I'm posting this recent United experience to get your take on what may have happened behind the scenes here and why United 1K Customer Service didn't seem at all interested in what happened.
Briefly, the issue concerns flight 763 from SFO to IAD on 1/1/13. To put it mildly, the arrival into IAD did not go well. United incorrectly reported on its web site that the flight arrived 34 minutes early. Yet that description mischaracterized what really happened. Soon after landing, the 777 taxied to the gate and remained parked without allowing anyone to deplane for an unusually long time. The pilot soon announced that the jetway was experiencing mechanical problems. Specifically, the hydraulics had failed. The pilot informed us that mechanics had been called to attempt to fix it. Yet after nearly 40 minutes, the jetway was still broken. The pilot made a final announcement that we would be removed from the plane by a Dulles people mover. Nearly 15 minutes later, the people mover came and loaded all of the passengers. But rather than to transport us to the main terminal, incredibly, the people mover only took us to the other side of the D concourse. We then had to take yet another people mover to go to the main terminal. All told, we remained unable to exit the plane for nearly one hour after its arrival at the gate. Worse, we arrived at baggage claim even later than that. Once we finally arrived at Baggage Claim, our bags were no longer designated at a carousel on the screens. Some of us went to the United Baggage Services office for assistance. Surprisingly, Baggage Services was unaware of the broken jetway incident. Consequently, Baggage Services had moved our bags to a holding area on the side, but the United staff did not inform the passengers of this. We had to find our bags ourselves.
As I mentioned above, I called United's 1K Customer Service (in Hawaii now?) in hopes that United would even consider some type of minor compensation. (I redeemed a Premier Regional Upgrade, which would have been worth it had it not been for this fiasco.) The representative I spoke with looked at the records she had available for this flight and did not know about the jetway problem. In fact, she was showing that the flight was 34 minutes early. And as for dealing with effects of the broken jetway, she said this wasn't a compensatable issue because "the delay was less than four hours." I politely attempted to explain that this wasn't a delay in the traditional sense but rather an inability to exit the aircraft upon arrival. That went nowhere. Finally, she said that even if the jetway issue was compensatable, the maintenance of the jetway was the sole responsibility of Dulles airport in the same way a landlord is solely responsible for the maintenance of an apartment. I do not agree with her analogy. And perhaps her comment about the responsibility for the maintenance of the jetway was more of a guess on her part than a fact.
Here are my questions for you in the FT community. Feel free to answer all, some, or none of them.
1. Why did United list this flight on its website as 34 minutes early when passengers could not exit the aircraft until an hour after we arrived at the gate?
2. After the pilot realized the jetway wasn't operable, could the situation have been handled any differently? I do not understand why the Dulles people mover picked us up only to take us to the other side of the same terminal--for us to then take another people mover back to the main terminal/baggage claim.
3. On the jetway maintenance issue, it would seem to me that United leases the gate, operates the gate, and has at least some responsibility to maintain it. However, could the 1K Customer Service representative be correct that the maintenance issue is solely the responsibility of Dulles rather than United?
4. Why did United's Dulles Baggage Services not know about the jetway problem? After none of the passengers had picked up their bags by an hour after the aircraft had landed, maybe someone from Baggage Services could have inquired about the flight. (And this is assuming that no one from Ground Operations informed Baggage Services of the jetway problem.)
5. Do you think this is worth any compensation? Is this worth a complaint to the DoT for statistical recording purposes and perhaps also to highlight an area of concern?
Thank you in advance for your thoughts. I hope this wasn't too long. Angry airline employees who want to attack me for daring to ask if this was compensatable need not respond.
1. It landed early.
2. I'd be unimpressed if I were connecting to a different flight in the same terminal and I was people-moved to the main terminal. Disgorging you in the terminal you arrived in was the right call.
3. Don't know.
4. It would have been nice for the baggage folks to leave the bags on the carousel, or to provide signage telling delayed passengers like yourself where to go. But you found them soon enough even without that.
5. Doubt you'll get compensation, seeing as you already tried & failed. Up to you to complain to the DOT.
Programs: UA Premier, Priority Club Gold, Choice Privileges Gold
Posts: 272
Quote:
Originally Posted by HNL2017
Happy New Year FT'ers,
I'm posting this recent United experience to get your take on what may have happened behind the scenes here and why United 1K Customer Service didn't seem at all interested in what happened.
