Originally Posted by
NgatesSEA
Curiosity for those here with more experience. I am booked on UA857 next week (SFO-PVG, operated by 789 but was 744 until last week).
What is unique about this flight and the delay pattern? My initial guesses seem disprovable: it would not seem to be equipment (arrivals have been delayed 51, 72, 33, and 103 minutes, respectively, since AC switched from 744 to 789, and lots of other 789 flights with good ratings); it would not seem to be PVG ATC/Chinese authorities (UA's later SFO-PVG and LAX-PVG flights each have good on-time ratings, and ORD-PVG is on-time 90%+); it would not seem to be ex-SFO issues (UA's SFO-HKG flight departs around same time and has good on-time rating, as does the later SFO-PVG flight).
Anything special driving UA857's on-time performance? Thanks.
I'd be cautious (and you were) in saying that it's not PVG ATC/Chinese authorities. It all depends on the time of day, when the flight is scheduled to get in, and what's going on in the airspace at that time. Even then, when flights are delayed in Chinese airspace, it is not a logical determination. I'll provide an example, three flights were scheduled (different carriers) from LAX-PVG and supposed to take off in the same 20 minutes of each other. To my knowledge, all three boarded, had appropriate staffing, catering, etc (based on coworkers reports). I was delayed by 2 hours due to "ATC". They were not. As far as I could tell, no additional bags were loaded, no staff/passengers were allowed to deplane or swap flights, etc. Equipment was there. Catering was there. Everything seemed fine. Logically, does it make sense? No. It could even be the short end of the straw.
HKG is different than PVG. Never experienced a delay into HKG for non-united reason.
That being said, I did fly this in the past month and a unique delay that irked me was the fact that United said it could not taxi a 747 to my gate because of the fact that there was congestion on SFO taxiways. For 2.5 hours. Despite the plane having been in the hanger since the night before. To my knowledge, no other plane departing SFO was delayed for a similar reason, even other 747 flights, only mine.
Not sure if any of this helps, just trying to show that sometimes, you can't find a pattern / cast blame on a certain reason. I've tried, and without getting someone to talk honestly about a flight and the reasons for its delay (your captain would be your best bet on the day of departure), you might not ever know or be able to predict how things will go.