Originally Posted by
halls120
The point they make about the tight connection times now employed by UA create a lot of the "stuff happens" problems you dismiss. There are 3 reasons I avoid connecting through IAH on UA - it's usually out of the way, too many of the IAD-IAH flights are RJ, and the connecting times at IAH are a PITA for the way that airport is laid out.
The problem connection was in Guam. They could have added a night there to avoid problems on a one-a-day (I'm not even sure if it's daily) flight to Truk that had a 45 minute connection. As for the schedule change in Houston, there were probably alternate flights to IAH or Hawaii they could have changed to if the schedule was too tight. They made (and presumably, their luggage) their connection in Houston, nonetheless. As for Truk, they also could have added a night in HNL to comfortably catch the west bound milk run. Personally would have never booked the route and 45 minute connection in Guam they did to get to the destination. Just plain dumb. They were counting on everything working perfectly. What could go wrong with that presumption?
I re-read the post. They did overnight in HNL. They opted for the risky 45 minute connection instead of the safer direct flight.