Briefly, the issue concerns flight 763 from SFO to IAD on 1/1/13. To put it mildly, the arrival into IAD did not go well. United incorrectly reported on its web site that the flight arrived 34 minutes early. Yet that description mischaracterized what really happened. Soon after landing, the 777 taxied to the gate and remained parked without allowing anyone to deplane for an unusually long time. The pilot soon announced that the jetway was experiencing mechanical problems. Specifically, the hydraulics had failed. The pilot informed us that mechanics had been called to attempt to fix it. Yet after nearly 40 minutes, the jetway was still broken. The pilot made a final announcement that we would be removed from the plane by a Dulles people mover. Nearly 15 minutes later, the people mover came and loaded all of the passengers. But rather than to transport us to the main terminal, incredibly, the people mover only took us to the other side of the D concourse. We then had to take yet another people mover to go to the main terminal. All told, we remained unable to exit the plane for nearly one hour after its arrival at the gate. Worse, we arrived at baggage claim even later than that. Once we finally arrived at Baggage Claim, our bags were no longer designated at a carousel on the screens. Some of us went to the United Baggage Services office for assistance. Surprisingly, Baggage Services was unaware of the broken jetway incident. Consequently, Baggage Services had moved our bags to a holding area on the side, but the United staff did not inform the passengers of this. We had to find our bags ourselves.
As I mentioned above, I called United's 1K Customer Service (in Hawaii now?) in hopes that United would even consider some type of minor compensation. (I redeemed a Premier Regional Upgrade, which would have been worth it had it not been for this fiasco.) The representative I spoke with looked at the records she had available for this flight and did not know about the jetway problem. In fact, she was showing that the flight was 34 minutes early. And as for dealing with effects of the broken jetway, she said this wasn't a compensatable issue because "the delay was less than four hours." I politely attempted to explain that this wasn't a delay in the traditional sense but rather an inability to exit the aircraft upon arrival. That went nowhere. Finally, she said that even if the jetway issue was compensatable, the maintenance of the jetway was the sole responsibility of Dulles airport in the same way a landlord is solely responsible for the maintenance of an apartment. I do not agree with her analogy. And perhaps her comment about the responsibility for the maintenance of the jetway was more of a guess on her part than a fact.
Here are my questions for you in the FT community. Feel free to answer all, some, or none of them.
1. Why did United list this flight on its website as 34 minutes early when passengers could not exit the aircraft until an hour after we arrived at the gate?
2. After the pilot realized the jetway wasn't operable, could the situation have been handled any differently? I do not understand why the Dulles people mover picked us up only to take us to the other side of the same terminal--for us to then take another people mover back to the main terminal/baggage claim.
3. On the jetway maintenance issue, it would seem to me that United leases the gate, operates the gate, and has at least some responsibility to maintain it. However, could the 1K Customer Service representative be correct that the maintenance issue is solely the responsibility of Dulles rather than United?
4. Why did United's Dulles Baggage Services not know about the jetway problem? After none of the passengers had picked up their bags by an hour after the aircraft had landed, maybe someone from Baggage Services could have inquired about the flight. (And this is assuming that no one from Ground Operations informed Baggage Services of the jetway problem.)
5. Do you think this is worth any compensation? Is this worth a complaint to the DoT for statistical recording purposes and perhaps also to highlight an area of concern?
Thank you in advance for your thoughts. I hope this wasn't too long. Angry airline employees who want to attack me for daring to ask if this was compensatable need not respond.
I am sorry you had a bad experience but the Dulles agent was correct.
1) Flight times are determined by when the parking brakes on the aircraft are engaged and disengaged.
2) Not everyone on the plane was terminating in Washington. Connecting passengers needed to be accommodated
3) In most cases the airport is responsible for jetway mx. It is included in the lease.
4) Dulles is not a small station, the baggage service people are mostly likely too busy to worry about the status of one flight, especially if no one is off the plane to inquiring about the baggage.
5) No. Sometimes crap happens. You weren't really inconvenienced other than being 20 minutes behind schedule getting off the plane.
(I redeemed a Premier Regional Upgrade, which would have been worth it had it not been for this fiasco.)
So the 5.5 hours in a business class seat wasn't worth it? You really used it for more expeditious deboarding?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HNL2017
Briefly, the issue concerns flight 763 from SFO to IAD on 1/1/13. To put it mildly, the arrival into IAD did not go well. United incorrectly reported on its web site that the flight arrived 34 minutes early. Yet that description mischaracterized what really happened. Soon after landing, the 777 taxied to the gate and remained parked
1. Why did United list this flight on its website as 34 minutes early when passengers could not exit the aircraft until an hour after we arrived at the gate?
