born sleepy

A320, UA455 ORD-SEA Aug 19. Crew aborted takeoff due to generator warning signal. Apparently it was "fixed" earlier in the day.

OK, things happen. Walk from C22 to B10, get on replacement A320. No air-con. Then it works. Then it doesn't. Deplane everyone. Wait. Oh, OK. Walk back to C23. Get on another replacement A320. Then sit for an hour. No catering. Pilot comes back and explains, also adds that he has 15 minutes before his time is up. Do we want to wait? "GO! GO!!" so no hot food for F. Too bad. We go. Only 7 hours late to SEA... third try's a charm again.

Apparently from UA and TSA comments, Airbus maintenance is pretty substandard. Anyone found these birds to be more mx-prone than others? First time it's happened to me; usually it's the old 752s that break.

NB: This is not my original thread title. Mod changed it. I NEVER MADE ANY ASSERTION ABOUT UA SAFETY. Only poor/deferred maintenance causing not one but two planes to go mx.

Original thread title: "What is going on with Airbus maintenance?"

Thank you.

thepla

A320 flight 571 ORD-IAH on Saturday APU goes out. 45 minutes after scheduled takeoff move over one gate to another A320. Issue with baggage and pulled off of plane.

I finally was transferred to AA ORD-MSY and got to MSY few hours late. Gate agent was a champ, something good about UA, rest is just nonsense.

AA was a pleasure and Admirals club in "G" was great; saw some good ole friends. They will be seeing more of me after I can burn some vouchers.

UA-NYC

Probably never-ending deferred maintenance now coming back to bite us in the A, especially with CO-style high daily utilization

halls120

"TSA?" ... do they know about aircraft maintenance?

aluminumdriver

How would TSA know about airbus maintenance?

Just some bad luck for you in the end, the airbus is no worse than any other fleet at United right now. They've been running them ragged with deferred maintenance and it kind of bit them.

AD

freshairborne

I find similar situations on the 757s and 767s. Maintenance items that used to be repaired at the first opportunity are deferred now either until they are legally required to have been repaired or until a pilot refuses the aircraft.

FAB

Gamecock

How would TSA know about airport security?

FlyinHawaiian

As always, thanks for providing your unique insights on UA-related matters.

Related news story from this morning:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...uniteds-fleet/

channa

Wow -- those incidents ran the gamete. They were a CO 757, a UA 757, and a CO 737.

username

I know part of this is just the media. However, I am worried about it. A lot of things went wrong during the merger process and we can live with them. Maintenance problem is not something we want to live with.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...uniteds-fleet/

OPNLguy

It's a huge part of the media. When an Event-1 occurs (that may indeed be newsworthy), and then an Event-2 or Event-3 (often less serious) occur on subsequent days, the additional events tend to be "connected" to the first. It's often a way to keep the story on the original Event-1 going. Although facts are being reported, the context is not.

If you'll go to http://avherald.com/ you'll see that non-routine incidents occur on the planet all the time. If the number of incidents concerns you, keep in mind that there are literally of thousands of daily flights around the world, and the number of non-routine ones are a minor fraction of the total.

Yankeeflyr2

So here is something that frequent fliers don't like to discuss given that we spend so much time on airplanes, BUT given the amount of emphasis placed on cutting costs in earning calls and what not, does anyone else think it is possible that United is cutting corners when it comes to maintenance? This question comes on the heels of 3 United incidents in 3 days: Smoke in the cockpit at EWR, engine trouble (reports of the engine on fire) at EWR, and engine trouble at IAH.

I realize that in SMI/J's latest United pitch before the safety video he talks about how important the SFO hub is for maintenance, but I am interested to hear what you other elites have to say about this. Am I reading too much into these incidents (that coincidentally happen to all occurred at PMCO hubs) or has United taken it too far?

Thoughts?

ACVBear

Honest answer? as much as I'm annoyed at all the cost cutting nonsense? No. I don't think serious maintenance is a problem for the following reason alone: I trust the UA pilots to turn down the planes if it came to that. and they can chime in but they've made it fairly clear that they have power there so its not a worry that they get pressured.

Indelaware

Incidents happen everyday on every airline; start reading Avherald.

UA has had its share, but then it has the largest fleet in North America. I have no qualms about flying any of their birds that their pilots are willing to fly.

sbm12

Is it possible? Yes. Anything is possible. Is it actually happening? Almost certainly not.

Trying to tie together the three events over the weekend as forming a pattern is an incredible stretch.