Originally Posted by
am1108
Sorry, didn't catch that the first time around.
What did you not catch?
Originally Posted by
Tunapalooza
I'm physically in the aircraft and can assure you that the departure delay is solely due to a mechanical fault with the aircraft. Unless the captain is lying, which I doubt. Each of his updates on the mechanical problems was followed by an automated update blaming weather. There may yet be a weather delay, but it hasn't happened yet.
I don't doubt what you said. I just pointed out that the weather is currently the cause of many delays into SFO (and I provided a non-UA source saying that 2h+ ground holds were the norm for flights to SFO).
I've been on the end of quite a few of UA's mechanical delays turned weather/ATC/"not our fault". I know UA tries to BS its way out of almost any IIROP, e.g. the time my IAD-HPN flight was diverted back to IAD. Half an hour after "arrival" the delay was tagged as ATC (or weather).
In the OP's case, the actual delay would seem to be legitimately attributable to the weather, as the takeoff was 82m late, vs. the current 86m (less than before) average ground delay for SFO-bound aircraft.
As for other flights on the same route... VX71, scheduled to leave less than 30 min before UA1299, was delayed 113 minutes. VX77 is currently delayed 133 minutes. UA647 was only delayed 38 minutes.
If a 60 minute (for arguments sake) delay turns into a legitimate 90 minute weather delay that would have happened anyways, can one blame the airline? I dunno. However, if the 60 minute mechanical causes a flight that would otherwise have departed before the ground stop to get stopped before takeoff, then the weather excuse (IMHO) would be BS. From the evidence I see on FlightAware (see VX71), this does not seem to be the case here.