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United Airlines ripped me off

Ken from Vegas

In September of last year, I booked two business class tickets for my June 2020 Tauck tour of Ireland at a cost of $6000. When I saw that the tour wasn't likely to go, I postponed it to August (wishful thinking). United allowed me to change the tickets without a change fee, as was their policy at the time. What they didn't tell me on the phone, was that the new flights had a value of $4400 (it was on the new tickets that they later e-mailed me, but unfortunately I didn't notice that at the time). When my August flights got cancelled, they only refunded the $4400. I put in a refund request for the other $1600, but it was denied. Their justification is that when they waived change fee they also stopped issuing any refund or credit for lower priced tickets. So I'm out $1600 and have nothing to show for it.

FAA regulations require a full refund for cancelled flights. So I will be filing a consumer complaint with them. I'm not holding out much hope.

The moral of this story is to be very careful when rescheduling flights. Ask if they are changing the value of the ticket. If I had known that they were devaluing my tickets, I would have waited for them to cancel the flight and gotten a full refund for the original tickets.

The flight attendants always end their deplaning speech with, "We know you have a choice and we thank you for choosing United." You can bet I won't be choosing United in the future if there is another option.

Comments

AlanS

I may be wrong and haven't flown other than Delta, but the last I heard, US airlines were ranked: Delta #1, AA #2, and United a distant #3.

A few months ago, I found better flights for this year's XMAS Mkts, so I thought I would give Delta a call and see if I could take advantage of the COVID change policy. I asked to me changed to the new flights. Delta said they couldn't make the change, but could cancel the original tickets, re-book me on the new flights and refund the difference. Not only were the new flights better they were cheaper. Too bad we probably won't get to use them.

BKMD

Ken - did you file a dispute with your credit card company?

I once read an article where some airline exec laughed off the "I'll never fly xxx again." He said people have short memories and even if they do remember, they will run out of airlines to choose from if they fly regularly.

JohnS

We have over $13K in e certificates good until mid 2022 with United plus almost 300K in frequent flier miles. I guess I am stuck using them or any Star Alliance code share airlines for a while.

mil

That's United! worst airline ever.......

Ken from Vegas

After several months I finally got a refund from United. After being turned down twice by them, I filed a complaint with the DOT. DOT sent me back an e-mail saying that they couldn't force a refund (didn't meet their authority), but they would refer the matter back to United. I didn't hold out much hope for a positive result. Today, I got an e-mail from a United customer care DOT specialist that they would be refunding the remaining cost of my tickets. Hooray! Now I can put United back on my "OK to fly this airline" list.

The moral of this story is that if you can't get a good result from the airline at first, file a complaint with DOT. It gets their attention.

MCD

Ken, does that apply to carriers based outside of the US? Lufthansa is still on my s**tlist, and many of the United bookings include Lufthansa.

BKMD

Ken from Vegas
Now I can put United back on my "OK to fly this airline" list.

You are more forgiving than I would be. I still won't buy a GM car after the garbage they sold me in the 70s and 80s.

Claudia Sails

Bkmd, my first car purchase was a Chevy Vega. Ever since if someone tried to guilt trip me about a Honda, Toyota, etc I owned ("but they aren't American" - even when actually built here) I'd say I'd paid my dues to Detroit.

Ken from Vegas

MCD asked: Ken, does that apply to carriers based outside of the US?

Not sure of your exact issue, but DOT has authority over airlines flying to, from or within the US. If you have a ticket related issue and the ticket was issued by a US carrier or for a series of flights by a foreign carrier originating or ending in the US, they should have jurisdiction. The DOT Consumer website is here:

https://transportation.gov/airconsumer

MCD

Thanks, Ken. I was made whole by Tauck's insurance, so I'm not going to pursue Lufthansa (who still hasn't gotten back to me in 6 months). I will take my revenge by never flying them again and letting others know why.