$700 richer: My easy UK261 claim experience with United Airlines

All of us on the Frequent Miler team met up in Colorado a few week ago to work on some new website functionality. None of us live in Colorado which meant we all had to fly in, with my journey being the longest seeing as I was coming from the UK.

Even if my journey wasn’t already due to be the longest, it certainly would’ve ended up that way as my flight was cancelled and I didn’t arrive until more than 24 hours later than originally planned.

The good thing is that due to the reason for the flight cancellation and the fact that I was flying out of the UK, I was able to submit a UK261 claim with United Airlines and received almost $700 in compensation, not to mention having my hotel and meals covered by United that night.

The UK261 claim process with United was extremely easy and hassle-free (once I’d discovered where to submit the claim). As a result, if you ever find yourself in a similar position I’d highly recommend making the minimal effort necessary in order to become ~$700 richer, rather than letting it go because you think it might take too much effort.

Here’s more about my experience making a UK261 claim with United.

What is UK261?

You might be familiar a similarly-named regulation called EU261. Without going into too much detail, it’s a consumer protection that provides compensation if your flight is delayed by many hours, or if it’s cancelled and you don’t arrive at your destination until several hours later. Tim and Nick have both made EU261 claims before, so I’d recommend reading those posts if you ever have a delayed/cancelled flight in or out of an EU country:

• My EU261 compensation claim for a Finnair flight booked with Alaska Atmos rewards (Nick)
• How I got over $1400 for a delayed flight: A guide to EU261 claims (Tim)

The thing is, the UK is no longer part of the EU and so EU261 legislation doesn’t apply there unless your flight is to or from an EU country. However, for consumer protection and regulatory stability for businesses post-Brexit, the UK government maintained many of the EU laws and regulations by creating equivalent UK ones. One of the maintained regulations was EU261, with the UK version thus being named UK261.

The way it works is that if your flight out of the UK is delayed, or if it’s cancelled and you’re rebooked on a flight where you arrive at least three hours late, you’ll receive the following compensation:

• Flights less than 1,500 km = £220 (~$290)
• Flights 1,500km-3,500km = £350 (~$462)
• Flights 3,500km+ for delays of more than 3 hours, but less than 4 hours = £260 (~$343)
• Flights 3,500km+ for delays of 4+ hours = £520 (~$687)

Similar compensation applies for flights in to the UK, but only if you’re traveling on a UK airline. For example, if you fly from New York to London on Virgin Atlantic and it’s delayed by three or more hours, you’ll be eligible for compensation. However, you won’t be eligible for the same compensation if the same thing happens when flying from New York to London with Delta, although it would apply with Delta on flights departing the UK.

There are various other aspects to the UK261 regulation, such as refunds if your delay is 5+ hours, as well as a flight back to your first point of departure where applicable if you choose not to proceed with your trip, or to be rerouted. There are also rules regarding what happens if you’re denied boarding; you can find the full details here.

Be aware that compensation is only available in situations that are deemed to be caused by the airline in one way or another. That includes mechanical issues, not enough flight attendants, pilot sickness, etc. However, if your flight is delayed due to something like bad weather, an air traffic control stop, hitting a bird during take-off, etc., you’re not eligible for compensation.

What led to my UK 261 claim

I arrived at Heathrow with enough time to head to a United Club lounge before my flight, redeeming one of the two one-time lounge passes from my United℠ Explorer Card. I’d initially questioned my decision to use a lounge pass that morning seeing as I was only due to have about 45 minutes before needing to head to the gate. However, there was subsequently an announcement that my flight had been delayed and so I was grateful that I’d made the decision to hang out there.

About 90 minutes later it was time to board, so I walked to the gate and everything seemed fine at first. Although there had been an initial delay in boarding, we were still due to arrive within about an hour of the original scheduled time. We taxied out towards the runway, but the captain announced over the radio that there was some kind of mechanical issue. Our gate had since been taken, so he said we’d be pulling off to the side while waiting for mechanics to come fix the issue.

As the minutes and then hours ticked by, I realized that UK261 compensation might become a factor, so I googled the exact rules while we waited. By the time the issue was fixed, our flight was due to land in Denver at 7:35pm. The originally scheduled arrival time was 3:30pm which meant a delay of marginally over four hours. That would mean compensation of £520, but if we made up six minutes in the air that compensation would drop to £260 due to the reduced compensation if delayed more than three but less than four hours. Needless to say, I was hoping for strong headwinds.

In the end, that was all moot. After the mechanics fixed the problem we taxied back towards the runway, only for the captain to announce that the same issue had cropped up again and so they’d have to cancel the flight. It took a little while before we could return to a gate though as there wasn’t one available for us.

