A frequent flyer is demanding a full refund of $6,472 in airfares that he had spent while waiting for a status match offer with Marriott to be processed. During the five months that Marriott took to process the status match, the flyer missed out on free baggage and other status perks that he claims amount to a breach of contract.
The lawsuit, filed recently in the district court in Northern California, isn’t, however, without its risks. Most notably, the flyer plans to argue that the Montreal Convention and its provisions for delayed baggage, which would be an interesting use of this international law.
- Frequent flyer reaches United MileagePlus Silver through Marriott status
- Marriott fails to process status match for five months
- Passenger ends up paying for luggage that should have been free
- Lawsuit demands full refund of $6,472 in airfares
- Interesting but risky use of the Montreal Convention
- Bottom line
Frequent flyer reaches United MileagePlus Silver through Marriott status
Sergey Firsov is a frequent flyer and loyalty program member who often stays at Marriott Bonvoy properties. One of the reasons Firsov chooses Marriott is because of its status match offers, including one that allowed elite Marriott Bonvoy members to achieve status match with the United Airlines MileagePlus program.
By reaching Titanium Elite status with Marriott Bonvoy, Firsov would be automatically matched to United’s MileagePlus Premier Silver status, which includes benefits like one free checked bag in Economy, group two boarding, and eligibility for free day of departure upgrades.
At the end of 2024, Firsov completed 75 nights at Marriott Bonvoy properties, which bumped him up to Titanium Elite status, and, in turn, should have resulted in Marriott processing his status match to United Premier Silver.
Marriott fails to process status match for five months
Or, at least, that was the plan.
Marriott Bonvoy promised to process the status match within 10 days of Firsov attaining Titanium Elite, but two weeks later, the status match still hadn’t been processed.
Fiszov called Marriott Bonvoy to remind them and was told that they were on it. Give them 10 more days, and the status match will be processed. The 10 days came and went, and still no status match to United Premier Silver.
In fact, it would take Marriott Bonvoy five months to finally process the status match, making Firsov eligible for the Premier Silver benefits at United and other airlines that are part of the Star Alliance.
Passenger ends up paying for luggage that should have been free
The problem for Firsov is that during the five months he was waiting for the status match to be processed, he had multiple flights booked with United Airlines, as well as Lufthansa, which is another founding member of the Star Alliance, Air Canada, SWISS and Avianca.
In total, Firsov ended up taking 16 flights while he waited for the status match to be processed. For example, in just a few months, Firsov had already taken these many flights while waiting for the status match.
- On December 6th, 2024, he traveled with SWISS from San Francisco to Zurich and onwards to Warsaw.
- On December 8th, 2024, Firsov flew with Lufthansa from Warsaw to Frankfurt and connected through on a second flight to Miami.
- On January 5th, 2025, he flew with Avianca from Buenos Aires to Bogata, then to El Salvador, and finally to San Francisco.
- On February 2, 2025, Firsov flew with United from Washington Dulles to San Francisco.
On these flights, Firsov was expecting to be able to check in a free bag into the hold but ended up paying between $40 and $75 per flight to do so, because he didn’t have any status with Star Alliance.
Lawsuit demands full refund of $6,472 in airfares
United Airlines ended up refunding some of the baggage costs to Firsov, but he argues that this doesn’t go nearly far enough. In the five months that he was waiting for the status match to be processed, Firsov ended up spending $6,472 in airfare with United and other Star Alliance carriers, and he believes this should be refunded in its entirety.
Firsov is also calling on the court to award him additional damages for emotional distress and believes that his Premier Silver status should be extended by an additional year.
Interesting but risky use of the Montreal Convention
Firsov is accusing Marriott and United of breach of contract, but his lawsuit is also making use of the Montreal Convention, an international law that is designed to protect passengers taking international flights.
The Montreal Convention gives passengers certain rights and allows them to claim compensation in various circumstances. For example, under Article 19 of the convention, passengers can claim compensation if their baggage is delayed.
By forcing Firsov to pay for his checked luggage, he argues that this constitutes a delay in his baggage. Whether or not a court agrees with this argument is, of course, a very different matter. One thing is for certain… this is definitely an unusual application of the Montreal Convention.
Bottom line
Sergey Firsov had a frustrating experience waiting for a frequent flyer status match to be applied by Marriott Bonvoy. During the time he was waiting, he had to pay for checked luggage that would otherwise have been free if the status match had been processed.
Although United Airlines has offered to refund the cost of the checked luggage, Firsov argues that the total cost of the airfares he bought during this time should be refunded.
Court case reference: 3:25-cv-09746
