I just received an email in my inbox offering me 30,000 United MileagePlus miles in compensation for the operational woes this week that upended my trip to Newark and wasted hours of my time. It is a nice gesture.
United Airlines Promises Me 30,000 Miles After Operational Woes Lead To Cancelled Flight
The email below just arrived from Linda Jojo, United’s Chief Customer Officer:
Dear Matthew,
I know this week was hard. Really bad weather, air traffic control issues and some of our own operational challenges led to a rough experience for you and many of our customers.
Because this was a unique series of events and your travel plans were significantly disrupted, we’d like to give you and any other travelers on your reservation 30,000 free MileagePlus miles each. You’ll get an email from us next week with simple steps to claim your miles.
Miles never expire and can be used for flights, Wi-Fi, onboard food and drinks, seat upgrades and more.
Providing these miles is the right thing to do. After all, you put your trust in us and expect more.
Running an airline means managing things that are in our control and being ready to adapt to things that aren’t, and I’m confident that we can be better at both moving forward.
I know you have options when you fly, so thank you for choosing United. We look forward to welcoming you on board soon.
Linda Jojo
Chief Customer Officer
United Airlines
I am thankful for this offer, which recognizes the value of my time, and will take it. After all, I sat for five hours at LAX enduring a rolling delay on a flight that ultimately cancelled.
This won’t repair the damage that has been done to United’s reputation this week, but it will begin the process of repairing it. Compensation is very much appropriate here and should be seen as a tacit admission that it was not factors beyond United’s control that ultimately snowballed operations into a state of chaos this week.
I will follow-up on this post once the next email from United arrives.
Did you receive any promise of mileage compensation from United Airlines for your flight delay or cancellation?
30K miles as well – two cancellations on outbound this week, return had a ~15 hour delay home (pushed 12 hours to overnight right at boarding due to crew rest), got lucky with final standby seat on a different delayed flight
You received the 30k miles because you have a popular column. I have been through many more uncomfortable delays and excuses and have never gotten anything. Most travelers would not get the attention from “Linda” that you got.
From: Million Mile UA traveler.
Not true – many on FlyerTalk have reported receiving these miles.
2 cancellations and I lost track of how many delays – one was over 7 hours- getting out of CLT last week on what was originally a non-stop FC flight to IAH. Got home 36 hours later than scheduled after being re-booked 2x on flights with connections thru ORD.Yes, they did give me hotel accommodations for cancelled flight #2 as they cancelled very late in the evening. I was given a $100 voucher “for my next flight” for my trouble. Seriously??
More glorious MileagePlus devaluations incoming is what I see here.
That was my first thought.
It’s like when they gave people the stimmy (x3) but the $2 Wendy’s JBC is now $3 lol
My original flight got canceled Sunday but I rebooked for the same day and it luckily actually flew albeit 7 hrs delayed…not enough suffering so no miles for me.
I spent 26 hours in Denver airport Monday. Delay, delay, delay and finally a 1:15 am cancellation. No email so far!
Are you a MileagePlus member?
Yes, I am Milage Plus. I am also 1k! And I was canceled out in Denver again on my return, June 30th and had to get a room for overnight.
Hi Richard- I was also delayed in Denver for hours and ultimately cancelled on BOTH LEGS of my trip (6/27 and 6/30). I am a mileage plus member and have not received an email. I was traveling to see my dying sister and the delay cost me precious hours with her while she was still conscious. I am livid. On 6/27 I spent night on the floor of Denver airport. On return leg 6/30 I was able to find a hotel room and purchased a ticket DEN-BOI because the Customer Service line was hours long and there was no way to rebook online. It was a complete mess.
Boarded a flight in St Thomas USVI after a 4 hour delay on August 25 only to have the pilot time out, and we had to de-plane and spend the night. My wife and I received travel vouchers to our hotel, meal vouchers and $150 each for a hotel for the evening. In addition, I received $250 as a 1K in an apology email and my wife who is gold received $200 in travel credits.
My sympathies. I missed my mother’s funeral under similar circumstances some years ago.
Miles galore, explanations, apologies, ….. All hands on deck to save his ass!!!!
30,000 miles is worth approximately $350. Doesn’t cover my hotel, meals or missed work days. I probably will never use them either. I can’t see booking with United again.
Can I use those 30K United MileageMinus points towards a flight on the private jet service that Kirby used to slither away from EWR?
8-hour delay out of Denver, and three canceled flights to then be rerouted to Newark when our destination was LaGuardia. $120 Uber to LuGuardia the following day to pick up our rental car. Million Miler 1k and no email…2 in my party. I guess thanks for nothing…
As alluded to above, all that does is add more people with more miles chasing the same number of allotted seats in that inventory. Makes it worse not better.
We will wait for the email. Perhaps we will have a travel voucher offer instead, which I would prefer.
I was stuck in the airport for 3 days and have not received any compensation!
I am a mileageplus member and I satin Atlanta for 13 hours trying to get to Newark. I missed my flight to Johannesburg and was not able to go on safari. I originally had a ticket from Atlanta to Joburg my flight from Jacksonville was cancelled Monday rerouted Wed and missed safari. Had to buy a last minute ticket home on southwest. No compensation for missing safari years in the planning.
EWR to SEA, Business Ticket 757-200 lie flat.
