Originally Posted by Jetstreamer
just got back off UA930 SFO-LHR and the same thing happened. Ch9 was available for around 90 minutes after take off and never came back on again. We took quite a strange southerly route going as far south as Tulsa before heading north east and over the atlantic. This route would explain why, even though we left on time and had a strong tail wind getting up to a ground speed of 670mph, we arrived 5 minutes late.
The upper midwest has been in a very large swirling weather pattern (looks like a hurricane, almost) for the past few days, although I think it has moved out now. I suspect that this pushed the jet stream to the south, explaining the southerly route, but this is just speculation.