Many airlines apply common sense and respect their customers, which turns out to also be a good business strategy for them. UNITED/CONTINENTAL APPARENTLY DOES NOT.
Passengers on all flights originating from European soil (no matter their citizenship) are protected from irresponsible airline behavior since 2004 through
European Regulation 261/2004, requiring a €600 compensation payable to each passenger on a long-haul flight delayed for more than 4 hours. Airlines, irrespective of their home base country, are also required to inform passengers of their rights under this law while the delay happens.
Below some accounts of problems unrelated to the initial flight which were encountered by passengers of UA/CO132 on their respective connecting flights and their return flights.
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Below the account of the return flight of one of our fellow United 132 passengers:
I flew back from Paris to Dulles on January 3 on United/Continental flight 133 departing from Paris at 5 pm. Once inside the plane, we were told that there would be a stop in Gander, Newfoundland, to refuel, and that we would arrive at 9 pm. According to the PA this was due to bad weather. From a conversation with my neighbor on CO flight 132 on Dec. 22, however, I knew that this happens very often on United flights from Paris to Dulles: the planes are very small and cannot carry enough fuel to cross the Atlantic without stopping for refueling. On the Charles the Gaulle web site, the scheduled arrival time was 6.15 pm, which corresponds to the normal travel time for a direct flight from Paris to Dulles. On my United ticket, the scheduled arrival time was 8.15 pm, meaning that United knew, months in advance, that the plane would stop for refueling on the way. Of course when they sell the tickets they don't mention this stop, and the flight is sold as a direct flight. The crew told us they did not know about the stop before boarding the plane, which cannot be true.
Upon arrival, we waited for 15 minutes for United agents to arrive before we could exit the plane. This additional delay caused passengers in transit to miss their connecting flights and be stuck in Dulles for the night. The captain apologized for this, and said he hoped passengers would complain to Mr. Smisek, CEO of United, "responsible for the merger with Continental that causes all these problems."
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Another United 132 passenger about the return flight:
The same thing happened to me on my return flight from Paris to Dulles. We refueled in Boston and I missed my connecting flight in Dulles to Denver and had to once again stay in DC and take a flight the next day.
I was delayed an additional 12 hours because of that delay. We arrived in DC at 12:30am and once again I was shipping off to hotels in the DC area. I slept from 2:30am to 5:30am to then return to the airport AND my flight the next day was delayed an hour due to mechanical issues.
