[D abercrombie]

We had a horrendous experience with United where we missed a connecting flight by minutes. While bemoaning our situation (for 12 hours) stuck in the Chicago airport, a pilot overheard me and told me that they should have held our flight as this is done all the time. The gate attendant actually told us the flight left without us because it was overweight and over booked not because we were a few minutes late. So we were involuntarily bumped and received zero compensation and a 6 hour flight ended up taking 20 hours and our party that included 3 children and two adults were split up and we did not take the same flights home and our luggage did not arrive. This individual needing to get to his dying mother appeared to have received great service but that does not detract or mean that United should not compensate individuals who have received terrible service. Our problems are compounded since the flights are booked through Air Canada who uses United to fly to certain parts of the USA. Air Canada feels they have no liability since they only book the flights and United feels they have no liability because Air Canada books the flights.