[basslines66]

Swiss diver’s comments are reassuring re the human race and this should always prevail in cases of inconvenience to many when it is rarely one person’s fault. Many comments on these BT forums (fora?) are extremely helpful for EU 261 claims which of course applies to EU-based airlines only.

But what happens when an American carrier, in this case a United flight to Europe (UA36 EWR to EDI), goes technical, when they announce 90 minutes after boarding that there is a persistent maintenance issue (from “engine bleed”; no me neither), de-plane the entire crowd, announce a replacement aircraft a further 2 hours later, and all without so much as either an apology or any mention of a voucher for a cup of tea?

In this event, as I wait in Newark waiting lounge with my struggling wife plus 2 small children (one 22 months), I realise that I would not mind so much in a very pleasant Newark airport if the airline had not been so unpleasant and discourteous throughout. Even trying to re-arrange to have my family sit together was an ordeal (“you can pay to upgrade sir. If not, there is no availability of seats together” “but I booked 3 months ago as a family of 3 + baby, and I checked in online 2 hours after it opened”. “Sir there is nothing I can do, you will have to take this up with reservations” etc etc.).

So, now that I have my wish of sitting together with my family for an extra 4 hours and counting, all I would dearly love to know is what is the best way to obtain any compensation from a non EU airline that appears to have forgotten what a customer is and appears to treat a technical delay as simply another inconvenience… for the staff…Any ideas?

[IanFromHKG]

basslines66, I wish I had seen your post before so I could have looked up some of the information. What I have beenb able to dfind out is that there is no US equivalent of EU261 (which won’t apply in your case since the flight doesn’t originate in the EU and you aren’t on an EU carrier), but United do have some information on their website (http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/travel/policy/Pages/FlightDelaysandCancellations.aspx):

Delays or cancellations within United’s control

For issues within United’s control, such as required maintenance or lack of crew availability, the following amenities may be offered, depending on the length of delay:

Depending upon the duration of the delay, we may offer food and beverages where available. Snack or meal vouchers may be offered in locations where a beverage cart is not available.
For delays that exceed 4 hours, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., customers in a connecting city may be offered complimentary hotel accommodations depending on the amount of time involved and the location of the hotel. Hotel accommodations may not be provided if transportation is offered to or from a nearby airport.
Delays or cancellations that are not within United’s control
For issues not within United’s control, such as inclement weather or air traffic control problems, the following amenities may be offered, depending on the length of delay:

“Delays or cancellations within United’s control

For issues within United’s control, such as required maintenance or lack of crew availability, the following amenities may be offered, depending on the length of delay:

Depending upon the duration of the delay, we may offer food and beverages where available. Snack or meal vouchers may be offered in locations where a beverage cart is not available.
For delays that exceed 4 hours, between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., customers in a connecting city may be offered complimentary hotel accommodations depending on the amount of time involved and the location of the hotel. Hotel accommodations may not be provided if transportation is offered to or from a nearby airport.

Delays or cancellations that are not within United’s control

For issues not within United’s control, such as inclement weather or air traffic control problems, the following amenities may be offered, depending on the length of delay:

Depending upon the duration of the delay, we may offer food and beverages where available. Snack or meal vouchers may be offered in locations where a beverage cart is not available.
If you have to stay overnight, we may be able to give you a distressed passenger rate voucher for a nearby hotel. These discounted rates, when available, will often be lower than those you would receive if you were to contact the hotel directly. Your accommodations will be at your own expense.”

[SimonS1]

Interesting. I’m told by my colleagues who cover the US that United really is the airline of last resort, used only if you are utterly desperate and have no other choice.

If you haven’t seen the unofficial site http://www.untied.com it’s worth a look.

[canucklad]

I’d love to hear Ian’s thoughts on the language that United use, which in my non legal world, make the publishing of their policy, nothing more than an exercise in following some FAA regulation, more ..than a promise to action… so to speak….

May be offered….
Dependant on…..
Dependent upon
May not be…..

Any document that is full of, so called “Weasel words” really tells you, what sort of business you’re dealing with, especially when the differentiation in language between within and out with their control is negligible..

[basslines66]

Excellent (if somewhat worrying) feedback from all, thank you very much. I will definitely try out all of untied.com and possibly more productively the link in the website (thanks ian) and will let you know…

[MartynSinclair]

So my first EU 261 claim. Iberia delayed flight from Madrid to Porto resulted in the following email…

“On this occasion, we were forced to delay the flight due to a fault that our technicians had to repair to ensure the safety of your flight. As it was an extraordinary circumstance that we could not prevent, despite taking all the measures at our disposal, European Community Regulations do not establish any compensation.”

I guess you can not challenge this….. 🙁 – what I was told was the delay was caused during the morning and my late afternoon delay was a “knock on effect”.

[Swissdiver]

Martyn,

you are 8 days late for an April foul joke…

Well I guess it is not one. That said it can of course be challenged given the latest rulings in Europe. The best is to give it to one of these specialised companies that will certainly retain some of the amount but at least you’d avoid the hassle.

[alwaysreadytofly]

my biggest beef in all the EU rules is when BA always says the flight was 9 minutes before the lick in of the compensation. so either 181 minutes on a European flight or 231 minutes on a long haul. this has happened to me 4 times now. I noted on another blog Ian from HK had this too. I am sure there are so many others who get this…

I suspect, BA does this a lot to avoid paying when it is so close to the wire. Refundme etc all go by the time the airline posts the flight arrived, (apparently doors open for disembarking). So even when you have other evidence that the times was over the kick in for compensation it doesn’t carry any weight.

All in all just so frustrating when you suffer the delay, the impact of that on other plans etc….

BA in 8 flights now in the past 4 months were late 6 times, 3 of which should be entitled to comp, but alas, only 1 is they claim and even that they are trying to only pay 50%

[Raffy27]

As stated in the EU Regulation 261/2004, anyone is entitled a flight delay compensation if they suffered flight delay for more than 3 hours. I don’t understand why BA did this.

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