United Airlines is making up for the expensive cancellation hiccup that forced a US soldier to spend thousands of dollars to make it home for Christmas with his family.

United spokesman Madhu Unnikrishnan confirmed that the airline will be sending the family a check to cover the money that 21-year-old Benjamin Jimenez spent on a one-way ticket back to Michigan. The carrier also is offering him a free flight back to the Frankfurt Airport before his leave expires in early January, Unnikirishnan said.

While Jimenez’s aunt, Sarah Mundt of Monroe, said she is “sad and disappointed” that their family had to go to great lengths to get the airline to do “what should have been done from the beginning,” she is appreciative that they’ve reached out and that United will get her nephew back to Germany in time.

“I’m happy,” Mundt said.

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The debacle all started when Jimenez arrived at the Frankfurt Airport on Saturday and learned that his US$1116 (NZ$1658) round-trip flight tickets were cancelled by United codeshare partner Lufthansa. Left with few options and wanting to see his family after a year of being away, Jimenez shelled out nearly US$2300 for a new one-way ticket to Detroit. The fare for a train ticket from Nuremberg to Frankfurt pushed travel expenses up to about US$2500.

Mundt told the Detroit Free Press on Sunday night that United Airlines representatives said Jimenez would have to dispute the charge for his initial round trip with his bank to get a refund, and the cheapest flight the airline could come up with for his return to Germany cost US$3000.

Mundt said they were told by United that their records show Jimenez received a cancellation notification, though the family is steadfast that he did not, and they could not reimburse him for the thousands in additional one-way travel expenses he paid Lufthansa to get home.

As a result, Mundt said their family was saddled with the prospect of having to dispute lost funds with Jimenez’s bank and pool their money together to buy him another ticket back, during the holidays.

The offer from United on Sunday changes that.

“United is willing to get him back to his base, which is awesome, because honestly that’s all we wanted originally,” Mundt said. “(But) it’s kind of bittersweet, because we tried for hours … it took this to be able to get their attention.”

An outcry of support from veterans, military families and community members followed a Detroit Free Press story published Sunday night, prompting a flood of Christmas Eve messages from Good Samaritans offering to start GoFundMe pages for Jimenez, and some even went so far as to offer up their travel points and enough cash for a first-class ticket back.

Michigan Senator Adam Hollier of Detroit was one of the folks wanting to reach out to Jimenez and his family to offer up help.

“As a fellow soldier and new senator, I saw your article and felt compelled to do what I could to help,” Hollier said in an emailed message.

“I remember being stuck in Atlanta’s airport trying to get home during holiday block leave and just wanting to get home to my family. I saw his rank and knew just how much of a burden buying another ticket can be for a lower enlisted soldier. If there was any way I could step in to help get this soldier home, I wanted to make sure I fulfilled that duty.”

Max Emmer, of Bloomfield Hills, also reached out.

“This story resonates with everyone. Who doesn’t have a horror story with the airlines? That said, it is beyond upsetting and disappointing to see it happening to a brave, courageous member of our military and his family at this time of year. Pfc. Jimenez and his family have clearly and are continuing to make tremendous sacrifices and the least they should be able to expect is the cooperation and assistance of a company like United,” Emmer wrote.

“It is Christmas – a 21-year-old member of the US military should not be worrying about paying for and financing thousands of additional dollars in order to spend the holidays with his family.”

Several messages came in from across the country.

“We are deeply, deeply touched by everyone’s response and everyone’s willingness to help,” Mundt said.

However, she added that it’s hard for her family to accept monetary donations or other offers from the community, so while they are appreciative, they are happy about the response and reimbursement from United.

– Detroit Free Press

United Airlines is taking a group of children battling illness on the ultimate fantasy flight to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus.

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Sometimes things get weird when people get on planes. Click through for the strangest airline travel stories of 2018.

Sometimes things get weird when people get on planes. Click through for the strangest airline travel stories of 2018.

Photo: KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images

A mechanical problem forced a United Airlines plane bound for Washington, D.C. to return to San Francisco International Airport for an emergency landing Monday morning less than an hour after departing, officials said.

United Airlines Flight 516 departed for Washington-Dulles International Airport at 9:23 a.m., but the plane experienced an unknown mechanical problem during flight, said United spokesman Madhu Unnikrishnan. The plane turned around and landed safely at SFO at 10:09 a.m.

• 
  Christmas Eve storms to douse Bay Area, snow coming to Sierra
  

The problem was fixed and the flight is expected to depart from San Francisco a second time around noon today, Unnikrishnan said.

SFO officials expected 70,000 travelers to go through the airport on Monday.

Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawu

The only option, he was told, was to pay $2,500 for a new flight. So he did and believed he was stuck in the U.S., desperate to find a way to get back to Germany at reasonable cost before the New Year.

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A Michigan soldier, who hadn’t seen his family in a year, was trying to make it home to Monroe for the holidays — but ended up shelling out thousands of dollars after the round-trip flight he booked with United Airlines was unexpectedly canceled. 

Pfc. Benjamin Jimenez, 21, enlisted in the Army in June of 2017 and was stationed in Germany this February. Hoping to spend time with his family, including his grandpa who is set to fly to Michigan from Florida, Jimenez booked a round-trip ticket for $1,116 on Nov. 19 that would get him to the Detroit Metro Airport during the holiday weekend and back to Frankfurt in time to report back for duty in 2019.

