Originally Posted by
melynn44
Didn't have Japan on my bingo card for this trip, but....hey, everything is on the table at this point.
My concern is more about incoming flights to SFO....not the outbound. Actually if the outbound flight was delayed, that would help me a little bit.
I did see that flights were delayed there for a few days, but over the last couple of days, it does seem to be closer to leaving on time, if not early.
I actually thought of the same....I had read about people having to wait on the tarmac to leave, because of the curfew. So, I thought maybe that would buy me some time. Unfortunately, it looks like the TP fight leaves the gate on time, if not a couple minutes early. (Not great news for me) But, then they taxi for like 30 minutes before taking off. I think it would just about kill me if my flight is just sitting out on the tarmac, but I can't get on it.
It didn't occur to me to think of other cities....great idea. I think the Melbourne flight *might* be my Plan B.
The only problem is I have a flight once I land in Australia, on to another location. However, it is not a part of this ticket, it's on a separate flight. That flight is about 3-4 hours after I am scheduled to land which....once again, seemed like plenty of time. But, I don't think they can get me from Melbourne to Sydney in time for me to catch that flight. Now, there IS a Virgin flight from Melbourne on to my intended destination. Not sure if United would play ball with that or not. And also, my luggage would still be back in Sydney.
Ok, so Plan B isn't ideal but....at least I have a general Plan B.
(a) You’re misinterpreting your the statistics you’re quoting
(b) You’re way, way over-analyzing this.
(c) You likely have plenty of time.
When you’re quoting taxi times, you need to be aware that UA
plans for long taxi times based upon their experiences with traffic at a given airport at a given time of day. They’re already included in both the scheduled and actual arrival times. Yes, it’s particularly frustrating when you arrive, then taxi around waiting for your gate to open or whatever, but it’s not a separate, additive delay. It’s already baked in.
The flight time between BNA and SFO is about 4h30m, so they’re already baking in about 15m in taxi times. Even if you taxi for an hour on arrival — well more than what would be common — you still have time to make your connecting flight. The risk is going to be a departure delay or inclement weather
en route that forces a massive diversion from the great circle route.
As for Plan B: UA isn’t going to “play ball” with buying you a ticket from MEL to wherever you’re going, unless maybe that destination is very close to Sydney and the delay is considered under UA’s control (mechanical, etc.). However, there’s at least a possibility that if you do manage to miss this flight, you can get them to take you to MEL instead and end the journey there. Then, you can buy a ticket to wherever you’re going. Also, Australia handles customs at the first port of entry, similar to the USA, so if you did need to skip a leg of travel, you’d likely have your bags. Note that if this an outbound of a round trip, UA will cancel the return trip if you do this.