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Does united Club extend hours for delayed flights?
Not sure if this has been addressed anywhere, please combine if it has been answered.
looks like lots of UA flights out of SFO are delayed because of weather. Just checking if United Club will extend the hours. My flight is suppose to leave at 11PM but looks like it is delayed to past midnight. Any answer will help me to plan my time.
Not in my experience. I recall being in LAX at one point last year when several flights were delayed and the UC did not stay open to accommodate the pax. When I asked the gate agents why, they basically just shrugged and said it's not up to them (which I can understand, since that part is true), but it would have been nice for the station manager or someone in management to have recognized the situation and make the call to keep the lounge open a little while longer.
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I've had it happen at IAD, where the last IAD-FRA of the day was on rolling delays that ended up lasting about 3 hours. Most of the staff went home, I think, and they put away all the food/drinks, but when I returned to the club (which was just across from the gate for that flight) after they announced the delay at the gate, they unexpectedly let me in despite it being past the posted hours. There were a number of other people there, too, waiting out the delay, and they let us stay there until the flight left.
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A few months ago, I was waiting in the CLE lounge on a delayed flight and they surprisingly kept the club open just for me. Three employees stayed worked past hours. After an hour beyond the closing time, I left even though my flight was delayed again; I just felt guilty keeping them there. It was very kind of them.
looks like lots of UA flights out of SFO are delayed because of weather. Just checking if United Club will extend the hours. My flight is suppose to leave at 11PM but looks like it is delayed to past midnight.
Since you mention SFO specifically .....
This August YVR-SFO went mechanical, so we were delayed until they scrounged up another aircraft to fly us to DFW. Don't know about other flights that day, but the club closed on time that day and I was left to wonder the terminal.
And in other delays they never kept the club open when I had to wait.
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I've had several extended delays when in CLE and they've always stayed open. There had been several people in the club as well, but they never had a problem. The biggest thing was the fact that the bar closed.
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I can all most guarantee you that it has everything to do with which Station Mgr authorizes O.T and which ones does not! (Added flavoring of lazy agents that want to go home, no matter what, can also be added to the mixture)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LilAbner
I can all most guarantee you that it has everything to do with which Station Mgr authorizes O.T and which ones does not! (Added flavoring of lazy agents that want to go home, no matter what, can also be added to the mixture)
Yea, it's lazy agents who want to go home at their go home times. It can't be that they have other committments or might be working a double (or a double the next day.) Anyone who doesn't want to stay beyond what they are scheduld for every time someone wants the club to stay open for them must by definition, be lazy. (sorry forthe taking out of context, but you really set yurself up for that.) Not every labor unit sacrafices their own time out of the goodness of their heart every time for a customer's best interests. A lot of agents are single parents (or dual income parents working alternate shifts) who have other people (sitter/daycare) who are also dependant on thm returning at a pre-arranged time, and it isn't necessarily being "lazy" to want to fulfill your personal committments just becuase te employeer can't fulfill theirs.
As to the rest of you post, I agree. When whatever mgmt authority declares an "operational emergency" and requires a shift to stay beyond their go home time, if there are enough agents to keep the club rooms open, they are usually kept open, especially if there is a delayed Intl flight departing near the room.
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Ask yourself, "what are reasons that they might keep the lounge open?", and compare those answers against the incentives/metrics by which employees do their jobs.
You will quickly find that the answer to your origina question is "rarely/never".
Yea, it's lazy agents who want to go home at their go home times. It can't be that they have other committments or might be working a double (or a double the next day.) Anyone who doesn't want to stay beyond what they are scheduld for every time someone wants the club to stay open for them must by definition, be lazy. (sorry forthe taking out of context, but you really set yurself up for that.) Not every labor unit sacrafices their own time out of the goodness of their heart every time for a customer's best interests. A lot of agents are single parents (or dual income parents working alternate shifts) who have other people (sitter/daycare) who are also dependant on thm returning at a pre-arranged time, and it isn't necessarily being "lazy" to want to fulfill your personal committments just becuase te employeer can't fulfill theirs.
As to the rest of you post, I agree. When whatever mgmt authority declares an "operational emergency" and requires a shift to stay beyond their go home time, if there are enough agents to keep the club rooms open, they are usually kept open, especially if there is a delayed Intl flight departing near the room.
I've had 5 different professions in my lifetime and everyone of them entailed being available for emergency OT and if I didn't like it I could transfer to another department or quit. I've worked doubles, triples and sometimes didn't get home for days at a time. I didn't set myself up for anything, I voluntarily & gladly accepted my position and it's the lazy UC service specialists that sit on their a$$es all day in the UC that want to go home promptly that should move to the gates and let someone else take their position. If it's too much to ask them to remain around so disserviced pax's (that pay a lot of money) can have a place to stay, because they pay for that privilege then these "Special Agent's" need to make room for people that know what it's like to work like I did for over 50 years. Everyone of my previous jobs where I was employed I did because I wanted to have that position, and I new that if something out of the ordinary popped up I was going to have to work over, period. It WAS NOT MY CHOICE and if I balked someone else was doing my job in a nanosecond.
Last edited by iluv2fly; Dec 22, 12 at 1:54 am..
Reason: not going there
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thanks for the reply. Due to lots of delay. They let us stay in the lounge. Coffee and beverage service close at 10:30 pm. Almost 1:00 AM and still at the club.
A few years back my flight from FLL was delayed from 7:30PM to 1:00AM and they left the club open but it was left unattended after 10PM. The gate for our flight was right next to the club. This was before the merger and from my experience most of the CO PC clubs would try and stay open when flights were delayed.
I've had 5 different professions in my lifetime and everyone of them entailed being available for emergency OT and if I didn't like it I could transfer to another department or quit. I've worked doubles, triples and sometimes didn't get home for days at a time. I didn't set myself up for anything, I voluntarily & gladly accepted my position and it's the lazy UC service specialists that sit on their a$$es all day in the UC that want to go home promptly that should move to the gates and let someone else take their position. If it's too much to ask them to remain around so disserviced pax's (that pay a lot of money) can have a place to stay, because they pay for that privilege then these "Special Agent's" need to make room for people that know what it's like to work like I did for over 50 years. Everyone of my previous jobs where I was employed I did because I wanted to have that position, and I new that if something out of the ordinary popped up I was going to have to work over, period. It WAS NOT MY CHOICE and if I balked someone else was doing my job in a nanosecond.
I wouldn't call restocking the trail mix container an "emergency." I too answer client inquiries at incredibly inconvenient times and deal with people in other time zones every day. Tough luck, it's my choice.
But, we're talking about staff at a UC who make coffee and clean the seating areas. A flight delay is not an emergency, most pax manage just fine without a club and there's nothing about the situation that suggests an "emergency" which justifies overtime or demanding that these particular workers stay.
That said, if there are workers looking for the OT and it seems reasonable, it's doable. I have to suspect that UA (as do other carriers) has guidance for its station managers on this and doesn't just willy-nilly approve / disappaprove the expense.
