Here’s a heart-warming story for the Thanksgiving holiday: James Thomson and a longtime friend, who is suffering from terminal cancer, ran into trouble with their flights from San Francisco to Bali. One leg of Thompson’s flight was canceled, which threatened to end his friend’s final vacation.
Despite repeated efforts to contact United Airlines, he was getting nowhere.
Would Thompson’s friend miss his last trip?
Here’s the problem:
A longtime friend and traveling companion has been diagnosed with terminal cancer (medullary thyroid cancer). Traditionally, we take a trip someplace warm during the winter. This year we had planned to go to Bali on what will probably be his last trip.
We each separately booked February 2010 flights on United Airlines using Mileage Plus frequent flier miles. Now one leg of my return flight has been canceled, though my friend’s flights have not been affected.
United Airlines tells me I will have to rebook on a different flight on a different day. This flight has only one available seat, which means my friend and I could not travel together.
My friend and I need to be on the same flights, since he requires some assistance due to his weakened medical condition and side effects from medication. Also, he is participating in a clinical cancer drug trial, and has a limited time window during which he can take this trip.
It was nearly impossible to coordinate our original flights, and now United tells me we have to fly on separate flights. If this is the case, my friend will not be able to go.
In a situation like this, I would have advised Thompson to send a brief, polite email to United, asking them to resolve the problem. But he already had.
I have been calling United Airlines every day and have spent hours on the phone trying to solve this problem. Following your advice, I tried emailing United in order to create documentation, but the only way I can find to email them is through their Web site, and the form I submitted bounced back both times I tried.
I purchased this travel through United Airlines, and believe it is their responsibility to solve this problem. They have not done so. I would really like to be able to help my friend go on this one last vacation. Can you please help me?
Now, it’s true that flight schedules can change, and award seats are limited. But once Thompson was confirmed on his flight to Bali, United should have found a way of keeping him on his flight. One problem is that his reservation didn’t appear to be connected to his friend’s, so the airline wouldn’t have known that they were traveling together.
I contacted United on Thompson’s behalf. Less than 24 hours later, I heard back from him.
United Airlines contacted me — an amazing event in itself — and told me the problem had been fixed. My original seat on the original flight has been restored so that my friend and I can travel together.
Without your help, I doubt that United Airlines would have fixed the problem so that I could accompany my friend on what may be his last vacation.
I’m grateful to United for helping these customers. The fact that it happened on Thanksgiving makes it all the more meaningful.
(Photo: Michael Dawes/Flickr Creative Commons)
✓ Get the latest travel news, tips and commentary from Elliott’s E-Mail, the subversive newsletter from consumer advocate Christopher Elliott. You’ll travel like a pro. Sign up here. It’s free.
Similar Posts:
- A refund for the dead?
- American Airlines: A year is actually nine months
- Uh-oh: passenger says United.com doesn’t like hyphenated names
- Travel agent rescues cancer patient’s scuttled cruise
- Socked for my friend’s single supplement
Sign up for my
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
We’re thankful that we have people like you. Thanks for all that you do.
“final vacation” – hard words to read.
Thanks for being such a great advocate!
Why does it take adverse publicity, or the threat thereof, to get people to do the right thing. Now, what did UA do? Did they restore a seat from inventory? Did they overbook the cabin? This is interesting stuff to understand . ..
It would be interesting to know exactly why he was originally bumped. I remember a story a few months back where an awards passenger was bumped from 1st to coach to make room for a deadheading employee. Wonder if this is something similar? Strange that they suddenly found a seat.
Thanks for being such a friend to the traveler. Hope your T-day is special. And that goes for everyone else here, too.
Thanks from this corner down in Dixie, too, Elliot. It’s truly folks like you that make this a better world. I only wish you could have related that United offered a sincere prayer for his “clinical cancer drug trial” to turn out to be a positive step in a possible recovery or, at least, in prolonging his life a while longer. if I ever wished anyone could enjoy a vacation to the nth. degree, this would be the one I’d choose.
That’s the first thing that came to my mind. In reaccomodating the two, someone was probably bumped off as well. Sigh.
Hard choice to make.
I think the best quote here can be extracted from the Cancer Treatment Center of America Commercials with a lady named “Peggy”.
To quote “The doctors told me I had 6 months to live and it was disheartening. When I went to Cancer Treatment Center of America, the doctors told me I didn’t have a stamp on my foot saying when I would expire”.
I hope these two individuals think about this statement. Will you live a few weeks, months, years? Who knows. I am glad Chris did his best to solve what MIGHT be the last trip for this individual. Still, think positive. Doctors can take a guess but like any science, nothing is perfect. I wish you well nad HOPE those experimental treatments will help.
Justin
Probably true, David. But you know, if the airline called me and explained the situation and offered me a flight one day later, I’d give up my seat.
1. It’s the right thing to do.
2. I’d enjoy the trip more knowing I wasn’t the one who denied him his last trip.
And I hope I’m not the only one who would make this call.
Might not every vacation we all take be our last one. That’s why we all need to enjoy every moment of every day. I’m glad you were there to help with this situation Chris. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
The OP doesn’t indicate which flight was cancelled. It may not have been a flight operated by United, which would not be something under their direct control.
It’s possible that United had to work with the carrier providing the actual service on the leg in question, and either had to get their overbooking group to give them another seat, or even buy the seat directly from that carrier.
Either way, kudos to United for fixing the problem under these circumstances.
Chris: A heartwarming pre-holiday story. I hope the friends can enjoy their time in Bali and your assistance made all the difference.
It’s heartwarming that Chris was able to guilt United into doing the right thing, but they were still very wrong to begin with (and not even because one of the travellers was a dying cancer patient). Note that the flight itself wasn’t cancelled — one of the confirmed, booked, frequent flyer tickets was. I suspect there are still seats for sale on both flights, just not in the “free” (no, it’s not really free; you pay up front for the tickets to earn the miles in the first place) category.
Frequent flyer awards always have to be booked separately (if from different accounts); my family has 4 separate reservations for the trip we’re on right now. Once United was notified that it erroneously cancelled the original ticket, it should have accomodated by either reinstating that ticket (if any seats, even paid, were available), or rebooking both of them on the other flight (again, even if only one “free” seat was available). I’d have the same problem — my 4 year old and 6 year old can’t travel on a different flight from my wife and I.
So again, congratulations to Chris for getting the right outcome, but shame on United for messing up a basic thing like this in the first place.
Kudos to United for helping on this one! I don’t think UA flies to Bali, so I am fairly sure it must have been on a codeshare partner. Regular “revenue” tickets may have had a higher priority for rebooking on the partner airline’s flights after a schedule change or cancellation. This, and the separate reservations possibly contributed to the separate routings. For what it is worth, I would have contacted the reservations department after the initial reservations were made and have them reference the other person’s PNR (passenger name record.) Reservations agents would list this as TCP (to complete the party) referencing the other name and record locater. If someone were manually re-booking passengers (as I imagine may happen with limited availability) then they might book the two on identical routings.
@ Eric Smith. I’m with you. For both reasons. Bottom line: “do unto others…” Glad UA found it in their hearts to make this happen.
I don’t know where to start, I am kinda slow,(head trauma).A couple near and dear to me just found out his C/battle is futile,Terminal.He had a marrow
transplant fail last yr.& All the saved cell’s died in freeze. How do i go about
getting this couple a hawiian vacation,or to some where. He has been through
hell, and will again. Any help would be great!!