c2cflyer

Once they send out a notice that your flight is delayed an hour, i know, odds are you will be delayed longer than an hour, not shorter.


However, they still often (always?) 'suggest' you are at the gate at the original departure time because the flight could go earlier than the 'estimated' delayed time.


How often does this actually happen?

fumje

I've wondered about this too. I've never seen a delay move up; sometimes the plane pushes up to five minutes before the stated delayed departure time, but I've only seen the stated time move in one direction. It would make sense to me if there is a policy to do so, in fact.

Often1

It happens with fair frequency and depends entirely on the reason for the underlying delay and often the station itself.

That is why UA, along with most carriers, requires that you be at the gate ready for an on time departure unless you are expressly advised otherwise.

Particularly at hub airports, aircraft are routinely substituted and this may mean that an expected 3-4 hour delay becomes 5-10 minutes. ATC delays sometimes go away and repairs thought to take a couple of hours sometimes take less.

c2cflyer

I guess my assumption is that maintenance delays that could be hours long could move up from verbalized estimates - but considering they generally increment delays 30 minutes at a time the officially published delay on the website/app is less likely to move substantially?

zrs70

I've had delays of 3 hours reduced to no delay - usually because an aircraft swap occurs.

fumje

Really? I've never seen a delay post as 3hrs until 2.5hrs have elapsed.

In cases where I've had aircraft swap to 'fix' the delay, it's gone something like,
Perhaps it's just the routes I've been on?

findark

It's extremely dependent on all the surrounding factors. For example, my SFO-DCA was recently delayed two hours. It was because they took our frame and used it for something else, and re-assigned a frame which wouldn't be arriving until later. Given that DCA is exclusively a terminal destination for UA, I was comfortable not showing up to SFO until an hour before the delayed departure time.

If a flight posts a delay because its inbound is actually delayed, then it's quite possible ops will pull in another plane if it's felt to be a high priority flight (lots of connections, for example). In aggregate, it's pretty uncommon for a delay to get pulled in, but only because it's also unusual for UA to post a delay at all until they are dead certain they can't get the flight out on time. (Much more common is I'm sitting at home, watching my inbound UX frame stuck somewhere waiting for an SFO arrival slot, and then stuck going to SFO because UA won't commit to posting a delay and yes, swaps could happen.)

That being said, the number of times I've seen a delay get pulled in by 20 minutes to an unreasonable turn time for the arriving aircraft, and the inevitably push back out, is pretty comical.

entropy

If you're at a hub, I'd think a swap is definitely a possibility.
(its happened more than once lately, delay, massive delay, swap, almost ontime)

If you're at an outstation, it really depends on what aircraft are "on hand", if there's an RON a/c that's sitting there of the same type that you have, its certainly possible... but it all depends on ops.

AirbusFan2B

In my experience, about 1 out of 10 or 15 delays I've experienced has been moved up. More likely at hubs for reasons stated. You'd want to monitor every 10-15 minutes if gambling that the delay will be sustained.

zrs70

Yes! Outstations can also have aircraft reassigned....

Example: a SNA to ORD flight might be 3 hours delayed. So opps decides to use the frame intended for SNA-DEN to go to ORD instead, because of downline needs, fewer number of pax affected, etc.

SunLover

Weather at the destination can be a big reason for delays, and when a departure window opens up airlines want the passengers to be available for boarding pronto.


SL

goalie

Although the question was posed in the United forum, this covers all airlines so I'll move the discussion over to TravelBuzz

goalie
UA Forum Co-Moderator

KevinDTW

IME you ALWAYS have to be at the gate at the originally scheduled time. Weather can change quickly, aircraft can be swapped out, crew members can be shifted around, etc. Extreme example: several years ago my MUC-ATL flight was cancelled and I was automatically rebooked on a flight the next day, but instead of getting to the airport at the time of the original flight I figured I'd hang out in Munich for a few more hours, then go to the airport and get a hotel or meal voucher (back when they used to give those). Bad idea -- turned out that DL staff in MUC were only there for a few hours in the morning, and that's when they gave out the vouchers and so I had missed out and was on my own. Ended up staying the night at the MUC Kempinski and eventually got reimbursed by DL, but it would have been easier if I had been there at the original time.

tanglin

I've missed a flight because the engineers at NRT fixed the plane faster than expected. I was in the lounge and could watch the aircraft push back

I always stay at the gate now if there's a delay!

squeakr

delays due to ATC weather holds can be lifted at ANYTIME and often are.