A "terrified" Ottawa family spent several hours looking for 92-year-old Eleanor Miller after a United Airlines mix-up as she flew from North Carolina to Ottawa.

Ann Miller said her mother was supposed to fly from Asheville, N.C., to Newark, N.J., and then to Ottawa on Wednesday.

Though she arrived safely in the end, a day later, Eleanor Miller appeared to be missing for much of Wednesday.

It began when her flight from Asheville to Newark was delayed, and she wound up missing her connection to Ottawa.

But when Ann Miller and her husband called United to check up on her mother's status, an airline employee said she never got on the Asheville plane in the first place.

"To be quite honest, I was terrified," Ann Miller said.

"I thought something very drastic had happened to her. Either she had never made it to the airport or she had been in an accident on the way to the airport or had taken ill at the airport and had been transported to a hospital."

United: staff gave mixed message

Ann Miller said she got someone to visit her mother's home, called around to hospitals and filed a missing person report with Asheville police.

Meanwhile, Eleanor Miller got to Newark and was set up with a new ticket and hotel, though she didn't get a wheelchair as the family had requested.

It was then that she was able to call her family in Ottawa to check in, not knowing that they thought she was missing.

Thursday was a similar story.

While Eleanor Miller flew from Newark to Ottawa, her family was told she couldn't have been on the plane because the rest of her tickets had been cancelled when she allegedly didn't get on her flight from Asheville.

"United insisted from the get-go that she had never boarded the plane, that she was not on the plane and not their responsibility," Ann Miller said.

"They offered us no help. They could not assist us in finding people in other airports who might be able to help us locate her. United was unfortunately no ally to my mother in this process. They were a detriment in fact."

In an email sent Friday afternoon, United said employees in Asheville told the family she was en route to Newark but others gave inaccurate information.

"We have since spoken with our customer and her family to apologize for giving them inaccurate information and have provided compensation and upgraded seating for her return flights for this inconvenience," United said.

Arrived a day late

Eleanor Miller eventually arrived in Ottawa on Thursday night.

"This has been the most dreadful experience I've had travelling," she said.

Her daughter added: "This has set, unfortunately, a very unhappy start to the holiday for her and certainly thrown chaos into our lives and hers. Not the way that we want to celebrate Christmas."