harryhv

Delayed incoming aircraft? Why don't they just say:
The plane is late because.. the plane is late.

mduell

You say "original airplane" as if a flight owns a specific inbound flight or aircraft every day. That's now how scheduling works.

Flight 46 is late because it's waiting for an inbound aircraft that is going to become flight 46.

Often1

+1 - But, that wouldn't allow for a thread title such as, "UA ruined my life by only serving 2 ice cubes in PDB's."

rhawke

if you had read all my comments you would have seen that when I checked 3-4 hours before scheduled departure, it said the inbound aircraft had already landed and the flight was on time. So that's why I said the "original" aircraft.

MSPGabe

The website is unfortunately not always right. Tail swaps happen, and at a pretty good rate.

Now as to WHY tails swap...couldn't tell ya that. A variety of reasons.

flavorflav

Part of me wishes that UA would stop "publishing" reasons for delays. The codes we see have only the dimmest connection to reality - not because the airline is lying or scheming, but because the reason given to the customer has almost no importance to the airline. UA has its own internal system that codes and tracks delays for internal and FAA purposes - THAT is the one that matters.

The parallel public reasons we see - awaiting inbound aircraft, airport conditions, etc. - cause more heartache than they prevent.

What would be fantastic would be a completely transparent system where we passengers see the true delay reason as coded in UA's internal system. But I'm sure the airline has its reasons for not sharing all of those with the public, as is their choice. They only have to get me to point B safely, not tell me why I am late.

In short, the current system has the veneer of transparency and sharing of information but no real transparency or information.

rhawke

+1 Full Agreement.

PS: I finally arrived at my destination 5 hours delayed due to a missed connection ... time to get sleep ...

Beerman92

So DOT reports get the actual reason. Pax don't need the actual reason.

DOT stats actually matter. Pax don't matter.

Thanks for re-affirming what many have posted on FT about United viewing its customers as a nuisance.

sfogate

Pax do matter BUT do you really what to know everything that occured prior to posting "await aircraft"?

I worked a delayed flight last night and a customer asked me why it was late. I explained the situation with a runway being closed for repair, flight flow, yada yada and her response was we should have done something else instead of leaving late.

It takes most customers 20 minutes to deplane any aircraft. 10-15 minutes for cleaning and we cater while boarding.

Boarding times vary due to carry on bag issues and wheelchair customers.

Often1

Not the case. DOT reporting looks for patterns where there are things which can be done. Not just "ATC" but what type of ATC, where was the aircraft and so on. Not only is that type of data not capable of being placed on a monitor which has 10 characters for a delay reason, but it's irrelevant.

It's also true that the customer-facing reason for a delay is the "real" reason, it's just that the explanation can get a lot more complex, but won't affect departure. "Inbound aircraft" could mean that ATC slowed it down, it's been routed around WX, there was a MX at the last station and so on. But, as a pax what you need to know is that the flight is delayed and it's because tha aircraft isn't yet at the gate. Same thing when the crew is delayed. Why the crew is delayed is irrelevant to the waiting pax. But, DOT wants to figure out if the system is working.

tpham

I was on a DEN-IAH flight where the gate agent kept telling me she "didnt know the details of why the flight was delayed and that they were sorting it out". The plane sat at the gate for nearly 2 hours with "unknown issues." Everyone eventually boarded.. then after about 30mins of being seated, the pilot announced that we were de-planning due to COCKROACHES. That was quite disgusting and embarassing for UA at the same time.

JadedRaverLA

I can see your logic, but after dealing with a United delay yesterday (flt 1549 HNL-SFO), I gotta say their passenger-facing info can be outright wrong. My brother and his new wife were supposed to leave at 6:30am HST. I checked and United said it departed. 2 1/2 hours later my brother called to tell me they had just deplaned back into the terminal. They had a long connection in SFO so I told him I'd call him at 10am HST if they were still there and make alternate plans. At 10am HST, they actually came on the PA and said there was an electrical problem, but they still had no idea what was wrong. There was a mad rush to the gate agent to try to rebook, so I hung up and called United.

Got them rebooked in the last two seats together for a flight that evening and free bump to E+. But there just weren't many options for most pax. So, after sending the couple back out to town for the day, I kept checking flight status on the original flight. First, the status changed to awaiting inbound aircraft (though the plane never changed). Then, twice, the status again said the plane took off. Both times it was apparently pulled back to the gate. Finally, at 5:18pm HST, the system went from en route to cancelled. Obviously, this was a bigger problem than usually occurs, but for those who weren't fortunate to get off that flight, what a complete mess by United.

There were still pax from their original flight trying to get rebooked when they showed back up that evening.

ytjk

Maybe I'm wrong and things have changed.

In the case of cancellation (not delay), I always thought if it was United's "fault"-- i.e. MX or crew scheduling problems, you'd get your hotel comped, at least as a 1K.

For "out of our control problems" like awaiting inbound aircraft that runs into a crew day length problem, or a "weather" problem, they do nothing for you. That's why they always list every delay as ATC or weather.

Is this still the case?

I've been mostly international lately, so I'm out of the domestic loop.

cheers
ytjk

halls120

I had a flight in August that was supposed to leave IAD at 9am for SFO. Our aircraft was inbound from ORD, and never left due to MX. So from about 8am until 9:30, the board said "awaiting inbound aircraft." Around 9:30, they changed it to "awaiting crew", because they changed us to a different aircraft that was at a different gate, but awaiting crew coming in from a different flight.

One thing I'll give UA credit for is providing this information in a timely fashion. Sure, it changes, but that's often because OPS moves planes around when things don't go according to plan.

flavorflav

I feel where you're coming from, but - in answer to your question - I really do want to know everything that occurred prior to posting "await aircraft." I suspect that many people in the FT universe do too.

That doesn't mean the majority of flyers overall want that information. That also doesn't mean that flyers -need- that information or that flyers are knowledgable consumers of that information. Again, I can see UA's reasons for not sharing every nugget of information. And if fare buckets (allegedly) confused (a few) people, this data would too.