Delay due to loading luggage; missed connection
 

Hi all. Dad and sister are traveling today. Their SEA-SFO flight was delayed due to luggage still being loaded (according to father). UA.com shows "Airport conditions preventing departure" as the reason for the delay. The delay caused them to miss their onward connection. They originally had about an hour in SFO, but ended up arriving at the gate about 10 minutes before the scheduled departure time, and didn't make it to the departure gate until about 5 minutes prior.

UA auto-rebooked them on an AS itinerary tonight and a UA itinerary tomorrow. Because the delay was due to luggage, is UA obligated/expected to get them home as soon as possible regardless of carrier, or just when it's convenient for UA?

UA auto-rebooks on AS?

At least AS likely will be on time.

I was surprised too. Oddly enough, the itinerary is an AA-numbered flight operated by AS, connecting to an AS flight. Not sure how AA got in the mix.

That is pretty typical - they will rebook on the next available flight in most cases, regardless of airline.

If there are *A flights departing sooner you're more likely to end up on one of them but very common to see OAL rebookings like this.

I don't think the computer auto-rebooks on OAL. Someone must have done it in a back office somewhere.

True - auto-rebooking is usually just on UA metal or codeshares, from what I've seen. Don't think there's any way of telling whether you've been rebooked automatically or manually though.

Now United is claiming that there's no availability on the AS flights that they booked my dad and sister on. I talked to AS and they said they just need the tickets reissued. I've got the confirmation number and itinerary open on the AS website, and everything seems good to go. Is it possible that even with this, there truly are no seats on the AS flights, or is someone blowing some smoke?

You need to be all over UA. They need to reticket and push that ticket to AS. Until you see an actual e-ticket # (not a confirmation #) for AS, you haven't been ticketed and either won't be issued a BP or won't be able to board.

It's a common screw-up by non-alliance carriers and you really need to be all over them to force the reticketing. Ask to stay on hold until they can get back on and confirm that the ticket has been reissued.

With the new UA, it is also an issue even with alliance carriers.

I don't agree with this. Normally, they try to fool unknowing customers into flying on their metal because they don't want to give up the revenue.

This is because SHARES doesn't like to play with UA's friends very well in the same sandbox.

Not in my experience. I've had many (willing) rebooks onto non-*A airlines.

This was true on CO in the past and UA since the merger.

Sorry it hasn't worked out that way for you.

Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, two other pax immediately in front of my dad and sister got the last seats on the AS SFO-SEA flight :(. Now, once I saw the AS protection in their itinerary online (while they were still in the air), I called UA and asked them to confirm the AS itin. The non-US call center agent said AS and AA weren't willing to give them the seats, but when I spoke with AS directly they said UA just needed to reissue the ticket. I assumed my dad could handle it at the service desk in SFO, but obviously that didn't work. Was the UA agent probably just not taking the right steps to reissuing the ticket?

I have been seeing this "delay" alot lately:confused:

It's a glitch. Back in June all of our delay codes switched to new ones. I don't think the system to decode those has been updated, as things from ramp delays to slow boarding will show up as "Airport Conditions."

It's not like UA is intentionally mis-coding delays, the system just isn't interpreting them right.

If the flight is the one I think it is (1234), the delay was coded to late inbound aircraft, and load planning/weight and balance. So rest assured, it's not anything malicious.