Miki Spitzer writes to DansDeals that he was booked on United flight 90 from Newark to Tel Aviv last night and shared his experience of what happened.
DansDeals reached out to United this morning for comment and this post will be updated if the airline responds.
Per Miki, as passengers were ready to begin boarding, gate agents working the flight announced that there were mechanical issues with their Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. After a lengthy delay, an announcement was made that a replacement plane would be needed and was located, but it would be a 787-9 Dreamliner.
The 787-9 has 48 business class seats, 4 more than the 787-10. It has 21 premium economy seats, the same as the 787-10. However, it only has 39 economy plus seats, 15 less than the 787-10. And it only has 149 economy (minus?) seats, a whopping 50 less than the 787-10.
The gate agent announced they would need about 30 passengers to volunteer to fly the next day, in exchange for a $1,000 flight voucher. After not getting any bites, the agent announced that passengers would be involuntarily bumped off the flight if nobody volunteered as tribute. Federal law requires a cash payment of 400% of the one-way fare, up to $1,550 cash, for involuntary bumps.
Luckily, cooler heads prevailed when that threat didn’t produce any volunteers. The gate agent increased to compensation to $2,500 in United flight vouchers and Miki, along with several dozen other passengers lined up to accept that offer. Assuming that 30 was the final number of passengers needed, that would mean United issued some $75,000 in flight credits to those volunteers!
The Electronic Travel Certificate (ETC) vouchers were printed on the spot and given to each volunteer:
(Pro tip: These ETC vouchers can be used an unlimited number of times by anyone until the funds are exhausted and actually expire 30 days after the printed expiration date. There are also ways to extend them further. You can read more about ETCs in this post and in this post).
They were also given several meal vouchers (here’s how to save those for future use), transportation and hotel vouchers, and offered their choice of United flight 84 or 90 today.
Miki tried to get an upgrade as well, which is something I’ve been able to negotiate for volunteering for a bump, but he was turned down for that. But hey, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!
The flight wound up taking off at 2:26am, and arrived 3 hours late into Tel Aviv today, at 7:20pm local time.
Why didn’t United just cancel the flight? That would also have disrupted passengers flying home from Tel Aviv. But it also would have been far more costly due to Israel’s aviation services law. If passengers to or from Israel arrive at their destination more than 8 hours late, the airline must pay out 1,440 shekels ($392) for flights up to 2K kilometers, 2,310 shekels ($629) for flights up to 4.5K kilometers, or 3,460 shekels ($942) for flights more than 4.5K kilometers. Those numbers are adjusted annually for inflation.
As of last year at least, United also offered the option of taking a $1,200 travel voucher or 60K miles instead of the cash compensation for the long-haul flight.
United’s 787-10 holds 318 passengers and the 787-9 holds 257 passengers. If we assume that the flight was booked to 287 passengers each way (the 787-9 capacity plus 30), that would mean paying out some $540,708 in cash compensation.
Opting to pay out some $75,000 in flight credits is a bargain compared to that!
If only the US kept airlines honest like that in case of lengthy delays…
I’m just impressed that the flight crew didn’t time out.
Were you bumped off United flight 90 last night?
HT: yandmk and @mikispitzer
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48 Comments On "After Newark-Tel Aviv Mechanical Issue Forces Aircraft Downgauge, United Pays Out About $75,000 To 30 Passengers Volunteering To Get Bumped"
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I’ve never been in this type of situation. If you take the first offer ($1,000), then later they bump it up to $2,500, are you out of luck? E.g. should I wait and see when critical mass starts going up to accept the offer (assuming my schedule is flexible)?
Depends on the agent, I think in most cases they process the compensation at the end and will round everyone up to the highest offer. After all, they don’t want people reneging on the volunteer offer based on other passengers getting more.
But YMMV.
We had a flught from Seattle to NY through Atlanta. We got $200 less and the gate agent refused to match. We had five in our group and were offered a direct flight so didn’t want to say forget it.