United’s immediate resolutions: solid

Before we knew for sure that the flight would be cancelled, I’d been checking out Google Flights, Seats.aero, AwardTool, etc. to look at my alternative transportation options to Denver. There was pretty much nothing available that day seeing as it was an afternoon flight, so I knew that if our flight was cancelled, I wouldn’t be flying until the next day.

Ultimately that wasn’t a huge issue as I was due to arrive a day earlier than needed anyway. Part of the reason was because the Saturday flight was several hundred bucks cheaper than the Sunday flight, and partly so that if there was some kind of delay/cancellation, it wouldn’t impact on work time.

Even before the announcement that the flight was cancelled, flight attendants came up the aisles and handed all passengers a form detailing our rights under UK261 regulations. I’d thought that I would need to specifically ask for this, so I was impressed that it was proactively provided given how costly it’d be for United and the fact that at the time, it was only a delay rather than a cancellation.

After the announcement that our flight was cancelled, we once again pulled off to the side while waiting for a gate to become available. They shared that we’d all be rebooked on alternative flights and that our options would soon be available on the United website and the app, or we could see an agent once back at the terminal.

I kept refreshing the app until the alternative options showed up. There was a nonstop flight from London to Denver the following day with a handful of spaces left on it, all of which were middle seats (I was flying economy on the way there). While not ideal, I tried to select one of those. However, I was apparently slower than half a dozen other passengers on the plane because I subsequently got a message stating that the flight was now fully booked.

That left me with numerous other choices the following day, but unfortunately those all had a connection rather than being nonstop. I selected one that left at midday the next day, routing via Newark. That had several different seating options, but I chose to pay for an Economy Plus aisle seat in an exit row for more comfort. I paid with a Business Platinum Card® from American Express as I’d selected United for airline fee credits. I’d unfortunately not loaded my TravelBank balance before that stopped working, so it was a weird feeling utilizing the credit for one of its actual intended uses. A statement credit from Amex arrived a couple of days later.

While waiting on the tarmac, a flight attendant announced that we’d be provided with accommodation for the night, as well as meals. Once we were back in the building, we’d be provided with a sheet detailing where we’d be staying, then we’d have to go collect any bags that we’d checked before making our way to the hotel.

I’d anticipated them putting us up in one of the many dozens of hotels on the perimeter of the airport, so I wasn’t looking forward to having the hassle of catching a bus or Hotel Hoppa to whichever hotel I was assigned to. Thankfully that wasn’t an issue, for many of us at least. It sounds like United put up most of us at one of the four hotels connected to Terminal 4: Hilton, Premier Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and the Crowne Plaza. Although that requires a (free) train from Terminal 2 (which United flies out of) to Terminal 4, it’s an easy enough process.

It sounds like many of the passengers who got off the plane before I did ended up in the Premier Inn, Holiday Inn Express, or the Crowne Plaza. By the time I received my sheet, I discovered that I’d be staying at the Hilton. I was happy about this because I’d stayed at the other three in the past, so I was looking forward to seeing what the Hilton was like.

It seems I lucked out because I received one of the last Hilton sheets and based on a conversation I overheard, they didn’t have more for the couple of other dozen passengers behind me. I’m sure they were all provided accommodation for the night, but I imagine it was for a hotel not connected to Terminal 4.

Complimentary accommodation for the night: Hilton London Heathrow Airport Terminal 4

After grabbing my suitcase (I was bringing chocolate Easter eggs for the team and various other British snacks for our work sessions, then stocking up on US goodies to bring back with me to the UK), I made my way to the Hilton. At the front desk I showed them the form provided by United:

Although I had to provide a credit card for any incidentals charged to the room, my dinner that night and breakfast in the morning would be covered by United. I knew it was unlikely given that it would’ve been booked using a special rate, but I asked if it was possible to add my Hilton Honors account number to the stay in the hope that I’d earn points. As expected, the front desk agent stated that wasn’t possible which was fine.

With that, I made my way up to the room. I won’t be publishing a full review of the stay, but the room was perfectly fine and was large enough to not feel completely cramped if you have a few suitcases with you. The bathroom had a spacious walk-in shower with both rainfall and handheld showerheads.

There are a couple of restaurants where my dinner that night was included; one was OXBO and I forgot what the other one was called. While both of those have comprehensive menus for regular paying guests, there’s a different menu for guests who are being put up by an airline following a flight cancellation.

I ate at OXBO and this was the menu. You can choose two courses as well as a soft drink (I’m not sure if complimentary drink refills are provided; I suspect not as that’s not very common in the UK).

Although I love curry, I’d had that for dinner a night or two before, plus I figured that might not be a wise choice before a longer-than-originally-anticipated travel day the next day. As a result, I ordered the OXBO burger. The sticky garlic squid sounded tasty, but that would be too much food with the burger and fries, so I ordered the ice cream for dessert instead.

