Originally Posted by SFOTurtle

Was supposed to fly home on August 7 from BKK to SFO via NRT. At 5:30 a.m., with 250+ people at the gate ready to board on schedule for the 6:05 departure, a gate agent announced that there was an unspecified "mechanical" problem and that the flight would be delayed for 45 minutes. I sensed BS immediately. Fortunately, my wife and I and maybe 15 or so others were about to re-route to SFO (but in Y on Cathay Pacific) and made it home yesterday. To make matters more interesting, the inbound UA 744 later that night from NRT to BKK was also canceled due to "aircraft servicing" issues. So apparently the 744 that couldn't fly on August 7 from BKK to NRT was able to be "fixed" on Sunday and flew out this morning on August 8 from BKK to NRT as 838. Who knows what UA did to accomodate everyone, if they have already.

Can anyone give a rational explanation for these "aircraft servicing" issues? Now, I also can report that on Sunday morning, the 744 parked at gate D7 in BKK did nary have a single light on the entire time we were at the airport. And we also never saw a single member of the crew -- either pilots or flight attendants -- at any time. Which makes me suspect, as I did at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, that there was nothing wrong with the aircraft at all.

Is this nonsense/chaos typical for the BKK-NRT-BKK flight?