Originally Posted by
pdx1M
On the delays front I was 4 of 4 significant delays last week (August) and 2 of those were because the aircraft was scheduled in a way that guaranteed a delay (one a 6 minute planned turn and the other a 30 minute planned turn involving International arrival with domestic departure at ORD). If operations are scheduling airframes like that they have no chance. And while I could have been very unlucky, 2 out of 4 being planned for delays from at least the previous evening suggests this is just bad ops planning.
They don't schedule like this. If you're using the "where is this plane coming from" feature, it will show the plane you're getting, even if it was swapped out.
It sounds like your inbounds were due in significantly late, so they swapped your planes with something else to minimize the delay.
Originally Posted by
PWMRamper
I've never had an IDB that was less than the VDB. In most cases it is SIGNIFICANTLY higher, usually the maximum amount of $1300 for a domestic flight.
I'm actually thrilled the DOT increased IDB compensation. When IDB'ing somebody, they're usually pretty angry. They almost always calm down when I tell them just how much they'll be getting.
I had to IDB a family of 4 flying to Disney last month. Couldn't get them there until the following evening. They got the full $1300 check for each person, so $5200.
Are you allowed to say what your VDB maximum was in these situations?
I've seen CO IDB when they refused to up the voucher above something nominal before (e.g., $300), though that was quite a while ago.
These days I often don't wait around to see what's going down because I get turned off by the lowball starting point (e.g., $200 for a significant delay) and just get on the plane. So if they IDBed, I wouldn't even know about it.
Oh, this is sad. CBS News (TV) just reported that June 2012 was the industry's best on-time performance in some like 10 years, and the best baggage performance on record.
This makes UA's performance look even more pathetic.