On September 6, 2025, my wife and I departed Miami for Vancouver on a delayed itinerary that included multiple rebookings,, first in New Jersey where we lost a connecting flight after a delay in Miami, and later in Chicago after another delay in New Jersey. After a grueling 17-hour journey, we arrived without our checked luggage. Despite assurances from a baggage official at the airport that we would be reimbursed for taxi expenses related to recovering our missing bags--and a later confirmation through online chat that such reimbursement had been approved--my claim was ultimately denied.
The difficulties we endured went far beyond taxi costs. For two days, we were left without medications, clothing, personal items, or jackets in cold weather, all on the eve of a cruise to Alaska. The lack of clear communication and the contradictory, dismissive responses we received from United staff added unnecessary psychological stress to an already distressing situation. Ultimately, it was only through the compassion of two individuals--Emily Otero and John (Sam) Gini--that we were able to retrieve our second bag late on September 7th. Their efforts, not United's official channels, saved our trip from being completely derailed.
This situation has left us feeling not only inconvenienced but wronged. At no point has United acknowledged the hardship or offered meaningful redress. Instead, I have encountered denials, contradictory statements, a refusal to take responsibility and they have ignored all of our claims.
Apart from a simple taxi fare, nobody paid nor took responsibility for worse things like having spent 2 days without medications, clothes, personal items, jackets during cold weather just for the mistakes United made.
Nobody paid for the above described despair, uncertainty, mental torture and psychological damage during all the wait without knowing we didn't have anything to carry on our cruise the following day added by the terrible information runaround of your representatives over the phone, who constantly gave contradictory information and passed the buck to one another, giving mixed messages
Nobody paid for all the discomfort we had to put up with, and also for our unexpected extra food expenses during the 2 flight delays we had from Miami to New Jersey and then from New Jersey to Chicago and Vancouver.
After the trip and with the hope of getting a reimbursement or at least an apology or recognition of the hardships endured, we wrote to United CEO and customer relations twice with no answer at all, so our experience highlights serious failures in customer service, reliability, communication, professionalism, accountability and a lack of desire along with no commitment to solve customers' problems and unfortunately, we chose United looking for the opposite.
If you plan on flying United, be careful you are not subjected to similar treatment.
Mario J. Torres
Maria E. Salgado read more