Originally Posted by pkimball

On Wednesday I was scheduled to take UA 4649 from YYZ-EWR, departing at 7:30pm. It was first delayed to 8:45 because the plane was late getting in; and then the delays kept coming. 9:10, 9:40, 10:20, 10:40. The plane had arrived, but the reason given for each of these subsequent delays was that the flight crew was having difficulty getting through U.S. Customs. Finally, at about 11pm, we were told the flight had been cancelled because the crew was never able to get through, and that the U.S. Customs line had "closed at 9:00."

Oh, you can imagine how that announcement went over at that point.

After the swearing and shouting ceased (with the gate supervisor arguing back with some of the more irascible passengers over the PA system! Everyone was just toast at that point including the staff), we all went back through Canada Customs, got hotel/meal vouchers, and were rebooked for morning flights.

The next morning as I went through U.S. Customs to my rebooked flight, I asked an agent whether they had in fact closed at 9:00 the previous night, and he laughed, shook his head, and said something to the effect of "we don't close." Which of course, if true, raises the question of whether United misrepresented the reasons for the delay and cancellation, and what other reason they would have been covering for.

One thing none of us got was a compensatory voucher. I guess I had thought that there was something akin to IDB vouchers to be given out if a flight gets cancelled for operational reasons and you don't get to your destination for several hours (11 hours in my case). What have people's experiences been in this kind of situation?

Originally Posted by FlyerChrisK

Don't forget "air traffic control" being blamed for delays when other airlines are flying normally.

Earlier this week, our pilot (on a UA flight) told us we were delaying our departure to allow for passengers to connect to our flight. United.com blamed ATC for our delay.