United MileagePlus (Consolidated) - All 4 of my last dom trips had mechanicals leading to overnights/delayed arrivals

I'm having a string of bad luck on UA and CO domestic trips over the past few months. 4 trips in a row have involved mechanicals or cancellations. 3 leading to forced overnights at ORD/DEN/LAX. Delays in getting to destination ranging from 3 to 16 hours.

Not a single one of the cancellations/delays related to weather. All were the result of mechanicals (including delayed inbound a/c that went mechanical at the originating airport). A mix of mainline and regional aircraft.

In the past, I'd get an e-mail of apology or something as a result. Nothing, unfort.

I'm hoping that my bad travel kharma is done for the year!

It happens.

In the past, I'd get an e-mail of apology or something as a result. Nothing, unfort.

I'm hoping that my bad travel kharma is done for the year!

Welcome to Continental d.b.a. United Airlines.

I'm having a string of bad luck on UA and CO domestic trips over the past few months. 4 trips in a row have involved mechanicals or cancellations. 3 leading to forced overnights at ORD/DEN/LAX. Delays in getting to destination ranging from 3 to 16 hours.

Not a single one of the cancellations/delays related to weather. All were the result of mechanicals (including delayed inbound a/c that went mechanical at the originating airport). A mix of mainline and regional aircraft.

In the past, I'd get an e-mail of apology or something as a result. Nothing, unfort.

I'm hoping that my bad travel kharma is done for the year!

Interesting. I had one cancelation this year, which was a two hour delay but I still made my connection. Got 9000 RDMs.

I've never received a proactive email apology from United for MX cancellations.

None here either, with one exception.

The last 5 of 6 departures from HPN involved a reroute or overnight due to mechanical issues (okay, 1 was on US ticket and other was due to a birdstrike on the inbound SkyWest CRJ).

The exception was the $125 (?) voucher I got when the reroute was out of EWR, supposedly as a form of compensation for the expense of getting to EWR.

I don't think it's necessary for UA to liberally hand out vouchers or large amounts of miles for delays due to mechanical issues, but the occasional "We're sorry." email, perhaps with a token amount of miles, would be appreciated.

You really should contact United. Wife was stuck on in plane for 5 hours while they waited for part. They went back to gate after 3 hours, deplaned, then re-boarded (New 3 hour rule?) Miss connection, put in hotel, flew out next morning

$100 or 7,000 miles. Took the miles

Could you break it down to individual segments if you have the time, route/dep-arrvl times/equipment/what you were rerouted onto.

I had a back to back delay (trip home Thursday and trip back out Monday) in early December. One was 2 hours and one was 3 hours. No automatic compensation.

A simple note to UA with the flight number, nature of delay (MX) and amount of delay got me some miles.

Both on CO metal - one was the retro painted plane.

That's a lot of e-certs!

That's a lot of e-certs!

I have pretty much given up on ecerts, as often times I can find a cheaper flight on United on Orbitz or even on ual.com. I also find the "savings" is never as great as promised, particularly the % ones.

To the OP,

I'd refrain from playing the lottery, cancel any trips to Vegas, and definitely not consider any Sky Diving anytime soon. You seem to be having a stretch of some very, very bad luck.

I am in the exact same boat as you. EVERY flight so far this year with the exception of one has been delayed, cancelled or both (5 total affected flights). Flights were out of ORD, EWR, FLL and MDT. Most irritating parts of the whole thing are the rolling delays that keep extending by 30 minutes every 30 minutes and the delay...delay...delay...cancel routine. Add to that the "oh, that's a Continental flight so you'll need to deal with them" and I'm beginning to get really irritated.

I'm now 0 for 5. Trip #5 delayed because of mechanical (inbound crew had a 2.5 hr mechanical on their aircraft and then got stuck in Customs. Flight dep delayed 2 hrs. UA website attributed the flight delay to "weather" whereas the crew told everyone the delay was due to pilots not getting to airplane. Checked their flights and yes, they had a mechanical. My flight NOT delayed due to weather (none at origin/destination) and once the crew hopped on board, we left immediately.

I can understand going through LAX and even DEN during winter, but I really don't get going through ORD. That always seemed like asking for trouble. When I worked at a wholesaler, most people wanted to route through the southern US during winter. Can't say as I blame them.

I can understand going through LAX and even DEN during winter, but I really don't get going through ORD. That always seemed like asking for trouble. When I worked at a wholesaler, most people wanted to route through the southern US during winter. Can't say as I blame them.

Living in MSP now (I actually lived in your town for 11 years at one point) almost every UA destination I want forces me to go through either DEN or ORD, so I understand that same pain. ;)

Amazing! My first trip back on UA (switched to DL for the past few months due to the numerous UA delays) and on my first trip back with UA, ANOTHER mech delay (UA mainline ex-DEN).