Monday, Day 1: 8:00a On tarmac to take off, pilot crew times out. Flight delayed over 14 hours due to back and forth of flight attendants and pilots timing out on opposite schedules, ultimately canceled at 11:00p. Thousands in line at customer service, found a work around and rebooked for Wednesday. No luggage if you rebooked.
Tuesday, Day 2: Kept searching through the night, got booked on a noon flight, back at airport at 10:00a. Multiple delays and ultimately cancelled 11:00p.
Wednesday, Day 3: Confirmed 6:00a flight, boarded and captain announcements in progress- plane gets T-BONED BY THE LUGGAGE RAMP VEHICLE!!! Deplane, run over to only other flight leaving that day at 8:30a, got on standby in Coach 38E (middle seat) due to having had a business ticket. Home, no luggage with medication in it.
Thursday, Day 4: luggage arrives at 6:00p.
Yes, I got the email with the 30k miles, but doesn’t even come CLOSE to covering the difference in the tickets booked, let alone Ubers, hotel 2 nights, missing works for 3 days, flight experience, inconvenience … I have claims in as well, but 30k is a joke relative to this past week.
You received the 30k miles because you have a popular column. I have been through many more uncomfortable delays and excuses and have never gotten anything. Most travelers would not get the attention from “Linda” that you got.
From: Million Mile UA traveler.
@ Matthew — Wow, so we cancelled and reboked twice this week to avoid United’s mess (paying more to fly another airline and spendig 5 hours on the phone), and we get nothing? Nice. What was their excuse when they screwed us three weeks ago when it rained for 5 seconds at EWR? Where was our compensation then?
I don’t know that all emails have gone out, but I’ll ask UA who gets to and who does not.
Any confirmation on who got the email for the miles? Our flight from IAD to AUS via IAH which was scheduled for 10 pm was delayed to 1:45 am on 6/28 and then finally cancelled. Had to wait hours at IAD to speak with customer service to see about being rebooked. Was finally able to get flights out but not until 7/1 (3 days later). No hotel vouchers or meal vouchers were given. Did not receive any email about the extra miles. Have been trying to get ahold of United to ask and I keep getting told that we don’t qualify because our flight was rebooked. Seriously?
You should not be precluded because flight was rebooked.
Thanks, that’s what I thought. They keep denying my request for the miles and can’t get them to give me something in writing that states the actual guidelines for denying their claim. Any idea who I could reach out to?
This is turning out to be a lesson on Inflation and supply and demand – United miles continue to be devalued because United has been doing everything it possibly can to hand them out en masse with their cobranded cards – and THIS isn’t helping
If EWR gets so backed up with thunderstorms, maybe the answer is to bus passengers to IAD or fly full 767’s to IAD.
Got the same email yesterday. Premier Silver here, making their status the hard way via 2-hour trips. 26 segments so far in 2023 and still 500 PQD short of requalifying as a Silver for 2024. My story is I was checked in for a 3:59pm EWR-ATL flight Weds, which was cancelled, and notified by text at 10pm Tuesday night. Didn’t see the notification for an hour, and by then, the only alternatives were well down the stand-by lists on all of two flights leaving earlier, which did not work with my schedule Weds. So I cancelled (still waiting for the refund to show up on my CC), and drove Thursday afternoon/evening into the night. 13:40 and 869 miles od windshield time door to door instead of the usual 6:30. I get to drive back on 7/4 instead of flying that night so this meltdown makes it not much of a family holiday weekend. At least I had the driving option in my own car to fall back on, and didn’t incur any delay related costs, except for the net 14 hours total of my time.
I submitted a written claim for hotel, meals, difference in businesses/economy fare. We will see if United delivers.
I don’t expect ANYTHING from ANY airline (and especially not the food. LOL) except for the fact that they should get me from Point A to Point B, in a reasonable amount of time and comfort, which is what I essentially paid for. Yes, it was a nice gesture, the 30k miles, and I will use them.
Maybe only those who have flown in the past week, get the bonus miles, I don’t know.
Would someone be kind enough to post the link to where I can apply for the MileagePlus miles? (it should be the same link in the email).
I also experienced disruptions on UA from Newark but I flew them on Friday (6/23). My flight was heavily delayed due to storms and the FAA short staffing (according to UA and the pilots). I didn’t get an email though about the bonus miles, likely since the meltdown started a day later. But I also credited my flight to Turkish’s FF program. I’d love to be able to apply though to see what happens. If anyone can post the link, I’d greatly appreciate it 🙂
I emailed them about the issues and I called and spent over an hour on the phone with them. They didn’t give me 30,000 points and are saying that the only people who get the 30,000 points are the people who had to take a flight the next day or flights were cancelled and they didn’t rebook. So it does look like you got 30,000 points cuz you have platform for the rest of us we get 2500 points
My son and I were flying from Newark to Detroit on Wednesday. My flight was canceled. I spoke to a representative at the airport and they said no flights for my route until Sunday! I rented a car and drove. They offered us the miles but I feel I should be compensated for my expenses as well.
My experience this weekend has left me frustrated to no end.
Delay EWR to SAN, 2 times to technical issue, then a gate change with no announcement.
SAN to EWR by way of Washington DC, flight cancelled, rebooked then cancel due to severe thunderstorms.
Rebooked on red eye, to EWR 2 days late.
United needs to do better.
I’m a Milage Plus customer who was canceled twice from Madison, WI to Las Vegas, NV beginning on June 27th and finally arriving in Vegas on June 29th. I have n9t heard one peep from United Airlines about any compensation miles.