Refund for broken business seat on United Airlines

[Kristian]

Dear Forum,

I've done a little searching on this topic but I haven't found a good recent answer.
I'm hoping this thread can provide me with good advice and perhaps be helpful for future members.

I purchased a return business flight SYD to LAX on UA which I completed in January.
Unfortunately, as I was taking my seat the flight hostess informed me that my seat was broken and could not be used at all.
It could not recline, the leg rest wouldn't extend and of course it was unable to lie flat.
This was a completely full flight with no spare seats.
This was an overnight flight, my intention was to lie flat and get some much needed sleep.
The air hostess said I would probably get a $1000 voucher for the inconvenience. I was emailed a $ 300 voucher before we even took off.
I thought I would have to sort this out once I get back as there was nothing I could do at that time.

My initial thought was that surely I would simply be refunded the cost of the segment (~ $5400) because I paid for a product that was not delivered. Bad luck for everyone.

Needless to say, cutting a long saga short, after several email exchanges, a rather painful process with unhelpful UA customer service, and a lot of time wasted, I'm at the point where I've been offered $1300 in vouchers to use on UA.

Personally I think this is woefully insufficient. But before I pursue this further and expend more energy, I want to know if I my self am being unreasonable or if there is some standard to which airlines refund / partially refund tickets in this situation?

Should I expect 50% of the segment cost? 75%? , 110% ? I also do not want vouchers as I'm unlikely to fly UA ever again in the future. (not just because of this experience). Thus I would prefer cash / credit to my credit card.

What is the next step? Contacting the Airline Customer Advocate? Contact Fair Trading? Or start expressing my unhappiness on all of UA's socials?

Any help much appreciated.
Thank you,
Kristian

 

[Kerrodt]

What is the next step? Contacting the Airline Customer Advocate? Contact Fair Trading? Or start expressing my unhappiness on all of UA's socials?

I'd start with all three, and I'd respond back to UA advising them that you don't accept their offer and that they should do better (specify what you want) and tell them what you are doing in conjunction (contacting ACA, Fair Trading in your state, socials etc) and remind them that your ticket purchase is subject to Australian laws on consumer rights etc.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Airline Customer Advocate does not include UA. As UA is not "Australian". Does not even include REX.
Airline Customer Advocate

 

[justinbrett]

Usually the FAs can manually move the seat into a lie flat position.

A quick search of other forums with similar situations suggests the compo you received is about right. However, in those cases they could at least manually move the seat. Perhaps that fact needs to be relayed. Even Y lets you recline.

If it were me, I'd asked to be rebooked on another flight, as once you accept the seat you lose any negotiating power. If you're standing in the terminal you've got a much better argument to insist you are rebooked with the seat you paid for.

I would forget the Australian agencies and go straight for the US DOT - https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint.

 

[Aussietraveller86]

brutal... sorry to hear.

Agree with others that you might be out of luck here...

 

[moa999]

Not sure what currency the offer is in or what you paid, and assume 5400 is half the return fare.

But the key part is that the airline got you from A to B, albeit not in as much comfort as you wanted.
One could argue your fixed seat is slightly better than a PE seat (in size and room), plus presumably you got all the other Business perks.

So maybe ask for the difference between Business and PE on that leg.
Looking at current prices for UA the difference between J and PE for a SYD-LAX return is about A$5k.