I feel so let down - who can I speak to to recover costs?

Valli

here (post 5)

jojeba wrote: »

We weren't aware we had to clear customs until we landed in Chicago, so we felt the given connecting time was plenty to make our next flight. Even if we had known ahead of time, I would have felt this was sufficient, as most airports allow onward customers to go through a separate queue.

Tozer

Valli wrote: »

here (post 5)

Thanks. Point is though that the OP expected a bit of sense which would be that connecting passengers would benefit from a fast track lane.

The Americans are useless at this sort of thing.

willo65

I agree with Valli the company you booked through shouldn't have left you with such short time in which to changeover and some flights have (I think it's called) code sharing so if the this is the case then the airline would be at fault. First contact the company you booked through.

pinkshoes

If all flights were with United Airlines, and United Airlines were the ones who chose all the flights for you, then I'd say it's THEIR problem! Write to them with copies of receipts, and ask them to pay up.

If you chose the flights and times yourself, and only allowed 1.5 hours for a change over, then you'll have to foot the bill. 1.5 hours isn't enough in the states.

Goldhill

Assuming the flight to Maui was also with United then I would say they were 100% responsible for helping you once you missed the flight.

We experienced a very similar situation in January flying from London to Tulsa via Atlanta with Delta Airlines. We also had a tight connection in Atlanta. The customs clearance took forever and we missed our connecting flight. Delta customer services rebooked us on a flight the following morning, booked a hotel room for us, issued vouchers to cover the cost of the room, dinner and breakfast and provided overnight bags with toiletries and clean t-shirts. We were not alone in this, a number of passengers also missed the flight and were being dealt with in the same way. This was in no way preferential treatment, they were just dealing with a fairly routine situation.

Just my opinion but I would have thought you were entitled to more assistance from United than you received. Also, to the point made earlier, O'Hare is an awful airport to transit through. Add Newark and Los Angeles to that list as well. The southern mid-west airports, Dallas in particular, tend to be a little better (at least in my experience).

jojeba

Thank you so much to all of you who have been supportive; I did try to take it up with United while I was there, but they were all so disinterested. The best I got was that an hour and a half was the "Legal minimum connecting time" (LMCT). So legally they can offer that. But like a lot of you seem to know (as well as I do now) that is not enough time to clear customs, if they're going to make everyone line up in one queue! And yes, all flights were on United.

We encountered about 2 helpful and friendly people out of 15 in our dealings with United. At one point (when I realised I had missed the wedding rehearsal dinner) I burst into tears and - combined with exhaustion of hours spent trying to get on flights - I completely broke down sobbing. But the woman serving us had no bedside manner. I felt like it was all our fault.

I know a lot of people just shrug and claim they make allowances in time on their holidays in case of airline screw ups, but doesn't anyone else think that - (and I feel this way about Royal Mail, come to think of it) - we shouldn't just accept poor service and no help, because we're a captive consumer market? Shouldn't we expect more?

Mark_Hewitt

1.5 hours just is not enough when connecting through US airports, as they treat all arriving passengers the same as if they are leaving at that airport, unlike other countries that have less strigent checks on connecting passengers.

I had a 3 hour connection in Washington DC 5 years ago (I believe it's much worse now), I only just made my flight!

Fact is you should never have been sold flights with such a short connecting time.

isplumm

Hi

I suggest that you look at this site & repost there

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=49

They have a lot of experts who should be able to help.

They also have links with a well known travel lawyer (as I think this is going to go down the small claims route) - so it might be worth finding her number & calling her!!
:mad:

Hope that helps.

Mark

blondierm

Good luck if you are trying to get anything out of United Airlines. Their customer service department is little short of incompetant and uncontactable. The only way to contact them is via email and even then they don't respond for at least 10 days. Even if you do get anything out of them, the most they are likely to offer is a travel certificate for future travel or points for their frequent flyer program. Not very helpful at all.
they have also changed their customer service email address, but not updated the website to reflect this. Thier new customer service email is [EMAIL="customerrelations@united.com"]customerrelations@united.com[/EMAIL]
I have had sucha hard time conatacting them that I'm going sown to Heathrow on monday to complain direct to their desks.

4743hudsonj

i cant see if this has been answered so forgive me if it has but is your holiday/trip ATOL protected? or part of it, if so they could offer good advice and maybe even some compensation although thats a long shot seeing as they havnt even payed of the XL collapse compensation claims