The burger was a bit better than I was expecting and the fries were decent.

As mentioned earlier, breakfast was included the next morning too. That was buffet-style and had a good selection of items to fill up on before I headed back to Terminal 2.

My flight from London to Newark the next day was uneventful. My flight from Newark to Denver was a little delayed, plus it took a little longer than normal as it routed up through Canada in order to avoid the major storm system affecting the Midwest that day.

How to make a UK261 claim with United Airlines

I could’ve submitted a UK261 claim at the hotel that night, but I procrastinated and didn’t submit my claim until I was at Denver airport just before my flight back to the UK.

It was initially a little confusing as to how to submit a UK261 claim with United. I googled “United UK261 claim” which led me to this page on the United website. When scrolling down to the ‘Denied, canceled or delayed flights’ section, there are links to claim forms for many countries/areas including Canada, Europe, India, and more. United Kingdom is listed at the bottom of that list, but there was no link to a claim form. Instead there’s a link to an external website advising how to submit a dispute to the UK Civil Aviation Authority in the event that United declines your claim.

I figured that clicking on ‘United Kingdom’ might take me to the claim form, but all that did was take me to this page which didn’t contain any helpful information.

Seeing as I’d taken photos of the form that United had provided on the flight about our rights, I’d thrown away the paper copy. I therefore scoured the photos I’d taken of the form for any information about how to submit a claim. I was just about to give up hope when I noticed the literal last sentence on the form:

To make a claim for compensation, please contact United Customer Care online at united.com/feedback.

That links redirects to this Customer Care page which is indeed where you submit a United UK261 claim. The form is intuitive enough, but I took screenshots along the way to share for this post.

Seeing as I was traveling alone, I selected ‘Yourself’ for the question about who I was submitting this for. If you’re traveling with others, I’m assuming you can submit a UK261 claim for ‘Yourself and others’ rather than needing to file individual claims.

Although I didn’t have a complaint per se, I selected that as a UK261 claim isn’t exactly a compliment, nor did I have a question about it.

In the next section I selected ‘Flight disruption’ and then ‘Cancellation.’ Needless to say, if our original flight had simply been delayed by three or more hours rather than cancelled, I’d have selected ‘Delay.’

There’s then a flight lookup requirement. After entering the six digit confirmation code and my surname…

…it listed all my flights on that itinerary. If my originally-booked routing had been LHR-EWR-DEN, I’m assuming I would’ve needed to select both of those flights. However, it was only my originally-booked nonstop flight from LHR-DEN that was cancelled, so I selected that.

The next screen displays an empty text box in which you should write the reason for your UK261 claim. Looking back at what I wrote, I didn’t actually mention that this was a UK261 claim, nor was there an option to select that during the claim flow. It therefore doesn’t seem like you need to specifically mention that you’re claiming under UK261 regulations, but it also wouldn’t hurt to include that.

That page also gives you an option to attach up to three files to submit with your case. I submitted a photo of the first page of the form we were given by the flight attendant on the cancelled flight about our rights (a photo of which is in the post earlier), the photo of the form I was given for accommodation at the Hilton (a photo of which is also in the post earlier), as well as a screenshot I’d taken in the United app of the reason for the cancellation.

After submitting that information, it displayed a confirmation page where it advised that I should expect a response within a week. At the bottom was my Case ID number, so it’s worth making a note of that.

That said, I immediately received an email from United confirming my submission; that had the Case ID number in the subject line too (blanked out below).

United Airlines UK261 reimbursement options

I submitted my claim the afternoon of Friday March 20. I didn’t expect to hear back from United for several days seeing as it was right before the weekend. On Wednesday March 25, I received the following reply from a United Customer Care agent:

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for your patience. We have reviewed your claim and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced on your recent travel.

As an alternative to your Regulation UK261 claim, we would like to offer one of the following options:

Option 1 – United Electronic Travel Certificate:

Receive a $1,000 (USD) United Electronic Travel Certificate, applicable to flights operated by United, United Express or partner airlines sold on United digital channels. Electronic Travel Certificates expire one year from the issue date. For more details and to view terms and conditions, visit the travel credits page.

A copy of each traveler’s passport or other government-issued identification is required in order for United to process the certificate. Once received, we’ll email you the certificate details.

OR

Option 2 – United MileagePlus® Miles:

Receive 50,000 MileagePlus miles. You can redeem the miles on flights operated by United, United Express, Air Canada, ANA, Austrian, Lufthansa, Swiss, Thai and other Star Alliance member airlines. These miles can also be used for various MileagePlus services and award options. MileagePlus miles never expire. For more details and to view the MileagePlus program rules, visit the MileagePlus page.

