Flight cancellation while on a MR?
 

I have a hypothetical question.

Let's say that I'm on an overnight MR. MHT-ORD-PHX-ORD-MHT with an overnight in PHX.

On the outbound, there's weather in ORD (similar to today's). The outbound flight leaving MHT is delayed 4 hours such that I miss my connection to PHX as well as the last flight of the day to PHX.

Obviously this would mean an overnight in ORD when I get there.

Since the delay is weather related... what are my options? I know that I'd have to pay for a hotel in ORD (no voucher due to weather). Plus, I'd get to PHX and most likely miss my scheduled PHX-ORD return flight... so my entire return would all be mucked up.

What happens should I choose not to board the delayed ORD-MHT flight? Can it be arranged that they just keep my money and I get the miles w/o flying? Or am I due a full refund on my non-refundable ticket?

It doesn't specifically answer your question, but I think it pays to come prepared regardless of what you think the airline might do.

For me, that means carrying a Thermarest sleeping pad in my luggage and a flannel sleeping bag. It also means a membership to your elite club of choice. Then you're assured some comfort if things fall apart.

If the flight is delayed you will be put on another flight and you will probably be in a position to request your original routing, or to request miles that correspond to your original routing.

It can get hairier if you're dealing with nested tickets or itineraries where one MR depends on another. On the first leg of my very first MR, my flight was canceled due to mechanicals, which totally screwed me up because I had a nested ticket on the same airline. The manager who was sent to re-book us, god bless her, fixed not only my immediate run, but the nested ticket that was affected by my re-route.

In any case, being extremely nice and extremely appreciative for whatever courtesy they can offer you will pay off. If you leave prepared, even an overnight delay will just seem like part of the great adventure.

-KF

Here's a hypothetical answer:

When they offer to re-route you, if they can't get you into PHX before your return flight, point this out to them. Tell them you want to return home if they will note on your PNR that you were unable to complete your trip and that you should receive original routing credit. They should be willing to do this, as you are making it easier for them to handle your situation. If that is put in your record, call in when you get home, have customer service pull up your record and read the note, and they should credit you with the ORD-PHX-ORD segments you did not fly.

Without the note in the PNR, you might not get credit.

WOW.

That's serious mileage running equipment. ^

Or - if they balk at original routing credit - there's the trip in vain option; essentially "send me home with a full refund".
Works best if the flight MXs, and on the first leg, but...

I actually like it when a flight is cancelled or I take a bump while on a MR. I will usually get re-routed the most direct way to the destination, or ideally, back home since most of my MRs look like I'm just going from DTW to xxx back to DTW. In my experience, NW has always given me original routing credit, so I can often take hours off of a MR and get the same credit.

Just a few days ago I was on an AA mileage run LAX-SEA-GEG. Alaska cancelled the LAX-SEA segment, and rebooked me on the next flight to Seattle. Unfortunately, it continued to Spokane so I was actually booked as LAX-GEG and thus losing a segment. I called AAdvantage Customer Service, they checked that the flight was cancelled and immediately credited me for the LAX-SEA portion. :)

The first flight of my first MR, just to set myself up for the 6 RTs of the nested MRs for the FLY3 in April, got cancelled due to a mechanical.

The best I could do timewise was a re-route through ORD (instead of straight BWI-DFW), so in that case I didn't want original routing credit as I was taking an even more scenic route. I did have to spend about an hour combined on the phone with AA reservations, at BWI and ORD, to cover all the routing changes, moving my first RT back two days, moving my return from the MR back to accomodate that extension, and switching the origin of my second MR RT to reflect having to start from DFW instead of DAL (as I should have been set up in already in the original schedule). I had all the flight info on a list, and decided how to ask for the accomodation which would both affect me the least and be the simplist to get across to the CS reps on the other end of the phone. Somehow I wasn't on the passenger list for my last FLY3 RT back to DFW, but the GA didn't have a problem putting me back on.

I did my RTs as DAL-AUS, both for the short flights but especially because it was the same plane turned around, so I could not miss connections. That and having a very soft back end to accomodate such moving back of flights (fronting a week vacation at a resort) meant that it was a low stress weekend after that initial hectic Friday morning.

Although this is Mileage Run Related, this is more appropriate for the UA forum as its about UA's policies.

I'm moving it there.

bhatnasx
Mileage Run Moderator