United values my time at…$15.91/hour or if you calculate the final routing I took home after a flight cancellation in San Francisco, $10.29. This is why people harp on a passenger compensation scheme in the USA similar to EU261/2004.
It was after 1:00 am in the morning and all the nonstops to Chicago the following day (except for, ironically, the same 777 redeye) were sold out. The United system auto-rebooked me on a routing via Albuquerque (ABQ) that SFO at 8:20 am, arrived in ABQ at 11:51 am, then connected from ABQ at 12:24 pm to ORD at 4:29 pm, which was about 11 hours after my original scheduled arrival of 5:40 am.
At the same time, I received an auto-generated “apology” email from United saying sorry for the delay and directing me to a website for compensation. My choices were $175 in travel credit or 8,750 United miles.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