(emphasis mine)
That's an arrival. Self-loading cargo crossing the threshold has nothing to do with arriving. Deboarding is a post-arrival process.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HNL2017
2. After the pilot realized the jetway wasn't operable, could the situation have been handled any differently?
Sure. The captain could have adopted some cavalier, powered back, and parked at someone elses gate. Probably not the best decision, but certainly a possibility. Or called zone, found an open gate, and been tugged over... which requires open gates and tugs to be available.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HNL2017
I do not understand why the Dulles people mover picked us up only to take us to the other side of the same terminal--for us to then take another people mover back to the main terminal/baggage claim.
Probably for connecting passengers - with the delayed deboarding there are potentially connections at risk. Terminating passengers are generally more able to tolerate an additional wait than connecting passengers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HNL2017
3. On the jetway maintenance issue, it would seem to me that United leases the gate, operates the gate, and has at least some responsibility to maintain it. However, could the 1K Customer Service representative be correct that the maintenance issue is solely the responsibility of Dulles rather than United?
I haven't actually seen the gate lease contarct, but jetway mx is likely the airport operator's (MWAA) responsibility.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HNL2017
4. Why did United's Dulles Baggage Services not know about the jetway problem? After none of the passengers had picked up their bags by an hour after the aircraft had landed, maybe someone from Baggage Services could have inquired about the flight. (And this is assuming that no one from Ground Operations informed Baggage Services of the jetway problem.)
No one called them? They didn't need to know? They're not inherently curious people? Dis-serviced passengers from earlier flights occupied their time? SHARES?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HNL2017
5. Do you think this is worth any compensation? Is this worth a complaint to the DoT for statistical recording purposes and perhaps also to highlight an area of concern?
34 mins prior to scheduled arrival is when they probably dropped the blocks. The jetway was broken and you got a ride to the terminal, and then had to go a little further than you would have liked. You recovered your luggage a little later than you would have if the jetway wasn't broken. No mis-connect or rude c/s agents in this story. Why not make it easy and tell people on FT how much of an inconvenience this really was and by riding the people mover instead of walking down the jetway, you missed in life, and what you feel that you are entitled to receive. I don't think that this incident is any BIG DEAL and/or worthy of even complaining about, but that' just me. Others may feel differently however, because if EVERYTHING doesn't go exactly hunky dorey people want something (even if it's small) or else they're contacting the DOT.
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I was also on this flight. UA makes such a big thing about being early then sure enough something messes up. I was on shuttle three and got to the terminal one hour after the plane arrived per UA at the gate. UA should be honest on their website and at least note the issue. But it is UA.
Is it me or does the threshold for wanting compensation keep getting lower and lower? I've experienced a few jetway malfunctions in my years. Big deal. It's beyond UA's control. Probably need to sue the airport management if you want a target.
I was also on this flight. UA makes such a big thing about being early then sure enough something messes up. I was on shuttle three and got to the terminal one hour after the plane arrived per UA at the gate. UA should be honest on their website and at least note the issue. But it is UA.
This subject has been discussed for years on FT. The time of arrival is when the chalk blocks are dropped @ the tires. I've been on many flights where the jetbridge driver didn't show up for 15 to 20 to even 30 mins after we arrived at the gate and it ticks me off, but this incident where a jetway goes mx is not something to make a big deal out of, as [stuff] happens!!!
Last edited by FlyinHawaiian; Jan 4, 13 at 2:20 am..
Reason: profanity neither welcomed nor allowed
Congrats on a rare opportunity to de-plane via an IAD people mover — which was the intended original purpose of the people movers. (They were meant to be "mobile lounges" that took you to your aircraft!)
If you didn't miss a connection and didn't lose your baggage, and your arrival to baggage claim was delayed by less than half an hour, you're probably not going to get any compensation from United. You can escalate, but they're probably not gonna budge.
You're probably also not going to get much sympathy from the crowd here — moderately frequent travelers can attest that this is not a big deal. I think most of the folks here will say that while it sounds like UA had some operational problems that slowed down your travel experience, this should not be a big deal. Now, if your seat's recline hadn't worked, that would be a different story…
To be sure, there are circumstances where a one-hour delay from landing to being allowed off the plane can cause discomfort. I remember waiting about an hour from landing in LAX to being at a gate because of gate occupancy and crossing traffic, and *at all times we were on an active taxiway*, which, given that I really, really, really wanted to duck over to the lav, felt like sheer torture!
I hope this is the worst travel experience you have all year. We should all be so lucky
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Posts: 1,265
I don't see any reason for compensation.
- Your flight arrived early.
- Waiting to deplane happens very often - have been stuck on the runway for over an hour waiting for the gate to be "opened".
- You found your bag.
The only thing that UA could have done is request another gate instead of using the people mover but I assume no other gates were free to use at that time.
jetway fiasco at Dulles -- Was United wrong?
