Subject: UA 893 compensation

From: Stephen Kent <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 11:26:48 -0500

Thius is a note for all of the folks who flew on UA 893 on Friday, 
2/27, with the unexpected 24 hour delay via Seattle.

I just got off the phone with UA Customer Service (not Mileage Plus). 
They offered a 5K mile "good will" compensation for our 
inconvenience.  These miles will not count toward Premiere 
Qualification. You could also request some 500 mile domestic upgrades 
as an alternative. They were firm in refusing to offer qualifying 
miles, because they insist that such miles can be offered only as a 
result of paid travel, and we already received miles consistent with 
out paid travel.

Steve

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From: John C Klensin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 12:40:25 -0500

--On Friday, March 05, 2004 11:26 -0500 Stephen Kent
<[email-masked]> wrote:

> Thius is a note for all of the folks who flew on UA 893 on
> Friday, 2/27, with the unexpected 24 hour delay via Seattle.
> 
> I just got off the phone with UA Customer Service (not Mileage
> Plus). They offered a 5K mile "good will" compensation for our
> Qualification. You could also request some 500 mile domestic
> upgrades as an alternative. They were firm in refusing to
> offer qualifying miles, because they insist that such miles
> can be offered only as a result of paid travel, and we already
> received miles consistent with out paid travel.

Steve, and others,

Negotiating about this sort of thing with the airline many of us
love to hate may not be productive or worth the trouble, but,
suppose that, instead of flying you nearly halfway to Taiwan
from SFO and then bringing you back to Seattle and starting
over, you had, e.g., originated in Seattle (assuming they have
such a flight at this time of year), they had equipment problems
and then rebooked you onto a Seattle-LAX flight and then an
LAX-Taipei flight.  Under that situation, they award
(occasionally after some yelling and screaming, but usually
without it) the SEA-LAX-Taipei mileage (you actually took those
flights) and not the shorter SEA-Taipei mileage.  And those
miles count for elite qualification.  This situation is
different, but the difference has to do with the subtle issues
of  flight numbers and segments, not with paid miles flown.

Good luck.
     john

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From: Stephen Kent <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 13:45:19 -0500

>of  flight numbers and segments, not with paid miles flown.

John,

Good suggestion for a line of argument.

Steve