Hi
A little help from vetrans would be much appreciated
Tonights flight from IAD to EZE is delayed from 9:30 tonight until 10:30 tomorrow morning. We went to the airport and they won't begin check-in until tomorrow morning, which makes me nervious that they may ultimately cancel the flight entirely.
In a call to United and talking to the agents at Dulles (who have been very very helpful and very nice despite tonights chaos at Dulles), yet they don't have much information.
Having lost a day of vacation already (arrivial moved from 10am to 10pm) I would like to begin to try to organize the balance of my trip.

Does the delayed check in (and unwillingness to take or check the baggage) suggest that they think the flight will ultimately be cancelled?And if it is cancelled, what can I expect re-booking a very cheap ticket?

Thanks

I would be asking (politely) for accommodations at IAD this evening at UA's expense (if you want them as opposed to going home before starting over) and/or confirmed space on another carrier asap. Alternatively, confirmed (not standby) space on UA or another carrier tomorrow should be a priority for you. You've probably already asked about the possibility of going through ORD on UA on the next confirmable itinerary...

In my experience UA takes a special care for UA international inconvenienced passengers.

Not sure about hotel, though it'd be in standard procedure. Anyway expect tomorrow, when aboard your flight, to be given a special form for you to fill - that's the form used by UA Customer Service to hand out UA vouchers - depending on fare/status you should expect a given $$$ voucher and an apologize.

Also a UA representative at EZE offering you a taxi or whatever at your arrival could be expected for all the inconvenience.

I'd ask for confirmed space on another carrier but at this hour I think it might be too late to get there any sooner. Most flights for South America all leave the United States around the same time. Personally I would've asked immediately if it would have been possible to put me on a flight to MIA or JFK and then put me on AA, RG, or even (gulp) AR.

At this point, though, I'd make sure they gave me a hotel room for the night at UA's expense and would then make sure to write a letter to UA. The form they will give you often will not provide you with anything meaningful. I would definitely recommend writing a letter and specifically asking for certain compensation.

Best of luck, and let us know how it turns out!

I beg to differ as in my case the form yielded in less than 30 days a voucher worth... (either $300 or $500) can't recall exactly - as a result of a 10 hour delay.

I think it really depends. For a 24 hour delay on an EZE-IAD flight I received a $150 voucher good only for domestic flights after filling out that form. But after writing a letter to UA I received $500 in regular unrestricted vouchers along with an apology. ^

A $150 restricted voucher for a 24 hour delay?! I can see why you chose to follow up. Nice to hear that UA reconsidered that one.

All that being said, is IAD or ORD a better gateway to GRU/GIG? I have done ORD and it was smooth. I may do IAD this spring. Also - what do W+ tickets normally price out to in March on the IAD-GIG route? I am getting 12XX in V. I looked and i paid 1168 in V in December of 04.

Thoughts?

Don't let BJ see you thinking about buying W or Q tickets...

An update- 1) We left as promised, about 13 hours late. Coupled with an unusually long flight plan, we arrived at EZE just before midnight. During the flight nothing was different- I assumed they would at the very least comp wine or beer with dinner as an example- but nope, even the end of flight breakfast remained just as if we left on time. --actually would have rather had the snack breakfast at take-off and dinner nearer to landing-but that is off topic

2) I've just received a coupon in the mail- $150 for me (a premier) and $100 for the other traveler. First, seems odd to send 2 coupons to the same house with different values when the tickets purchased were identical. Second, neither amount begins to account for the lost value to me of a lost day of vacation and an extra trip to the airport and missed ground transportation in EZE etc etc etc.

Curiously, If I had wanted to postpone my trip a day, the fare requirements would have a lot more penalties and would taken in real dollars rather than UA funny money..........What do you think is reasonable compensation for such a long delay?

Thanks

Your experience has unfortunately been the opposite of mine.

My delay, also close to 12 hours, caused the flight ORD-GRU to leave at 9am.

Service started with breakfast, throughout the flight which I travelled in Business there was much more beverages than usual and prior to dinner the nuts were served, then dinner and coffee.

Ground staff greeted each and every passenger to make sure any inconvenience could be sorted out.

Eventually a letter to Customer Service comparing the penalties associated with your ticket might be reasonable as you seem to have had a less than creative Crew to make matters worse.

One can never underestimate United's ability to make even a simple interaction a bit of a dissapointment. To redem the certificates one must use phone, not online, reservations. And yes, the $10.00 fee applies. So the $100 coupon is really $90.

Not big dollars obviously, but it is surely annoying, just seems more and more what UA is about.