When it's United's fault: what the airline provides
United's Customer Commitment, in plain English. "Within United's control" means mechanical, crew or IT issues, not weather or air traffic.
On a cancellation or significant delay within its control, United rebooks you on its next available flight free, aiming to keep you in the cabin you originally booked. If nothing on United works until the next day, it may rebook you on a Star Alliance partner with open seats through an interline agreement instead.
If a delay or cancellation within United's control causes a wait of 3 or more hours beyond your scheduled departure, United provides a meal voucher.
When a controllable delay or cancellation leaves you overnight away from home, United provides a hotel voucher. If its partner hotel is full or unavailable, it reimburses reasonable hotel costs, and adds a ground-transport voucher if there's no shuttle running.
Weather and air-traffic-control delays are not within United's control, so the hotel and meal vouchers don't apply, even though United will still rebook you free. That distinction is the whole game, and it's the same weather stance most airlines take.
Its own commitment names two things that void your claim to this care: expecting a hotel or meal on a weather delay, and self-connecting on two separate tickets. Both come up constantly, see the connections section below.
DOT vs. United, two things, don't confuse them
One is federal law; the other is United's own commitment. People mix them up and expect the wrong thing.
US DOT, the law
Ticket price
- A significant change you decline → automatic refund of the ticket price to your original payment
- Verified thresholds: 3+ hrs domestic, 6+ hrs international, a changed airport, added connections or a downgrade
- Applies whether the cause is weather or United. United cannot force you into a voucher
- Does NOT require hotels, meals or compensation for lost time
United's Customer Commitment
Care, not cash
- Meal and hotel vouchers, plus ground transport, but only for controllable disruptions
- Free rebooking in your original cabin, including a Star Alliance partner when nothing works until tomorrow
- Nothing beyond the rebooking for weather
- You can compare an airline's plan against others at flightrights.gov
Keep them separate in your head: United's hotel and meal vouchers only fire when United caused the disruption. The DOT refund fires whenever YOU decline a significant change, regardless of who caused it, and it is cash to your ticket price only, never a hotel, meal or voucher. The 3-hour/6-hour figures are the federal minimum, and these DOT rules are under active revision, so we confirm what's current when you call.
Missed your connection? Here's what United actually does
United doesn't publish a separate connections page or a minimum connection time, this is the closest thing to one.
United's own commitment only promises to rebook a misconnection when it happened on one United itinerary and the cause was United's fault, a late inbound flight, a gate change, a mechanical swap. If that's you, United will work you onto its next available flight, or a Star Alliance partner if nothing on United flies until tomorrow.
The riskier case is the one people don't expect: if your onward flight was booked as a separate ticket, a domestic leg you added yourself after landing at a United hub, say ORD, DEN or EWR, you were self-connecting the whole time, and United isn't responsible for getting you to that gate. Land late and the second airline can mark you a no-show with no obligation to rebook you.
United's US hubs (Newark, Chicago O'Hare, Denver, Houston, Washington Dulles, San Francisco, Los Angeles) are also where its international network plugs in. Houston and Dulles have added nonstop United service to Cartagena, so a growing number of Colombia-bound connections now route through those two. If you're arriving internationally and connecting onward within the US, budget extra time for immigration and a bag recheck at your first US entry point before your domestic or Star Alliance connection, not just at your final stop.
Our own rule of thumb, not a United rule: United doesn't publish a number for how much time to leave between flights, and its booking system will sell you a shorter connection if fares allow it. From routing calls like these, we tell callers to treat anything under about an hour at a big three-terminal hub. ORD, IAH, IAD, as tight, and less than that with an international arrival ahead of it as a real risk. Build in more if you're on two separate tickets, since a misconnection there is entirely on you.
What a person can do that united.com and the app can't
This is the whole reason to call instead of tapping "rebook" and taking what the screen shows you.
United's self-rebooking usually shows only United's own next departures. A person can pull Star Alliance partner seats and multi-stop routings the app never offers, sometimes the difference between "tonight" and "tomorrow afternoon."
An agent can grab and hold the last good seat while you check whether it still makes your cruise or meeting. The app makes you commit blind, and the seat's gone if you hesitate.
Tell us the time you absolutely must land by and we work the last flight that still makes it, not just the "next available" the screen defaults to.
Whether a delay is big enough to unlock a DOT refund or United's own hotel/meal vouchers is a judgment call. We know how it's decided and how to ask, so you're not guessing at a kiosk at 11 p.m.
Rescheduled and never told?
Silent schedule changes are more common than people realize.
Airlines routinely move flights weeks or months ahead, a "schedule change", and the notification email doesn't always land. Before you travel, check your trip on united.com or the United app. If United moved you to a time that no longer works, a significant schedule change generally gives you the right to a free rebooking or a DOT-backed refund, but only if you catch it. Give us your confirmation number and we'll check your reservation for a change you were never told about.
Have this ready when you call
Thirty seconds of prep is the difference between the last seat and the next flight.
- Confirmation number, the code and passenger names
- One ticket or two, whether your connection is on the same itinerary or a separate booking
- Whether a Star Alliance partner is OK if United has nothing until tomorrow
- Any hard deadline, a cruise, wedding or connection time we route backward from
Call while you're still in line. When a United flight cancels, hundreds rebook at once and the phone reaches an agent faster than the airport counter, you can be confirmed on the next departure, and any hotel or meal voucher you're owed, before you'd even reach the front of the queue.
Frequently asked
Will United pay for a hotel if my flight is cancelled?+
How long does the delay have to be to get a meal voucher?+
Can I get a refund instead of a rebooking?+
Will United put me on another airline if my flight is cancelled?+
My connecting flight was a separate ticket and I missed it, what now?+
Contact options
Reach United directly, or let us find the fastest rebooking.
Contact United Airlines directly
The airline's own official channels, free.
This is United's own channel; confirm current numbers at united.com.
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