Update to our United flight from Sydney

Not sure if you remember but one of our multiple flight changes from United was the cancellation of our flight from Auckland. Not a reschedule, canceled!

So instead of staying 4 more days in New Zealand to be able to get seats together on an Air New Zealand flight, we elected to keep our original dates but fly home from Sydney, Australia. Of course this cost us for the flight and a visa to enter Australia but it got us home on the day we had planned. And yes United said they wouldn’t pay for the “inconvenience”! After all, you are going to make it home so what’s the big deal!

Well once we got home I sent United a bill for the costs we incurred for the “inconvenience” fully expecting to end up in small claims court for the $590.00 we spent to get to Sydney. It was actually a little less because I included our hotel in Sydney which was a wash because we needed a hotel in Auckland if our flight hadn’t been canceled. Still, why not include everything and let United tell me what they won’t pay for.

To my surprise, United came back with the offer of $600.00 in flight certificates, unrestricted flight certificates, for the “inconvenience”. Collette and I discussed this and decided that the offer was acceptable and more than covered the costs we incurred for the “inconvenience”.

Didn’t take long to use these certs, flying to San Jose, California to see our niece graduate high school and it only cost us $200.00. Maybe United has had enough bad press lately……

Moral of the story, never take the first “no” as the answer and never just give up. The few minutes you take to send a complaint or request for reimbursement most times will pay off.