To accept this offer, please respond with your United MileagePlus account number. If you’re not yet a member, you can enroll online at no cost.

OR

Option 3 – Monetary Compensation:

If you prefer monetary compensation under UK261, you are required to provide a copy of the traveler’s passport or other government-issued identification for each person included in order for United to process the claim. Once we receive the requested documents, we’ll send you a secure link via email for a digital payment of GBP 520.

We appreciate your choice to fly with United Airlines and look forward to your response regarding your preferred option.

As you can see, United gave me a choice from three options:

1. $1,000 of United flight credit which expires a year after issuance
2. 50,000 United MileagePlus miles
3. £520 (~$687) cash compensation

If I knew for sure that I’d need to book a paid flight with United in the next year or if the credit didn’t expire after a year, I’d likely have chosen the first option seeing as $1,000 is better than $687. However, living in the UK means I’m less likely to fly United frequently, so the one year expiry date made that option too risky.

I was tempted by the prospect of 50,000 United miles, especially considering they don’t expire. There are a couple of reasons I decided not to opt for this; one is that I already have a somewhat healthy stash of MileagePlus miles and I haven’t redeemed a significant amount for several years. The other reason is that selecting miles rather than cold, hard cash means I’d effectively be buying the miles for 1.37 cents per point. That’s certainly not a bad price for United miles if you have a specific redemption in mind, but I didn’t.

I therefore replied to the email, stating that I’d like to select option 3: monetary compensation. I also attached a photo of my passport as they’d requested, although I was a little surprise that they don’t have you submit that in a more secure way.

I sent that reply at 4:03pm on March 25. Just a few hours later I received the following reply:

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for your response.

We’ve initiated a payment of GBP 520 to you as compensation under Regulation UK261.

In the next 24 hours, you’ll get an email from do.not.reply@hyperwallet.com. The email has a link to a secure portal where you can claim your payment. The link expires in 60 days, so claim your payment as soon as possible. (Tip: Check your junk mail if you do not see this email within 24 hours.)

You must enter your Case ID to accept the payment. Make sure there are no extra spaces before or after the Case ID when you submit. The portal will lock your account after too many failed attempts.

Case ID: [removed by me]

If you need help or have any other questions, reply to this email. Thank you for choosing United. We hope to see you on board again soon.

At 8:22am the next morning—so less than a week after submitting my initial UK261 claim and less than 24 hours after selecting which specific compensation I wanted—I received an email from Hyperwallet with the subject line ‘You received a payment from United Airlines.’

After clicking the ‘Claim Payment’ button and entering my Case ID, it allowed me to select which country, currency, and payment method I wanted for my compensation.

Seeing as we now live in the UK, I initially selected that I was in the UK and wanted reimbursement in GBP to my bank account.

However, just before choosing to continue, I remembered that the email from Hyperwallet stated that I’d received a payment from United for $696.90. Seeing as that amount was listed in dollars rather than as 520 GB pounds, I figured I might get charged some kind of fee by my UK bank for receiving a payment in US dollars.

As a result, I switched the country and currency from UK/pounds to US/dollars. In addition to the PayPal and bank account options that are provided for UK residents, US residents can also have the payment sent via Venmo, as a bank card (presumably a Visa or Mastercard debit card), or as an eGift card. For curiosity reasons, in hindsight I wish I’d checked the ‘eGift card’ option to see if Hyperwallet bumps up the value of the compensation when selecting a retailer gift card, a little like how TopCashback does that when cashing out your shopping portal cashback, or if it’s simply a digital Visa or Mastercard gift card rather than a physical one.

I provided Hyperwallet with my bank account details and submitted the request. I did that on the evening of March 26 and the payment arrived in my account the next day, one week to the day after I’d submitted my initial UK261 claim.

Final thoughts

Overall, I’m very impressed with how United handled the flight cancellation I experienced, as well as my subsequent UK261 claim.

On the cancellation front, the captain and flight attendants kept us informed, while United provided alternative booking options in the app before our plane had even made it back to the gate. They then provided accommodation and meals for the night without any hassles, booking us at London Heathrow hotels that are the most convenient to get to seeing as they’re accessed via a covered walkway.

On the UK261 claim front, that was painless too. Although it was a little bit of a hassle ascertaining how to actually submit the claim in the first place, once I saw that it gets submitted at united.com/feedback things went incredibly smoothly. The claim form was straightforward, United’s reply was received within a few business days, they gave three reimbursement options (all of which were good value in their own right), then the compensation landed in my account a couple of days later.

Considering my flight had been cancelled due to a mechanical issue and I didn’t arrive at my destination until more than 24 hours later, I didn’t expect to get any pushback from United about my claim. Still, I was impressed with how easy the process was overall.

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