exerda

Strange that the same thing happened to me on IAD-DEN this afternoon. Captain wasn't thrilled at the lengthy delay for loading.

However, they at least do show loading as the cause of our delay vs. "airport conditions."

Flyer420

What is inaccurate? The UA Flight Status as given, I refer to Flight Status, which does not contain "Actual Runway Departure" etc. I do not know how "suggesting operational issues" is an intuitive interpretation of "Airport conditions preventing departure"--there was no condition at the airport; rather we sat at the gate more than 30 minutes past posted pushback time and the reason was loading luggage or cargo. I am quoting the captain on that explanation.

Flyer 420
in Chicago

WineCountryUA

UA flight status is Gate arrival -- the runway times are supplied by FAA and the Gate arrival by UA. The Gate arrival is very consistent with the FAA arrival time. As mentioned if there is jetway issues that is not captured but what UA posted is the industry / government measure of arrival. It seems in your OP you were challenging that time, seems likely it was an accurate time.

the airport condition was delayed bags. May not be intuitive to you but there is a limited set of causes and that was the one picked in this case. While it might exists, I have not seen a delay baggage reason that might be a better fit in your eyes. So a statement, non-intuitive reasons might be a better statement then inaccurate.

goingbananas

I wouldn't trust anything they put on united.com. My wife was flying the other day COS-IAH and the plane was late. It posted late due to maintenance (which was accurate since it was COS Skywest maintenance base working on it overnight and not finishing up before the am flight).

Original delay...1 hour.....then end up finishing the plane early for a 30 minute delay instead. Shortly after takeoff united claimed the delay was "airport conditions preventing departure b.s."

The weather was perfect in COS and the plane was obviously late coming over from the maintenance hangar....gotta love them....

ATXflyer

SFO to AUS is delayed today. New departure time is 5:10, yet the delayed inbound won't arrive till 4:50.

Any takers on this A320 deplaning, boarded and getting turned around in 20 minutes?

So tired of the false updates.

wethereyet

Even worse is they repeatedly LIE about weather delays.

I had recent flight where inbound flight was late taking off due to Mx issue when my flight was late to finally take off the reason given was "airport conditions preventing departure". Was complete BS

WineCountryUA

As was explained to you at the time by multiple posters "airport conditions" is not a WX related reason. It is a default generic non-WX, non-ATC reason and could mean delays in get replacement parts, service personal, etc. Best to understand the system better before making false accusations.

gnetwerker

There is a systematic tendency to underestimate delays that is built into the system by the asymmetry of outcomes. If someone adjusts their scheduled because of a flight delay, and then the plane leaves earlier than the (delayed) estimate, you have a passenger that is massively more pissed-off (and inconvenienced) and -- more importantly -- an empty and therefore non-revenue-earning seat; than if you monotonically increase the delay estimates over time.

In short, if a plane has a mechanical issue, and the mechanic says "if all goes well, it could be 15 mins, but if I have to wait for the part, it could be 2 hours", then what are you going to post that flight as being delayed by? 15 minutes, then another 15, then another, until the mechanic says "go".

As you point out, they're not going to turn a full A320 in 20 mins, but it could make up time in the air, during taxi, etc, so they're not going to estimate 40 minutes, even if that is the highest probability. They're going to estimate the smallest likely delay, because the consequences of an overestimate are much worse than of an underestimate.

This is why I'm sure most FFers and FTers have the FlightAware app on their phones -- with the data and some experience, you can come to your own conclusions, and if the delay ends up being shorter and you miss your flight, you can't blame the airline.

Often1

Everybody says they can manage the Yankees.

People who know not one thing about airports, the commercial aviation system in general or UA in specific, bloviate about supposed paranoid conspiracies by various carriers to lie to them.

Bottom line is that UA, like every other IATA carrier in the world, notes arrival time when the brakes are locked at the gate. Same thing for delay reasons. Could be an MX which, when fixed leads to a 90-minute delay because enroute WX. There are only so many characters available in the field, so somebody picks the current one which does the trick.

Finally, carriers often post optimistic departure times on delays because it's happened that repairs happen faster than expected, delayed inbounds make up time enroute and so on.

wethereyet

Perhaps you should understand that the delay time to my flight was 100% correlated to the amount of time the inboud flight was late to arrive. So no, there was nothing at the airport to delay my flight taking off. Hence: United Airlines lied. Got the screen shot of my iPhone of it.....

And your reference to my post didn't have ANYONE telling me anything. This is the first time I posted about the most recent delay. So now you're just making stuff up. Oh wait, that's what UA does! Called lying.

wethereyet

Nobody thinks this is some conspiracy, the airlines simply lies out of convienience (oh, our computer doesn't allow us to accurately reflect the truth). If the flight was late because of MX then just state so. Using a reason as WX to mask the route cause is what people get upset about.

United Airlines has INCENTIVE to lie because the compensation is totally different and you know it.

johnmont

One thing that many might be reacting to is that in the last couple of years before the merger, pmUA was very proactive about notifications of delays and auto-rebooking. They didn't used to be very good, but there was some kind of major change (in 2009/2010 if my memory serves me correctly) that made a huge improvement. It made a big difference for me, as I'm probably 45 minutes door to gate from ORD on the EL and I took advantage of this a lot.

UA took a big step backwards in proactive, realistic delay notifications and rebookings in the last couple of years. Currently, I'm so sick of on-time departure times at the gate when it's 10 minutes past departure and the arriving flight just pulled up to the gate. That would not have happened in a vast majority of cases several years ago, but it's the rule now rather than the exception. At least now, the gate displays update about the same time as I get alerts from Flight Track Pro. There used to be about 15 minute difference when pmUA switched over the IT infrastructure.

Don't get me wrong...it wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. And yes, YMMV. But it was far better that what we're seeing now. Exponentially better.

mlb1k

United's flight status web page allows to you " see where your flight is coming from" which I think is a great service. But recently I had a flight out of ORD cancelled because of weather. However, by tracking the plane throughout the day it showed a 2 1/2 hr mechanical on its third flight of the day putting it hopelessly behind schedule. My guess is the flight crew timed out by the time it got to ORD. A few flights from ORD were cancelled because of weather but 95% of the United planes that afternoon did depart.
United stranded me for 24 hours before finding another available seat-no food no hotel no nothing. I know they don't reimburse for weather delays but when their own flight status page shows mechanical delays and they blame it on weather it erodes what little credibility they have.

Ocn Vw 1K

As this is specific to United's operations and website, I'll move this to the United forum for more discussion. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz and United.

[With Mod. hat off, one can't always track aircraft and crew via the entire -- or a more in-depth -- history of the "where is this flight coming from" feature. Aircraft can be subbed and the same crew doesn't fly all legs of the same equipment.]

spin88

As a 1K you were entitled (unless that has been taken away...) to a hotel room on a cancellation, regardless of the cause.

I would e-mail 1K voice, attach your receipt and list that the plan had a MX, so its not weather in any event, ask for compensation.

If they don't give it to you, then file a complaint with DOT, that will get your bills paid. They are obligated to cover your bills if its MX, DOT needs to know UAL is cheating...

http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint