Originally Posted by
star_world
UA is much more dependent on connecting traffic at ORD than BA or AA.
If a huge portion of your passengers aren't there, operationally it is often better to cancel everything and re-start the next day. UA is operating a schedule today for LHR-ORD that is close to on time, vs. AA with at least an hour's delay on one of their flights (probably due to crew rest after the long outbound delays yesterday).
I think you're missing the essential point here which is that they're operating an airline, whose sole purpose is to carry the most passengers at the highest possible fares.
Large-scale cancellations are done for only one* reason, and that is to maximize the overall efficiency of the operation. There isn't some nefarious plan underway that the "press" needs to investigate
* Actually two now - huge per-passenger fines for long ground delays imposed by the US govt. definitely influence decisions on whether or not to cancel flights in severe IRROPS situations.
I think you are wrong about ORD, AA has a roughly similar portion of its traffic as "connecting" traffic. But I do think you are correct about UAL's decission here, and its nice to see someone come clean on it.
UAL had two choices:
(1) It could
try to get folks to their destinations.
Doing so would involve paying large amounts of OT pay and other expenses and at the end of the day having some planes or people be out of place. Passengers may be late, but they get to their destination, and we have all been in "weather events" and when an airline goes the extra mile, we are grateful, it ads to our loyalty. This is what DAL and AA chose to do.
(2) it can cancel flights, and tell passengers to go stuff it. It then offers them flights in a week, tells them they can't get a refund and UAL will not pay any of their expenses. This saves UAL money AND has the benefit of pushing up PRASM as flights are then 100% packed for a few days and UAL has flown fewer ASMs system wide. However, it angers a lot of people and you get what you see on UAL's facebook page - which is thousands of upset people. Hopefully, many of these folks file DOT complaints about things like refusing to refund tickets or trying to charge a change fee.
]Regardless, as you admit, with the current management, doing the right thing, or trying to get people to their destination on time, or at all, is about the 18th priority.