, but it worked for me.

OP got a refund for unflown segments, and seems those were miles. I assume any taxes for those segments would be refunded as well, but given they took the international segment and it was the domestic one they didn’t, it would be quite small.

really, nothing they could charge back.

This. That’s why you have to be careful of how hard you push, and how you act. Agent is well within their right to just tell you they will be refunding you, but the magic buttons, and then you have no choice but to make your own arrangements home. Yes, you can get upset or frustrated. Taking that out on an agent is probably hard for many in these kinds of situations, but something I will just not do.

many agents (though admittedly not all) are trying to do their best to help. Acting aggressively toward them is likely to not help you get where you are going faster.

This.

Booking on separate PNRs is a real risk, especially if you NEED to remain together. It’s not that you can’t manually get someone to get that outcome, but an automated system won’t, and by that time, best options might be already taken.

exactly what I was saying before - have alternative available flights to feed, and be nice to the agent. Bringing some humor into the situation can help too, I’ve found.

Agreed that hanging up the phone and telling the sup they were going to figure this out themselves was basically the sign to United that they didn’t have to deal with it. Like I said, understand the frustration. But what is UA supposed to do when the customer basically says ‘I’m going to do this myself’.

we’re focused on the CoC because that is the set of rules both you (as pax) and airline has agreed to go by. While I understand this is personal for you, as opposed to us, anything UA does beyond what the CoC spells out is a favor.

you were refunded the miles for the unflown fare, which is all that’s required. Everything else on top of that was optional. There isn’t and shouldn’t be any expectation of them covering replacement airfare. Even travel delay insurance won’t - they rely on the original carrier to provide that - which they would have if you didn’t hang up and go your own way - and they cover the expenses you had as a result of the delay.

Semantics, but I suspect OP was never handed ‘tickets’. They likely had a reservation/PNR that was never confirmed. Not uncommon if things weren’t done correctly. Always better, esp. within 24 hours of flight, to have new airline confirm details before walking away.

If OP actually had confirmed tickets with DL and subsequently had this issue, it would have been for DL to now resolve.

yup - though I suppose UA could have had permission to have an agent there? But to control the line?

also not sure how this worked in reality.

even if UA was controlling the CBP queue to GE, anyone without GE still can’t process through the area with kiosks. Seems something is off here.

The CBP agent handling GE folks can process others, just the traditional way..

Pretty sure booking a 6 year old w/o a guardian is not allowed regardless of if they are special needs. More evidence that there might be just a bit more to the OP’s claim than we have been let on.

To be fair, an agent can book a child on their own, without needing to be a UM, if there is an adult companion on the same flights. An agent would need to do it, and the child could not check in online - that would require an agent as well. This also used to happen sometimes when a reservation was split - particularly for CPUs (which should be rarer now that splits aren’t necessary to be on the upgrade standby list at the airport).

The process for booking a child on a separate PNR without being an unaccomplished minor but traveling with an adult on a different PNR is covered in the wiki of UA unaccompanied minor (UCM) policy - nonstop only, age (now 14 & lower), same cabin. It is a very standard process.
One reason for being on a separate PNR is one set of tickets are miles and another is paid.