Originally Posted by
BlueHenFlyer
T-storm was intense, but lasted no more than 30 minutes. UA put a 777 in the air with a crew which had NO margin for error. They stranded a TON of pax in ORD - rippled through this AM with a number of invol deboards to just get the MP pax to Denver. I agree with you and your peers - but if {UA} isn't able (with today's amazing technology) to properly plan out a flight, the pax shouldn't suffer. Looking at the flight track for 407, they were hoping against hope they could get a slot and only turned around at minimum fuel. They were nearly within easy driving distance of Denver when they turned around.
I'll let the actual UA pilots chime in as well, but they obviously wouldn't let the flight go with zero margin for error respective of safety, connections, plus a host of other considerations that you neglected to mention. The flip side to this is the flight didn't leave ORD for another 6 hours and there would still be gripes. If there was not a decent chance that the flight would have made it to DEN, it likely wouldn't have been dispatched (especially with so many PAX on a domestic leg).
You can disparage United's flight planning all you like, but a lot more goes into it then you know. This speaking from someone who has been delayed (and stuck) almost 20 hours in airports the last two days with Denver being included in that.