When he got to the Frankfurt Airport on Saturday, Jimenez was told his flight had been cancelled, according to his aunt Sarah Mundt, 31, also of Monroe. She said the airline also told her nephew a refund wasn’t available for the first flight and that he would have to dispute the charge through his bank.

UPDATE: United refunds Michigan soldier, offers free travel after cancellation

“They informed him that… he no longer had a flight, and that if he wanted to get to the United States, he had to buy a one-way ticket for $2,500,” Mundt said. 

“And so, that’s what he did.”

Adding to the financial strain, the airline has since told the family the cheapest flight it could come up with for Jimenez to make it back to Germany before his leave expires was $3,000.

“[United] literally had us on the phone for two-plus hours,” Mundt said. “They kept saying that they were trying to help us, but… I was on hold for 30 minutes at a time, while they said they were looking into things.”

Mundt said her nephew didn’t have access to email or phone while out in the field, but the family is steadfast that notification of the cancellation was never sent. She added that they’ve gone through his inbox together.

Mundt said they were informed that United Airlines partners with the airline Lufthansa for German flights, and Lufthansa decided to increase their rates and cancel the flight. 

“By the end of it, they said, ‘Well, we sent out the email… there’s nothing we can do for you. We no longer hold your funds, so we can’t return them,” she said. 

Mundt said they plan to work with Jimenez’s bank to dispute the charge, but haven’t had time yet — her nephew just got home late Saturday evening. She thinks the airline should honor the cost of the original ticket, though.

“I made it very clear, I don’t want anything for free. I understand this is a business, you guys have to make money. I don’t mind paying the original fare that he originally bought… but we want the $2,500 back, and we need a way for him to get back to Germany,” she said. 

“I’ve spoken to two separate supervisors. I spoke to a manager, and I spoke to their online social media team… who said they had their reservation team review the situation,” she said.

“Each time it’s like they’re reading from a script and they’re just giving us the same old answers… I feel like they made this worse”

As a result, Mundt said their family is spending the holidays trying to find Jimenez a flight back and pooling their money to buy him another ticket with another airline. 

“Right now, the only available flights are Jan. 2, which makes this whole situation worse, because my father is extremely elderly and he’s sick, and he’s flying out from Florida to be able to spend a day with [Jimenez] before he flies back to Germany,” Mundt said. 

“My father flies in on the 1st. … Now, they’re not going to be able to spend time together, like they were.”

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Madhu Unnikrishnan, a United Airlines spokesman, on Sunday confirmed the flight was canceled by Lufthansa, but said their records show that passengers were informed of the cancellation.

Unnikrishnan said he cannot speak to how Jimenez may not have received a notification. 

“Our customer service team is looking into the matter and will contact Mr. Jimenez shortly to arrange his travel back [to Germany],” Unnikrishnan said. 

Mundt said their family is extremely frustrated and would like to avoid having to deal with United Airlines in the future. 

“The timing of this couldn’t be worse, with it being Christmas,” she said. “We’re excited that [Jimenez] has been able to come home, but… Instead of just being able to enjoy Christmas and everything, we’re now trying to pool our money to be able to try and make sure he gets back to Germany, so he doesn’t get in trouble. It’s kind of affected everything.”

Contact reporter Aleanna Siacon at ASiacon@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AleannaSiacon. 

A soldier working overseas says he had to spend thousands to buy a plane ticket after his flight was canceled without him knowing.

Private First Class Benjamin Jimenez thought he was all set when he booked a ticket back in November to fly with United Airlines from Germany to Detroit. When he showed up for his flight, he found out it was canceled.

“They gave me an itinerary, they never booked it, they white listed it saying the line never paid for it and I was pretty much just out of luck,” Jimenez said.

He says he was forced to shell out an extra $2,500 to make it home in time for the holidays.

Jimenez says he never knew his flight had been canceled.

“They told me that they emailed me, they called me, but I haven’t received any of that,” Jimenez said.

7 Action News did received a statement about the incident from United saying:

“We are reimbursing Mr. Jimenez for the one-way Lufthansa ticket he purchased to get back to Detroit as a gesture of goodwill, and we are flying him back to his base in Germany on United on Jan. 2.”

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There’s a second, more difficult metric, however. To get an additional $50 a month, the airline will have to beat Southwest, American and Delta in on-time departure.

He earns a huge number of frequent flyer miles each year, usually between 200,000 and 350,000, mostly through United Airlines. With all that time away, he says, the last thing he wants to do when he has a break is to travel some more.

By Hugo Martin / Los Angeles Times

During the holidays, United Airlines gives flight attendants some leeway on accessorizing their uniforms.

But the Chicago-based airline apparently doesn’t want its crews to go overboard with extras that detract from the flight attendants’ professional image. That was the key takeaway from a United Airlines memo circulated last week.

“Accessories must be in good taste,” the memo read. “In the spirit of the holiday, and not detract from your professional image.”

The memo outlines what “adornments” flight attendants are permitted to add to their uniforms, such as a “conservative holiday scarf” and “conservative earrings” for women and “conservative holiday tie” and “one holiday pin” for men.

But the memo also makes clear what is prohibited: “Head adornments (i.e., antlers, Santa hats, halos, etc.; Holiday vests or sweaters; Holiday aprons: Holiday hosiery.”

A United Airlines spokeswoman said the memo is issued every year at this time to remind employees of the carrier’s standards but she said she didn’t know how many years it has been sent out and what prompted the original memo.

— Los Angeles Times