InstantOatmeal

I received the following email from United regarding a flight delay

Confirmation number: XXXXXX
United flight UA5811 on August 19 is delayed.
Now departs: 7:14 a.m. on August 19 from gate A3, Nashville, TN (BNA)
Now arrives: 8:58 a.m. on August 19 at Chicago, IL (ORD - O'Hare)

Please be at the gate for boarding prior to the original scheduled departure time of 5:48 a.m., as the departure time could be revised again.


So let me get this straight. The flight is delayed to 7:14 but they still want me to be there before the original time of 5:48?

Obviously my time is of no importance to United.

PhillyPhlyer40

YEP...same problem when they emailed me a night before in SJU. Late arrival of crew, 555am flight rescheduled for 810am. WHY tell us to be there before then??? Not like they would magically find a new crew at 11pm the night before.

RobOnLI

Ugh. I fail to see how this is yet something else to bit*h about on the boards.

All airlines have always said, FOR YEARS, to be at the boarding gate prior to the originally scheduled departure time. Why? Because the plane might actually depart on time!

Not to mention you still must have your luggage checked in 30-60 minutes prior to the originally scheduled departure time as well.

There are many cases where the plane takes off earlier than the revised departure time, sometimes even the originally scheduled departure time, and people are left behind. Then they're left behind for hours or days because there are no more seats between AAA and BBB.

-RM

DallasEsq

Yeah I was at the airport one time and my flight got delayed, so I went and relaxed in the President's Club and just happened to check the status and it was made on-time again and I almost missed my flight. So definitely get there at the original time you were planning to be.

cjkcue

I have missed my flight before because it was listed as delayed. I showed up expecting the flight to leave at its new delayed time but it ended up leaving at its originally scheduled time. I then had to fly standby because it was my own fault for not being there at the original departure time.

So you should still show up at the original departure time.

flavorflav

Wrong-o. No magic involved, but the airline may very well find a new crew (or a new plane) at 11 p.m. the night before. Or at any other time. Happens every day.

travisw

It does seem to me, though, that there is a difference between, say, a weather delay or ground hold and late arrival of crew. UA knows exactly when the crew will be arriving and have revised the flight times accordingly. Its not like they will magically find a new crew.

trekwars2000

It is hardly something to b*tch about. For years and years when United posted a delay it was there policy to not unpost the delay. Why has this policy suddenly changed?

What if this flight was delayed till 3pm? Why do I need to be at the airport to check bags at 0500 for a flight 10 hours later?

telloh

After the fact, a disruption that frees up a crew could occur somewhere else in the system.

channa

It's a CYA move by COdbaUA.

There was a brief period several years ago when CO would email that the flight was delayed but not email you the revised departure time because they had that CYA language in there and it didn't really matter when the plane was leaving since you're supposed to be at the airport on time, right?

That REALLY got people upset.

star_world

Apparently that ridiculous policy is still in place, from the experience I had recently: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ecause+we+said

I'm a firm believer that the policy should be in line with what is posted in the delay e-mails. If an opportunity arises to improve the departure time then I definitely want the airline to take advantage of this.

Particularly for flights departing from hubs or "focus cities" with a bunch of UA flights (and crew, and aircraft) they certainly have the ability to change the situation.

The policy should be as follows, IMO:

Be at the airport at the originally posted time regardless of the announced delay *unless* UA has contacted each passenger informing them that the departure time has no chance of improving.

entropy

The fundamental problem of course is that the airline can change the time to suit their situation while they demand that you be ontime.

If your inbound plane is delayed for 4 hours, why the heck should you have to waste 4 hours of your time? I can understand that disclaimer for ATC or WX when they have a delay of 30-60 minutes, but for more than that, its obnoxious on their part to demand that you be there ready to go when they're not.

Often1

Not ridiculous at all. Been like this for as long as I can remember and for every carrier I can think of. You are responsible for being at the gate in time for an on-time departure. Things change all the time. MX get fixed faster than expected; WX disappears, ATC holds melt, relief aircraft / crews are located.

The delay emails serve the purpose of helping the pax judge what else needs to happen. Cancel a meeting? Make hotel arrangements for an extra night? Reroute?

But, ridicoulous? Not.

ibuyyoufly

To most everyone's point. Things can happen pretty quickly. For instance, got an email and phone call at T-10 telling me our flight for the next morning had been cancelled. Quickly changed two of us over to another flight. Got up the next morning to an email and phone message saying the flight had been un-cancelled and will be going. Moved us back over to that flight thinking it could be a light load and get a CPU. No luck, they filled the cancelled flight back up. Somebody pulled the cancelled flight trigger a little too quickly.

kenn0223

Not exactly true. Back when Tiltonosaurs roamed the earth (a/k/a 2010) United's Customer Commitment said they WOULD NOT depart earlier than an announced delayed departure time unless everyone was on board.

http://web.archive.org/web/201012241...2,1507,00.html (See bullet point No. 6)

IIRC they still required check-in / bag check at the mark before departure but at least you weren't teathered to the gate. The new policy of not being as Johnny on the Spot with delay postings and leaving whenever they feel like it has caused me a lot of wasted time. Before I would camp out in the Club and get some work done, now I have to keep an eye on the clock and, depending on the reason for delay, actually wait at the gate. BIG WASTE OF TIME!

IMHO, pmUA was MUCH better at forecasting delays and cancelations than the current UA is. We've all experainced the situation where we can see an impossible turn but the outbound flight still shows on-time. pmUA would almost always update the outbound flight when the inbound aircraft departed it's orgin and they included their standard turn time in the new estimate.