United Airlines - not so happy!

[sml2181]

They changed our flights 2 times already.

Now they left a message - flight from LHR delayed for 48 hours!
Now I have to do AMS - LHR - FRANKFURT - LHR - SFO - HNL....
Instead of what I reserved in the first place: AMS-LAX-HNL....

My taxi to the airport arrives in a few hours from now.

What do I tell them? I am on hold right now...

So not happy!!!

[blueparrot]

You might want to look at the www.untied.com website - note, that is ''untied'' rather than ''united''

[JeffW]

Assuming you haven't left yet, usually when the airline changes your flight times, you can call up and request alternate flights.

I just had a flight in August get changed on my Delta: originally a 7:00am departure, changed to a 6:40am one. Called up, said I didn't want to get up any earlier, can I get switched to their 7:15am departing flight instead. Several minutes later, it was done.

Another time, my MIL was booked on Continental to fly back home from Bakersfield in the summer. They called up, told me the flight had been cancelled (for the entire Summer), and said she pretty much could fly back from almost any airport out West, anytime.

Obviously your change it much greater, the concept is still the same. You can check for alternate flights on your own, that get you to your destination when you need to be. You should also be able to change the return date, claiming "if I'm losing 2 days at the beginning, I want those extra days at the end." Sometimes you can cancel a flight completely (a little easier with award seats, where they just have to redeposit miles - not sure they'd refund a paid fare).

Good luck.

Jeff

[Talent312]

The last time I flew on Unitied...
While landing in Chicago, my ex-wife threw up in my lap.

[nazclk]

Hey Jeff that's because I don't think Bakersfield has a commercial airport do they.

[JeffW]

They do - BFL. After the start of the recession though (past year or two), they dropped to I think about 19 flights/day (I think USair/United) - no more Continental, Delta, whomever else serviced them. You need to drive down to Southern California (Burbank, LAX, Orange County) to get any reaonably-priced fares.

Jeff

[falmouth3]

I believe that flyers in Europe have many more rights than we do in the US. I think United owes you something - big time.

Sue

[sml2181]

Originally Posted by falmouth3

I believe that flyers in Europe have many more rights than we do in the US. I think United owes you something - big time.

Sue

Just curious, why would you think that we (flyers in Europe) have many more rights than you do in the US? Just asking because to us it seems the other way around.

[JeffW]

You'll want to go to www.flyertalk.com, that's a website like TUG, except for airline travel. They have a United forum there, you should be able to read/search thru it as a guest first, to see if you find any similar issues.

You're best position probably would have been before your started your journey (assuming it already has by now), either in a change in flights, refund/compensation, etc.). If you're already on your way, there's not as much you can do, other than request "compensation (maybe FF miles) for the inconvenience".

Jeff

[falmouth3]

Originally Posted by sml2181

Just curious, why would you think that we (flyers in Europe) have many more rights than you do in the US? Just asking because to us it seems the other way around.

I read it in a travel magazine. In Europe you cannot be asked to sit on a plane on the tarmac forever, if the plane is delayed more than a certain length of time, the airline has to compensate in some way, but I can't remember the details. Here in the states, the airline can do pretty much what it wants to do.

[sml2181]

Ah, I see what you mean...yeah, we do have these rules... . But there are SO many rules around these rules that it is very very rare to actually receive something.

To us, Europeans, it always looks like US flyers always get all the refunds and such.

Right now I am at one of the Sheratons near Heathrow. They are still working on our itinerary. They offered our original itinerary but we would have had to wait until Thursday - and we have friends waiting for us at the HHV who have to leave on Thursday.

I trust we will leave for HNL later this evening, or tomorrow, but not later than that. I must say that they are doing their best - we are a group of 10 and our friends do not want to be separated from us, so that does make it more difficult.

[sml2181]

Originally Posted by JeffW

You'll want to go to www.flyertalk.com, that's a website like TUG, except for airline travel. They have a United forum there, you should be able to read/search thru it as a guest first, to see if you find any similar issues.

You're best position probably would have been before your started your journey (assuming it already has by now), either in a change in flights, refund/compensation, etc.). If you're already on your way, there's not as much you can do, other than request "compensation (maybe FF miles) for the inconvenience".

