Last night's UA839, departing LAX, was "on decision" due to maintenance at 9:15pm, 10pm, 11pm, 1145pm. Finally, we were told to board. I had been offered QF J class, but since I was in F on UA (paid J and mileage UG) and dog-tired, I decided to stick it out with UA--they wouldn't cancel a nearly-full 744, would they?
Plus, I just didn't trust getting my 2x status miles from UA over to BD when I hadn't even flown UA... and I am dirt with AA and QF, so wouldn't have gotten much in terms of miles for switching--QF's J class seat is similar to NW's, I think, which is ok but definitely not full-flat. I also didn't feel like going to TBIT in a big hurry!
I was in F, and had thoroughly enjoyed the F lounge, which never had more than 5 pax in it between 6-10pm (in fact, I was the only one from 6-9pm!). Excellent, personalized service, with plenty to eat and drink. We were escorted down to the gate, and onto the plane.
I boarded, chose movies, got amenity kit, juice, and newspapers.
By 1155pm, boarding had stopped. Crew wasn't told why.
At 1210am, pilot came on and said, "One of the three Air Conditioning APUs has been inoperative for several days on this aircraft, and HQ decided today was the day to fix it. So our vendor sent us parts (including a spare), and BOTH are defective. So, while the aircraft is fine to fly, we are waiting from HQ whether or not we're going to fly tonight, or continue to try and fix it tonight."
The guy next to me got a "Cancelled" message on his blackberry a moment later.
Luckily, I was in First Class, and Rebecca from the IFL was working hard to take care of us. I'm at the Westin, where I'm a Plat, with B/L/D meal coupons, and UAL gave us the room for 2 nights, so we can stay until we go to check in.
Still, there are 400 people to re-book, or so I thought--but now I see they've added a new UA9802 to today's schedule, LAX-SYD. UA839 is zeroe'd out.
So that's that, and I can't change anything--so I will fly tonight.
But I do have a few questions:
1) If UA has known about this APU for so long, why didn't they fix it in the many hours the plane sat at LAX? I assume it was either on a MEL run, or coming from NRT that day? Either way, it'd been at LAX most of the day, right?
2) They did offer the F pax a seat on QF, but I'm guessing they waited until it was too late (most of the NZ/QF flights leave between 9-1130pm) before they cancelled it.... and now everybody's on this "new" flight, which leaves at 11pm. So I was a little bit wondering if they might have known this wasn't going to go all day long? Maybe just a conspiracy theory... never mind.
3) Last night's F only had 5/14 filled, though Y and J were packed. Today's UA839 is completely Zeroe'd out... while UA9802 is F9J1Y1. I would prefer to take the more-empty plane......But it's scheduled for 11pm departure, AFTER the 1025pm departure of UA839... what are the chances the same aircraft goes tech again, after UA839 had left? Hmm--actually, who knows if they're using yesterday's plane for 839 or 9802? I wonder if it's possible to tell which actual plane they're using for each flight?

So--while I am VERY pleased with the UA ground staff--Rebecca at the IFL, and the GAs seemed very patient and upbeat--I am not too thrilled that a days-old problem that was known about and planned for (and still made the plane flyable) caused the cancellation.

Finally, here's the ironic part--when I checked in at the IFL, Rebecca asked me if I hadn't just come thru the IFL last week. I said no, that it's been ten YEARS since I flew UA... I used to be 2P wth UA when I lived in Japan even though NWA's schedules worked better for me. But after a few horrific experiences with them (stranded at 2AM in LAS, and does anyone remember the SFO luggage fiasco in 1998, when there was a malfunction for 3 days and there were 12,000 bags stewn all over the SFO baggage area? It took me 5 hours to dig through the piles of bags and find mine). So I switched to NWA, and eventually moved to MSP, where of course it's easy to stay with NWA. But anyhow, I told Rebecca the story of why I had avoided UA for the last 10 years, and she said, "We'll take care of you today! Welcome back!".
LOL... anyhow, when she came back on the plane to give us our vouchers she was SO apologetic--but I wasn't angry in the least--it's surely not her decision! In fact, the FAs and the pilot all said they were ready to go if HQ gave the OK. (Great Service again:he FAs stopped F pax from deboarding and called the IFL, not wanting us to go out to the crowd of 400 or so pax needing a hotel, meals, and to be rebooked! That was awesome).