After the flight, I reached out to the airline and was told there is nothing they can do, it’s all the gate agent. This was in 2014.
So if you think about it, your obstinate gate agent, who can surely read a ticket as well as you can – well understood that you and your family of five were receiving an *upgrade* in your schedule. For this upgrade, the airline (I’m glad you didn’t mention a name :-)) was *paying* you $ on five tickets – an amount you already agreed to. And now you like a sweetener on top of that $ x 5. Hmm 🙂
IME everyone who volunteers got the highest price. I’ve asked GAs when volunteering and they said that even if I accept $500 but the highest offer is $1000, I’ll get the highest offer.
I have been on this UA90 flight in the past. One that occasion we took off, flew 2 hours out and then flew back due to “mechanical issue”. Everyone was irritated and we were all moved to the next night and went out 30 minutes prior to the regularly scheduled flight
Wow
I wonder why they cancelled flight 91 today instead of just flying the 787-9 back to Newark?
It was renamed flight 3046, operated by the 787-9:
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL3046/history/20240709/2035Z/LLBG/KEWR
United switch a EWR-LHR 767 to a 757, bumped most business class passen to economy
Still waiting for refund from AC……. waiting since may
File a DOT complaint?
dan maybe take down that picture of the voucher anyone could use it.
I’d love to hear how you can use the ETC without the ETC PIN. 😀
Oops
I was on 91 tonight that was cancelled, booked for tomorrow night . What will they reimburse ?
You should qualify for the Israeli aviation services credit of 3,460 shekels. Write to United to claim that.
I guess they renamed flight 91 to flight 3046 to avoid paying IDB compensation?
Is there anything I can get out of United regarding United’s cancellation pesach time?
How doit avoid IDB compensation? (Sorry for my ignorance)
P.s. the EU law offers much higher compensation
After not getting any bites, the agent announced that passengers would be involuntarily bumped off the flight if nobody volunteered as tribute. Federal law requires a cash payment of 400% of the one-way fare, up to $1,550 cash, for involuntary bumps.
Why didn’t they actually exercise this threat, which would have bean much cheaper or them?
1. The fed publishes those stats and it looks bad for an airline to have too many IDBs.
2. Flight credits will have some breakage vs cash which does not.
3. There’s a decent chance that when they use the ETC on a later flight that seat would have been otherwise unfilled, so some of those ETCS will end up costing nothing
4. Ever since David Dao, airlines are much more hesitant to IDB because it creates ill will. The people who volunteer and get this are going to be “I love United! I got $2500 in credit!” Whereas the person who they IDB for $1500 is going to be mad potentially because there was something they absolutely needed to be at.
The issue with Israel Aviation Service law is that there is no way to enforce it.
If the airline denies your claim, ur out of luck
There are agencies that can fight for you.
Do you know of any names?
I reached out to one I found on Google, but got no reply.
I’m trying to get $$ for schedule change causing delay but United is claiming “special circumstances” bec of the war…
Moshe Fuld
Whatsapp +972 52-650-3775
Have you personally had success?
Also, does he speak English?
Thanks
he charges you 50%, you dont need him. he is a lawyer. do it youserlf and take all %. you can !
I’ve done it many times.
WhatsApp +972535311277 or call/text 302-751-6398
Aaron
I’m expecting a denial for flights last week based on that claim. The Israeli law is much more strict than the European one, explicitly requiring that it not only be out of their control but that no matter what they did they couldn’t possibly avoid it. In this case, the cancellation is entirely discretionary, their own decision, given that the airport/airspace aren’t closed, no regulatory authority ordered the cancellations, and as proof, other airlines are still flying (and not only just El Al/Arkia/Israir, but other international airlines, including major ones such as Air France). Assuming they do indeed deny it, I fully intend to file a suit in Small Claims Court, and in that case not only will I be suing for the ~₪3,400, but they can also be held liable for statutory damages of up to ₪11,000 and change. Arguably even if they do pay those damages may apply anyway because of their failure to offer me a choice of an alternative flight ticket, instead forcing a refund (or irrelevant rerouting), but if they refuse to pay the compensation the case is much more clear cut.