Jeff

Thanks for the suggestions Jeff - I did have a quick look on FT this morning but then had to leave.

I had to leave - as our first flight was still the same.
Problem is now - the following flight. I do trust that they will get us there before Sunday...

[billymach4]

If you have any talent you might want to produce a YouTube video like this musician. His precious guitar was broken by United. After getting the usual corporate line of baloney, he produced this video. I think this is brilliant! This is a prime example of using the creativity of the internet to level the playing field!

The internet is the great equalizer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpQNW...eature=related

[Kay H]

I think that You Tube is the most clever way to protest. He will get more coverage this way, he was not nasty and United would be more than foolish not to pay for repair or buy a new guitar for this former passenger. I wish I were so clever.

Maybe we should all learn this song and on our next United flight, sing the song so that everyone can hear it. It would be great if several passengers would sing it at one time or we could substitute our own United problem and sing it to the same tune.

[Icarus]

Originally Posted by sml2181

They changed our flights 2 times already.

Now they left a message - flight from LHR delayed for 48 hours!
Now I have to do AMS - LHR - FRANKFURT - LHR - SFO - HNL....
Instead of what I reserved in the first place: AMS-LAX-HNL....

My taxi to the airport arrives in a few hours from now.

What do I tell them? I am on hold right now...

So not happy!!!

UA doesn't fly non-stop from AMS to LAX/SFO. There was always a stop on that flight, with customs/immigration and a plane change in either IAD or ORD.

What's with the LHR-FRA-LHR? UA does fly non-stop LHR-LAX/SFO and FRA-SFO.

Anyway, for AMS-HNL on UA metal, you would always have to make at least two stops. (Direct flight or otherwise). It's possible to go from FRA or LHR to Hawaii with one stop on UA metal.

-David

[camachinist]

They do - BFL. After the start of the recession though (past year or two), they dropped to I think about 19 flights/day (I think USair/United)

I occasionally pull mileage runs out of BFL when UA attacks a DL/NW hub. Nice little airport. FWIW, UA is even doing codeshares with Great Lakes out of VIS (Visalia) on Beech 1900's into ONT now that the subsidies are back.

OP, if I had been in your shoes in AMS, I would've pushed for an endorsement to LH (Lufthansa) or LX (Swiss) and flown AMS-FRA/MUC-LAX (LH) or AMS-ZRH-LAX (LX). Those airlines are Star Alliance partners and have codeshare agreements with UA so pushing the ticket to either is no issue. I saw availability on both for today and tomorrow. Obviously of no use to you now. UA always tries to keep you on their metal (lower cost) but will endorse you if push comes to shove.

Hope it works out and sorry for your issues. Welcome to the world of UA...

Pat

[iconnections]

Originally Posted by billymach4

If you have any talent you might want to produce a YouTube video like this musician. His precious guitar was broken by United. After getting the usual corporate line of baloney, he produced this video. I think this is brilliant! This is a prime example of using the creativity of the internet to level the playing field!

The internet is the great equalizer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpQNW...eature=related

So true! It should help Dave's career even more as it was so well done. United got the message and responded positively so everyone is happy. I like his song and he is working on song 2.

[Icarus]

Originally Posted by Icarus

Anyway, for AMS-HNL on UA metal, you would always have to make at least two stops. (Direct flight or otherwise). It's possible to go from FRA or LHR to Hawaii with one stop on UA metal.

-David

oh, I forgot about the ORD - Hawaii nonstops, but the timing would include an overnight in Chicago. So I guess it is possible to do AMS - Honolulu or Maui with one stop on United.

-David

[sml2181]

David, you're right, I didn't reserve AMS-LAX but AMS - ORD. Sorry for the confusion, I was very tired when I wrote that post.

We made it to HNL - it only took a little longer. The planes were very old - it reminded us of flights within China and India - 20 years ago.

Luckily we have the best kids in the world when it comes to flying - they were great and didn't even notice that tv screens were not working and that in the other planes, the tv screens weren't available. They had a good time anyway. We were/are with friends and still had a good time too.

