For the 2nd time in 15 days, my plane gets into ORD and door does not open.

The first time was some kind of problem with the jetway. They had to reposition it twice and the door finally opened. We were stuck on the plane for a good 5-10 minutes. Funny thing is that Smisek was on the plane.

Today, the flgiht was already late. We pulled into the gate but no one came to open the door for almost 10 minutes.

I looked at united.com both times. It seems the arrival time is set when the plane pulls in - I think the parking break sends a message via ACARS for the arrival?

If passengers can't get off the plane, has the plane really arrived?

DOT statistics aside, I can see there are 3 issues:

1 - disputes with UA when it causes misconnects - if the door open time is not kept, it works against the passenger

2 - people who are outside waiting - if it takes 15 minutes for the door to open after the flight shows Arrived at Gate on united.com - I can see people who are waiting outside to pick up people start wondering if their passenger made the flight. Of course, it is not too bad nowadays with mobile phones

3 - if UA does not keep statistics on this, how can it hold agents responsible/improve?

Years ago, I was on a CO flight. They had to close the door and pass in a missing F meal from the cockpit window. They said closing the door was tracked and counted as flight departure...

Do they still have sensors on the doors for timing purposes? Obviously "Door Close" time for departure and "Parking Break On" time for Arrival make the numbers look better but....

Thoughts?