tallboy
Member
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2006
- Posts
- 145
- Qantas
- LT Gold
- Virgin
- Red
I have zero experience of UA, so posting here to seek advice on behalf of friends who had the following recent ‘experience’:
Pax were a family of three, travelling on a 14-day vacation to the US from MEL. They are UA FF members but with zero or low current status.
They were booked to fly MEL-LAX on a Saturday morning last month. They then had reservations to stay in LA for three nights (pre-paid apartment accommodation), before flying on to NYC. After about 10 days on the East Coast they were flying back via LAX to MEL.
Late in the afternoon the day before their scheduled departure they were called by UA and informed that their UA flight had been cancelled for tech reasons, but that UA had managed to book them on a QF flight departing the next day (the same day as originally booked), a couple of hours earlier than UA’s scheduled departure. They then discovered this was the direct QF A380 service, so were quite happy with that. They would have access to better IFE and arrive in LAX a few hours earlier than originally scheduled, if all went to plan…
They duly arrived at MEL early the next morning (Before 0700 for an 0930 departure) and after some time in the check-in line went to ask about tickets as these had not yet been supplied. The QF agent informed them that while their bookings had indeed been made the previous afternoon, they were subsequently cancelled as the flight was overbooked, and that UA should have informed them of that the previous evening. There was nothing that QF could do so they should now go and discuss with UA. :shock:
They did so, along with a bunch of other people in the same boat, and were told that there was nothing UA could do that day, but they would work on getting them seats the following day. There was then a flurry of hope and rushing about as QF looked like having a lot of no-shows, but after about another hour of waiting they just missed out (by 1 seat...) and were sent home.
To cut a longer story short, UA’s flight the following day was also cancelled and after many telephone calls they eventually flew out of MEL the following Tuesday, 3 days later than originally booked, and ironically on the QF A380 service. They then arrived in LAX (just) in time to make their original onward connection to NYC.
To summarise:
Pax departed MEL 3 days later than originally booked; they missed out on their 3 day stopover in LA, and lost the $$ they had committed on pre-paid accommodation for the 3 nights in LA.
UA have offered them zero compensation to date. They are seeking reimbursement of lost accommodation costs via travel insurance but apparently there may be some hitch with that.
To me this all seems very unfair. I would like to be able to advise them of a course of action with the airline, but am not sure of the best strategy with UA.
Can any experienced UA pax / lurkers advise of what action they could / should be taking?
Thanks in advance,
Tb
I have zero experience of UA, so posting here to seek advice on behalf of friends who had the following recent ‘experience’:
Pax were a family of three, travelling on a 14-day vacation to the US from MEL. They are UA FF members but with zero or low current status.
They were booked to fly MEL-LAX on a Saturday morning last month. They then had reservations to stay in LA for three nights (pre-paid apartment accommodation), before flying on to NYC. After about 10 days on the East Coast they were flying back via LAX to MEL.
Late in the afternoon the day before their scheduled departure they were called by UA and informed that their UA flight had been cancelled for tech reasons, but that UA had managed to book them on a QF flight departing the next day (the same day as originally booked), a couple of hours earlier than UA’s scheduled departure. They then discovered this was the direct QF A380 service, so were quite happy with that. They would have access to better IFE and arrive in LAX a few hours earlier than originally scheduled, if all went to plan…
They duly arrived at MEL early the next morning (Before 0700 for an 0930 departure) and after some time in the check-in line went to ask about tickets as these had not yet been supplied. The QF agent informed them that while their bookings had indeed been made the previous afternoon, they were subsequently cancelled as the flight was overbooked, and that UA should have informed them of that the previous evening. There was nothing that QF could do so they should now go and discuss with UA. :shock:
They did so, along with a bunch of other people in the same boat, and were told that there was nothing UA could do that day, but they would work on getting them seats the following day. There was then a flurry of hope and rushing about as QF looked like having a lot of no-shows, but after about another hour of waiting they just missed out (by 1 seat...) and were sent home.
To cut a longer story short, UA’s flight the following day was also cancelled and after many telephone calls they eventually flew out of MEL the following Tuesday, 3 days later than originally booked, and ironically on the QF A380 service. They then arrived in LAX (just) in time to make their original onward connection to NYC.
To summarise:
Pax departed MEL 3 days later than originally booked; they missed out on their 3 day stopover in LA, and lost the $$ they had committed on pre-paid accommodation for the 3 nights in LA.
UA have offered them zero compensation to date. They are seeking reimbursement of lost accommodation costs via travel insurance but apparently there may be some hitch with that.
To me this all seems very unfair. I would like to be able to advise them of a course of action with the airline, but am not sure of the best strategy with UA.
Can any experienced UA pax / lurkers advise of what action they could / should be taking?
Thanks in advance,
Tb
