She missed her grandmother’s funeral — does she deserve a refund for her ticket?

Kimberly Walls missed her grandmother’s funeral. Her United Airlines flight was delayed and she couldn’t make her connection from Denver to Great Falls, Mont.

Should United refund the ticket?

Well, according to the airline’s contract of carriage — the legal agreement between her and the carrier — the answer is “no.”

Rule 240 c) says United will transport Walls on its next flight to Great Falls, but it doesn’t guarantee that it will get her to Great Falls as scheduled.

This kind of thing drives passengers up the walls. Don’t airline schedules represent a guarantee (if not a contract) to transport you to a certain place by a certain time? Strictly speaking, no.

Still, should United refund her ticket, if for no other reason than that it’s good customer service?

Here’s what Walls wrote to United:

I got on a United Express plane in Durango (flight 6137) to Denver. It was running 30 minutes late but I had plenty of time to get the next gate for my plane to Great Falls.

When we arrived in Denver, the pilot said that we would have to wait about 5 minutes for another plane to leave so that we could have their spot. Well, 40 minutes later, I watched out the window as my flight took off for Great Falls! It was the last flight of the night.

The soonest they could get me to Montana was 11:15 a.m. the next day. The funeral was at 9 a.m.

After speaking with several agents, none of whom seemed to want to help any of us (and there were a lot of us!), I found a kind woman that put me in a nice hotel for the night and gave me a voucher for food. However, since I was unable to make the funeral, I asked that she just get me back home to Durango, Colo.

The next morning when I was home, I immediately called United Airlines and talked with someone for about 25 minutes. They finally said that I had to go through Travelocity for the refund. I called Travelocity, and they had to call United Airlines. After about 40 minutes on the phone, they offered to refund 1/2 my money, because they said I took 1/2 the flight!

I explained that I would never have flown to Denver just to sleep in a hotel for 5 hours and then come home, that I wouldn’t have taken this flight in the first place. They said I had to write to United Airlines and see what they say.

I suggested she contact someone higher up at United Airlines, which she did. A few days later I heard back from her:

Just wanted to thank you for the email contact – I contacted them at this address and they have since refunded the full amount! Again, thanks.

United didn’t have to refund the ticket, but I think it was the right thing in this situation.

← Older Comments
  • Bill

    Although not legally required to do so, it was compassionate of United to refund the fare and to cover the hotel.
    It was regrettable that the connection wasn’t made in Denver. I expect it is awkward to show up late for a funeral – people aren’t generally compassionate this way.

    Sincerest condolences to Kimberly Walls and her family.

    Thank you to United for showing some compassion and to Chris for helping her get some.

  • CTP

    @LeeAnn, well said, in both posts!

    Did it really matter that it was a funeral she was trying to attend? (yes, that is absolutely horrible, btw my sympathies to the OP and family) But, what if she had a critical business appointment that came up suddenly without an option for rescheduling. What type of business flyer arrives to an appointment MORE than the day before? This is not mid winter, weather would not normally be an issue in planning this type of trip. Should all travel that has imperative time lines be arranged such that you arrive at least two, maybe three or four days before hand? How absurd!

  • Mary Graham

    Yes, yes, it was nice of United to refund the ticket but the poor young women had to go through “heck” to get it. Given the runaround in her emotional state. This inflexibility on the agents part, comes from the top. Make it so much trouble to get good customer service that maybe they’ll drop the whole thing. How nice it will be when agents are empowered to do the right thing (good customer service), instead of having to go to the very top, after waiting way to long, to get something resolved. Shameful as it is now.

  • Chris in NC

    @ LeeAnne and Chris (Elliott)

    1) The lack of “reading” is not unique to this forum, rather it is quite ubiquitous in society. Although I am very careful reading the article, sometimes, I make mistakes. I have overlooked a fact of the case before. Sometimes I post too quickly and write something that I didn’t intend to write. One of the drawbacks of this site is the inability to “save” or “edit” a post. Its either post it right now, or lose it. A while ago, there used to be a “grace” period when you could edit the post. Can this be re-instated?

    2) Contributing to the problem, posters come from different backgrounds. Reading the comments I surmise that posters fit into one of the following categories: a) experienced travelers (ie those who have extensive experience with travel providers), b) inexperienced travelers (ie those who travel once or twice a year and simply don’t know any better)

    I suspect some of the emotional based comments come from the inexperienced traveler who simply doesn’t know. Case in point, its obvious to me and many others that a cruise to the Bahamas is international travel, but some people REALLY don’t know. Likewise, I’ve done enough air travel to know that airplane food (especially a snack) is nothing to write home about, but to the traveler who books one trip a year, it may be a big issue.

    My goal in writing comments is to highlight my experiences and lessons learned from them. In the context of this case, I avoid traveling on the last flight of the day because I have been burned multiple times by missed connections (even when the weather seems good). Even though the sun is shining in NC and ATL, my connecting flight may be delayed because of a plains blizzard. I realize that the majority of the public doesn’t understand this. I also realize that the terms of the conditions of the airline ticket means that I am out of luck. Its happened to me before, its happened to colleagues. Doesn’t mean that United didn’t do the right thing.

    However, comments like “the couple should do the world a favor and not have any more children” (on the missed cruise blog) are not helpful, don’t provide any learning experience.

    @ Chris (Elliott)
    Your blog is simply experiencing growing pains. The amount of idiotic comments is proportional to the popularity. So, think of this as a complement?!

  • Steve

    I’m glad to hear that United gave her a full refund. IMHO, it shouldn’t take a goodwill gesture to get a refund in cases like this; it should be policy. Yes, you may have “used” half of your ticket in traveling to a hub and back, but clearly the purpose of your trip was to travel to another city that you never made it to. If you can’t make it because of a problem that’s the airline’s fault (ie, not weather-related), then I think they should owe you a refund.

    To all of the commenters saying that she should have budgeted more time into her itinerary, and pointing out that a weather delay could have made her miss the funeral – those are valid points, but they’re irrelevant here. If she had missed her connection and the funeral because of bad weather, I would agree that United only owes her half a refund. But that’s not what happened.

  • Chris in NC

    @ Steve

    It may be irrelevant to how we feel about the case, but it is still a healthy part of the discussion. Part of the value of this column is for readers to be aware of potential pitfalls of travel. For readers who don’t know about the risks of tight connections, after reading this, hopefully they do now.

    If I had booked the same flight, I expect to make the connection. The reality is that for those who travel a lot, we realize that things happen. Even if the weather were perfectly clear, delays occur due to mechanical and ATC, flight crews getting sick, flight crew not getting enough rest between flights, etc.

    Is the OP at fault? Absolutely not. United ultimately did the right thing, but strictly speaking, they didn’t have to.

    But if we have learned anything from the travel industry is that the individual travel has to be proactive sometimes. If even one person who reads this article changes how they book their travel, then this discussion has served its purpose.

    I agree that if you book a trip, and can’t make it to your destination, the airline owes you a refund. Legally, thats not how the CoC is written. Until that is changed, we will continue to see these cases.

  • http://www.cockam.com ajaynejr

    I would say it depends on a variety of circumstances including:

    1. Upon missing your connection and knowing you won’t be able to get to the destination on time, you turn around go right back home. (The refund should be for the entire ticket or tickets.)

    2. You did not schedule the trip so tightly that the slightest delay would result in missing the funeral or meeting or whatever.

    3. How many others who arrived later than you were put on the next flight ahead of you due to elite status or whatever?

  • Sara

    While I sympathize, people need to make sure they leave early in case this happens…weather and waiting cannot always be helped…

← Older Comments