Can't Trust United (regarding posted cause of flight delay)
I'm sitting here at the gate at IAD waiting for 1299 to depart. There's a mechanical problem in the cargo bay. With the cabin door opened, the passengers are turning on their phones and getting status updates from United. We're all being told that our departure is delayed owing to en route weather. We all know better.
Mendacity or carelessness, it's still inexcusable and further evidence that trust in this airline is misplaced. Marc |
:D Not to laugh at the flight delay, but today the skies are clear at IAD, I haven't even seen any clouds.
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Further Update
Captain advised that delay will be another hour. I then received an automated update confirming the further delay, once again blamed on weather.
BTW, I applied an RPU to this flight and was still #25 on the upgrade wait list. I didn't make it. I'm not sure of the upgrade priority, but that doesn't seem right. |
67 people on the u/g list (plus 11 cleared)... wow.
Originally Posted by am1108
(Post 19479666)
:D Not to laugh at the flight delay, but today the skies are clear at IAD, I haven't even seen any clouds.
VX's flights are also delayed. The weather delay may actually be legit. |
Originally Posted by ralfp
(Post 19479722)
67 people on the u/g list (plus 11 cleared)... wow.
To be fair, the OP did say en-route weather. And Flightaware is reporting "inbound flights delayed at their origin an average of 2 hours 16 minutes due to low clouds" at SFO. VX's flights are also delayed. The weather delay may actually be legit. |
Originally Posted by ralfp
(Post 19479722)
67 people on the u/g list (plus 11 cleared)... wow.
VX's flights are also delayed. The weather delay may actually be legit. |
Originally Posted by Tunapalooza
(Post 19479715)
BTW, I applied an RPU to this flight and was still #25 on the upgrade wait list. I didn't make it. I'm not sure of the upgrade priority, but that doesn't seem right.
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Ground Delay Program
Hey there, I'm actually in SF and there's been delays all day due to low ceilings. My flight is delayed 2 hours out of here.
"This airport has issued a Ground Delay Program affecting flights arriving between 11:26 AM Oct 11 and 11:59 PM Oct 11 due to WEATHER / LOW CEILINGS. Flights are being delayed an average of 136 minutes." |
Originally Posted by Tunapalooza
(Post 19479793)
A gold star apologist! Congrats. I'm physically in the aircraft and can assure you that the departure delay is solely due to a mechanical fault with the aircraft. Unless the captain is lying, which I doubt. Each of his updates on the mechanical problems was followed by an automated update blaming weather. There may yet be a weather delay, but it hasn't happened yet.
Due to WEATHER / LOW CEILINGS, departure traffic destined to San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA (SFO) is currently experiencing delays averaging 2 hours and 16 minutes. I'm physically not in the aircraft and can assure you that the departure delay is not solely due to a mechanical fault with the aircraft. |
radar shows storms between dew & iah as we post...
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Originally Posted by johnmont
(Post 19479870)
A gold star d-bag comment. Congrats!
http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/flyfaaindex.jsp?ARPT=IAD Due to WEATHER / LOW CEILINGS, departure traffic destined to San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA (SFO) is currently experiencing delays averaging 2 hours and 16 minutes. I'm physically not in the aircraft and can assure you that the departure delay is not solely due to a mechanical fault with the aircraft. |
Originally Posted by Tunapalooza
(Post 19479715)
BTW, I applied an RPU to this flight and was still #25 on the upgrade wait list. I didn't make it. I'm not sure of the upgrade priority, but that doesn't seem right.
|
Originally Posted by johnmont
(Post 19479870)
I'm physically not in the aircraft and can assure you that the departure delay is not solely due to a mechanical fault with the aircraft. I don't believe the FAA keeps track of "hypothetical delays". |
FLO delays almost always keep the plane from boardg when they are of extended duration. Mechanical delays that do not impact the cabin rarely keep the plane from boarding unless they are going to take the aircraft out of service. Knowing these two facts, I would say that the unknown fix of the cargo door timmay not b the limiting factwhen th FLO delay is known to be of duration.
Once either a) the cargo door is fixed/defered, or th FLO delay is lifted/exceeed, then the final cause of the delay is known. At this point (given the 411 posted) the limitinfactor of greatest known duration is the FLO delay. If the OP wants conspiracy theories, perhaps he should turn on the Sci Fi channel. Edit: The plane is enroute, lss tan 1 hr delayed. Anyone know what the FLO was quoted on that aircraft at dptr time? |
Originally Posted by am1108
(Post 19479780)
Sorry, didn't catch that the first time around.
Originally Posted by Tunapalooza
(Post 19479793)
I'm physically in the aircraft and can assure you that the departure delay is solely due to a mechanical fault with the aircraft. Unless the captain is lying, which I doubt. Each of his updates on the mechanical problems was followed by an automated update blaming weather. There may yet be a weather delay, but it hasn't happened yet.
I've been on the end of quite a few of UA's mechanical delays turned weather/ATC/"not our fault". I know UA tries to BS its way out of almost any IIROP, e.g. the time my IAD-HPN flight was diverted back to IAD. Half an hour after "arrival" the delay was tagged as ATC (or weather). In the OP's case, the actual delay would seem to be legitimately attributable to the weather, as the takeoff was 82m late, vs. the current 86m (less than before) average ground delay for SFO-bound aircraft. As for other flights on the same route... VX71, scheduled to leave less than 30 min before UA1299, was delayed 113 minutes. VX77 is currently delayed 133 minutes. UA647 was only delayed 38 minutes. If a 60 minute (for arguments sake) delay turns into a legitimate 90 minute weather delay that would have happened anyways, can one blame the airline? I dunno. However, if the 60 minute mechanical causes a flight that would otherwise have departed before the ground stop to get stopped before takeoff, then the weather excuse (IMHO) would be BS. From the evidence I see on FlightAware (see VX71), this does not seem to be the case here. |
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