Originally Posted by
jsloan
UA doesn't fly to Istanbul; that's a Turkish Airlines flight. Either there was a schedule change that UA is interpreting as an early departure, or United is reading from a system that's showing an early estimated pushback.
Early departures are quite common -- they're just not usually announced. But if you check the flight status after departure, you may find a 5 PM scheduled departure that pushed back at 4:55 PM because everyone was boarded and the paperwork was ready promptly.
While good advice as always....the 4:55pm departure is showing at 11:35am. So hopefully the plane has not pushed back yet :-D
Sometimes early departures are due to weather and congestion factors and the airline will try to get the plane out early to avoid such things. I don't normally see UA do this but I do see DL do this all the time with their international departures with the boards showing a new estimated departure 5-15 minutes earlier than scheduled departure. The general feeling on the DL board (outside of weather or congestion) is DL does this to get everyone to get the gate for a super full flight as they know boarding will take longer than normal. Of course it doesn't help those with connections who originally booked a legal connection but might be in the air on the first leg to find their 35 minute connection is now scheduled for 20.
-RM