BTW, UA 1K voice offered only a $100 travel cert for my 14+ hour delay/overnight. This 1K is finding it hard to remain loyal to UA!

Amazing! My first trip back on UA (switched to DL for the past few months due to the numerous UA delays) and on my first trip back with UA, ANOTHER mech delay (UA mainline ex-DEN).

BTW, UA 1K voice offered only a $100 travel cert for my 14+ hour delay/overnight. This 1K is finding it hard to remain loyal to UA!


Honestly, at this point, I am not buying your story. Yes, flights get cancelled, and yes, a frequent flyer would have a higher likelyhood of being on a cancelled flight, by virtue of their flying frequency. -- However, I have still flown on 200 flights, and have never had flight cancelled at the airport.

If what you claim is true, perhaps you should consider altering your travel plans to not include the last flight of the day on a regular basis.

Amazing! My first trip back on UA (switched to DL for the past few months due to the numerous UA delays) and on my first trip back with UA, ANOTHER mech delay (UA mainline ex-DEN).

BTW, UA 1K voice offered only a $100 travel cert for my 14+ hour delay/overnight. This 1K is finding it hard to remain loyal to UA!

Well that is better than the CO response of "deal with it". In the past 2 weeks I've had a CO Connection flt go MX and cancel and one delay 1 1/2 hours due to MX

Interesting. I had one cancelation this year, which was a two hour delay but I still made my connection. Got 9000 RDMs.

Glad to hear that they are still doing it for this year. Hope they will continue the practice after 3/3.

My last appreciation email was for a missed regional jet connection that I actually abandoned/not needed. However, it was late last year.

OMG, I really must have some sort of affliction that's causing flight delays!!! I'm now 0 for 7 of my most recent trips that had some sort of mechanical delayed flights on UA/UAX/CO.

Last weekend's trip, 1.5 hr mechanical ex-SFO on a UA 767 to DEN (had built in a 2.5 hr connection at DEN so as to avoid any knock-on effects if something like this happened).

This weekend's trip (ie, today), a 1 hr mechanical involving CO metal. O&D, so no missed connections at least.

Folks, I'm not making this up!!! Really incredible.

Since last posting, I've taken 3 more trips. 1 trip had only minor delays, 1 involved outright cancellation (and reprotect on DL) on a sCO flight, and 1 involved 2 hour mechanical on an int'l sUA flight.

So, 90% of my trips over the past 4~5 months have involved significant travel delays due to primarily to UA mechanicals. It's getting comical at this point!

Man, I'm building up the karma credits this year!

Since last posting, I've taken 3 more trips. 1 trip had only minor delays, 1 involved outright cancellation (and reprotect on DL) on a sCO flight, and 1 involved 2 hour mechanical on an int'l sUA flight.

So, 90% of my trips over the past 4~5 months have involved significant travel delays due to primarily to UA mechanicals. It's getting comical at this point!

Man, I'm building up the karma credits this year!
Please post all your future bookings so the rest of the community knows to avoid those flights.

Wow man, I really feel for ya.

I haven't had any mechanicals yet this year, although I am flying out tomorrow, so, who knows!

The one major mechanical I actually remember having was a few years in NRT on the way back to EWR - it was a 4 hour delay and they gave us food vouchers. Also, they put more fuel in the plane and got us there only 2 hours late. Lastly, they automatically pushed an apology e-mail our a few days later and credited some miles to my Onepass acct.

Just boarded Ua806, finally! Almost a 3hr delay for a 2.5 hr flight...

I'm actually quite puzzled by the delay reason... our 7:34pm departure flight was 'waiting for inbound flight ' which was ua819 scheduled to arrive at 9:15! Tried to ask phone reservation, RCC club agent, gate agent, they all had no clue why our flight was waiting for a flight that's scheduled to arrive later than our departure time.

Of course, after the flight arrived, it underwent mechanical repairs and we had to wait for another plane.

Oh guess what's happening now... the entire plane just waited more than 15 minutes for the food truck to show up... now they are wheeling the food carts in from the rear doors up and down the aisle...

Just boarded Ua806, finally! Almost a 3hr delay for a 2.5 hr flight...

I'm actually quite puzzled by the delay reason... our 7:34pm departure flight was 'waiting for inbound flight ' which was ua819 scheduled to arrive at 9:15! Tried to ask phone reservation, RCC club agent, gate agent, they all had no clue why our flight was waiting for a flight that's scheduled to arrive later than our departure time.

Of course, after the flight arrived, it underwent mechanical repairs and we had to wait for another plane.

Oh guess what's happening now... the entire plane just waited more than 15 minutes for the food truck to show up... now they are wheeling the food carts in from the rear doors up and down the aisle...



Your flight's original aircraft must have had issues earlier in the day, warranting a swap out for the next available aircraft, which apparently was the aircraft operating UA819.