Where will you file that?
It’s gonna have to be in Israel…
I was on a United flight with a layover that did not land in time for the connecting flight to TEL Aviv sure to weather conditions and I was told that there were no more flights to TEL Aviv that week. We ended up sitting around for hours until eventually we got rebooked with another long stop over. Am I entitled to that compensation that you mentioned?
I don’t think so, but it can’t hurt to ask.
Like always, great reporting.
Thanks!
I’m considering booking on United for my son to yeshiva. But every other post I think, For sure! and then, No way! and it keeps going back and forth. Has United generally been reliable?
Generally, yes.
But all bets are off if there’s a war in the north.
You write that united came out cheaper this way vs. canceling the flight, but there is a also a customer satisfaction element where here there are 30 very happy customers plus the remaining 250 are happy, vs canceling a flight and you have 300 unhappy customers.
Oh or is that something United doesn’t even take into consideration
Bottom line always comes first for airlines.
Is the $1,200 travel voucher considered a Electronic travel certificate or a future flight credit?
ETC
Would be nice if there was something like the Israeli law here in the USA. Last week (7/2), I had two daughters flying UA EWR-DTW. Flight was delayed and ultimately cancelled. Blamed on weather related delays on incoming aircraft. Huge mess trying to figure things out. Decided to rebook PHL-DTW via ORD the next morning. One daughter was going to continue on to DTW, the next get off in ORD.
Woke up early, drove almost 2 1/2 hrs to PHL. When I was 25 minutes from home! got a message it’s delayed! This time they claimed an issue with the brakes. The flight just kept getting delayed until finally cancelled. Literally 24 hours of not a stitch of anything done other than dealing with this mess. All I got was lousy food vouchers! Any point calling CS for refund?
If the flight was canceled and you chose not to be rebooked further, you are entitled to a refund to original method of payment. For the second cancellation, you are also entitled to a hotel room if the delay from that was overnight.
I chose to rebook. It’s just amazing that they get away with murder with seemingly no consequences. They actually provided an electronic voucher for a hotel (for the first night). Can that be used at a later time though? It was for one of a few (fairly lousy) hotels in the PHL area and I thought can only be used that night.
Why couldn’t they force them off and pay only $1550? Why did they continue making higher offers to get volunteers?
https://www.dansdeals.com/more/news/airline-news/newark-tel-aviv-mechanical-issue-forces-aircraft-downgauge-united-pays-75000-30-passengers-volunteering-get-bumped/#comment-1717582
My flight UA91 was cancelled last March 2023 right before takeoff at 11pm and we’re all placed on a flight the next day….we immediately got options for $200 ETC…..(no vouchers for hotel or food). I fought via email for a few months and wound up getting the original $200 ETC plus $1200 ETC plus a check for $266 for hotel and food.
Related topic, but domestic. FLL-JFK AA flight was delayed prior to boarding for 6 hours (2 hours, gate change, then 2 hour delay and another 2 hr delay) then they canceled the flight. No rebook option was available for 2 days, no meal or hotel voucher were given since it was “due to weather”, despite other airlines taking off without issue. We overheard the crew – It was actually a mechanical issue but they denied that. We called c/s and were rebooked for next day on JetBlue. We asked they phone agent to invoke a code (forgot what it was called) to transfer the ticket to another non partner airline, which they did. Had to stay at area hotel and got no compensation at all. Is this worthy of compensation?
I was on the flight. I originated from Miami and connected to flight 90.
I am a 1K frequent flyer. Within 15 minutes of plane change I received an email from united telling me of a seat change for my business class ticket keeping the original window seat request. I was the exception. There was confusion at the gate with agents and Contradicting announcements. To their credit they brought out plenty of free snacks and bottled water. They had all the kosher food requests and my luggage arrived.
I wonder if they will repeat the status offer to keep status for another year due to not flying the TLV route for more than six months.