We ended up taking LHR-FRANKFURT-SFO-HNL.
It was the best they would do for us on that day - we had to wait until Tuesday to get better flights. We thought Tuesday, although better than Thursday which they offered earlier, was still too late
So - originally we had AMS-ORD-HNL. Then in February they added LHR and very recently they changed it to AMS-LHR - spend a night there - SFO- HNL.
Our flight to LHR was on Friday.
On Friday morning, I received that message telling me that the flight LHR-SFO was delayed for 48 hours. When I called United (they only left me a message) - the first reply I got was that nothing had changed, it wasn't in their system etc. etc.. I didn't really trust that and called again, and was told that they probably called the wrong person for the wrong flight. But, the message did mention our reservation code....Again, didn't really trust it and called again and this time they could see it.
They wanted us to do LHR-FRANKFURT-LHR (yes, again LHR)-SFO-HNL. It did take them almost the whole day to let us go from Frankfurt to SFO without doing LHR again.

They couldn't get me on SWISS, since that is not a full partner? I thought it was but I am not so familiar with Staralliance.
I must admit though, that I didn't check any availability for these days myself. Don't ask me why, as I have done that before, but now it simply didn't even cross my mind to check for myself!!!

We did Frankfurt-SFO on Lufthansa. Now they were telling me that since I was booked on UA - I don't get miled for the LH part of the flight?!
If so - can I still get them on our Miles and More accounts? I was happy with our elite status match for UA - I don't like Miles and More when it comes to booking flights with miles. But I hate not getting miles at all.

Last - not kidding - I just received a message regarding a change for our flights back home.... We now have to do OGG-SFO-IAD-LHR-AMS instead of OGG-ORD-AMS.....
Something tells me that I will not book UA again anytime soon. I know, it happens with all airlines, but I never had it like this before - on any airline.

Will have a look at Youtube later - I am going to wake up the kids now (they are all taking a nap) otherwise they will not adjust to Hawaiian time...

Thanks for the suggestions and for listening/reading...

[Icarus]

ok, I see. Not sure about the miles issue. You should, in theory be able to get miles on UA for the LH FRA-SFO flight. But some foreign airlines only offer reduced or no mileage accrual on discounted fares. But since UA re-routed you, you might be able to get the miles anyway by writing (email) to mileage plus. Keep all boarding passes and copies of your original itinerary, including the record locator and the e-ticket number. You can explain that due to the re-route and rebooking on LH, that you didn't get the miles you would have gotten if you had traveled on your original itinerary on UA metal, which is how you booked it.

For the return flight, when there are schedule changes, the agents should have some flexibility to either reroute you or get you on a better flight, so try calling for your return flights, after checking availability for what you want first. Though, I can imagine that for a group of 10, it may be very difficult to find better availability if you all want to travel home together on the same flights.

-David

[sml2181]

Thanks David, will check availability for our return flights before calling...and will keep all our boarding passes.
Just hope that I will have some time left to enjoy my vacation!
Thanks again!

[falmouth3]

Once I was booked on United and they changed me to a Delta flight. Delta is not a United partner. I wrote to United and told them that I had chosen United because I was getting close to an elite level and to please credit my account. To my shock they did. I got the regular miles and the qualifying miles.

This is the airline on which I had flown 99979 miles in one year and they refused to give me the 21 miles to get me to 1K. I flew a cheap flight just to get there on my own.

Good luck! It never hurts to ask.

[JeffW]

Similar story here - about 7 years ago, was flying Delta JFK-NRT (Tokyo), partly because through promotions and my FF status at the time, it was a quadruple-miles offer. On the return flight, our Delta flight was cancelled, and they rebooked us on an United nonstop.

When we checked in, we gave them our United Mileage Plus number, so we got miles for that flight. Plus, when I got back, I emailed Delta, and requested the all the Delta miles I would have gotten for their flight, and got them as well. I think for about a $560 fare, my wife and I netted about 60k FF miles for that trip.

Jeff

[camachinist]

Something to asuage your frustrations, maybe

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthr...560#post756560

You're welcome...

Pat