testver68

Thought someone might have posted on this, but didnt see - apologies if repeat....

Boarded full flight on time for 1:55 departure (op up to first which was nice)....taxied to end of runway, pilot says a warning light on and need return gate....we site gate til 3:30, we taxi again as far as end of international terminal, ominous delay before turning right, pilot comes on again - "this plane won't go and crew will now be off...not sure what is going to happen".....got us all off, found a plane quickly but had no crew so announced a 10 pm decision time, at 6 they finally said they were confirmed with a new crew.....i slept in lounge (service extremely nice and apologetic - they woke me when boarding, tried to get me on lh to muc before flight was a go and gave an additional swu)...then we all boarded and still sat and gate....pilot came on "uh, our 3rd pilot is on the bay bridge"...."ok, he's at candlestick"..."he's parking"....we took off at 10:30

Arrived frankfurt at 18:35 on xmas eve (vs 9:45 am scheduled)....very sad all the europeans going home for xmas with the eve being more important than the day.....sad but helpful service folks met plane - half plane was put immediately into a hotel (not many flts left).....i luckily had one more zurich connection (and my skis made it).....didnt make it to ski town to meet family, but went to midnight mass so mom happy...

all in all, thought ual did well....some folks were yelling at frankfurt folks and i said to one "what were they supposed to do, fly a dangerous plane?"....i guess they could have pulled the plug on the first plane earlier, but all in all ok..