thanks, yea it’s been super frustrating as they seemed to be withholding certain info, or telling them different reasonings. Was wondering if there was something more sinister instead.

they had to board the plane a total of 3 times. They were delayed badly as it seemed they were missing crew (turns out it was the captain). Once they were onboard, they taxied to the runway, spooled up for take-off, then returned to gate, supposedly because “they realized they were missing a flight attendant”, which actually turned out to be a hydraulic issue. They deplaned, and were delayed overnight as the crew timed out.

The 2nd time they boarded the next morning, the oxygen masks deployed while boarding, and the PA went crazy shouting emergency instructions. Gate agents said they anticipated only a 30minute delay, but maintenance was much more upfront and told a few passengers it would be at least 2 hours. Finally they swapped the plane, and they successfully made their way to Taipei.

Once they landed, the ground staff and quarantine officials there were (sort of) unaware with the COVID test and quarantine entry form extension that United had supposedly negotiated with the Taiwan officials, so their Quarantine Entry form details were already purged from the system due to the delay. Luckily, they just had to fill out the form again, but that added another 30-45mins of waiting until they received the arrival text message with the green light to go ahead.

The only thing I was happy about was how fast United sent everyone the text message links for meal vouchers and to book their overnight hotels, and the proactive (but imo way too little) $150 ETC compensation for the delay.