MPsince1984

I'm on that SYD-LAX flight today on Nov. 19th. UA rebooked me on UA870 from SYD to SFO, with different connections, including a barbie jet flight for the final link home to MSP. And the really great news? The only remaining options on UA870 are middle seats.

I can find a way to cope with a bit of discomfort on a short hop flight around the US, but middle seats on a transpacific flight that I booked half a year ago? I see some major pain ahead…

FriendlySkies

Hmm.. FLIFO showing the following regarding the cancellation.

0840/19NOV
N LAX/LX REFUELING

SKED MEL ORIG 1255P GTD HOLD SHIP 8416
SYD 220P 320P GTA HOLD GTD HOLD SHIP 8416
LAX 950A TERM GTA HOLD

JVPhoto

Does this have any consequences tomorrow for UA839 19NOV LAX/SYD? I'm on that, right now flight status shows fine and the aircraft is "coming from SFO". That plane from SFO having arrived from HKG.

JDT1955

Anyone know why 839 canceled on 11/17?

flyerbjorn

Sydney is a disaster this afternoon due to thunderstorms.

I'm sitting on an arriving domestic flight, that landed 1h late and we've waited 30 min for a gate so far. Luggage operations are suspended as well, so folks that have deplaned are not getting their bags.

Lax flight left 1h late. SFO flight just left the gate 2h late, but will probably take a while before takeoff.

LordTentacle

Just to give an idea, being in Sydney currently
Visibility due to rain has dropped to under 10feet at times during the day today
Any delays due to weather are legitimate weather

iloveipods

and another one, got this in my inbox right now:
United flight UA840 from Sydney, Australia (SYD) to Los Angeles, CA (LAX) on December 1 is canceled.

debracey

Yep,

That's because my flight -- 863 from SFO --> SYD got the axe. We boarded the aircraft, and everything appeared fine, then right as departure time came up, the captain came on and said there would be a 30 min delay due to problems with the entertainment system.

After 30 minutes came and went, the captain came back on and said it'd be another hour. At ~12:00 AM we disembarked, and UA said they'd pull a replacement 747 for us and get us going shortly.

It took about 30 minutes to get everyone off. At 12:35 or so (literally, 5 minutes after I walked off [was at the back]) they said they were ready to board again.

HUH?!?

Then at about 12:45 they came on and said that the computer system in the gate area was down, and everyone would be checked "manually". Then about 5 minutes after that they said the flight was cancelled.

Utter chaos ensued. The UA agent at the gate said to go to terminal 3 (a long way from the international terminal!) for rebooking. The line was so long that it backed up through the security checkpoint exit path and people were saying that the UA agents at the desk in terminal 3 were "confused".

Fortunately I was able to get right through to an agent in the *G line and he got me squared away on the extra segment that UA will fly tomorrow. So for now I am stuck in a (very empty) SFO airport. If anyone wants to meet up shoot me a PM.

EDIT: What kind of compensation does UA typically give out for these types of events? Original ticket was S fare economy...

EDIT 2: The UA employees at the club have been quite nice. I crossed the gold line as I was flying to SFO and they graciously let me in. It appears that there is significant discrepancies for status. All the UA people I have been calling have told me I'm *G, but the website (and the boarding pass, strangely) say *S.

ps9a

UA 1750-- daytime flight SFO-SYD
Anyone else on this flight? 863 was cancelled for mechanical reasons last night, and this has been one of the poorest rebooking processes I've experienced on any airline. Flight was deboarded after 3 hours last night and partially reboarded, before they cancelled it. Passengers all sent to terminal 3 at 1am for hotel/meal vouchers (we just took an Uber home). Seat assignments didn't stick with the new flight, so there are some very unhappy Australia-bound passengers right now.

Often1

Need to know a lot more. Partial reboarding suggests that the MX issue was on the way to resolving and then didn't resolve as expected. The alternative would have been to have held off boarding until the aircraft was cleared and delay by another 45 mins. to board.

Same with seat assignments. Is it the same type of aircraft or a different seating arrangement in which case redoing seating is simply a fact of life.

WineCountryUA

1750 is a common replacement flight number for cancelled flights.

1 post on this already in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ad-2013-a.html

tom911

When would the crew time-out on the original flight?

ps9a

Same configuration, different bird. Can't remember anything but a 747 ever flying to SYD, though one of the flight attendants last night mentioned 777 service headed there potentially next year. As for MX issue, it was electrical. We had mechanics on board turning on/off cabin lights for a couple hours.

Seating changes were pretty bad, though. Even have grumpy pass in the SFO F lounge now (hopefully not reading this).

transportprof

I wonder how many of these MX issues lead to cancellations because of the crews timing out ? My guess is that it this is the most common 'nail in the coffin' of UA's cancellations to Australia.

I have a modest suggestion that UA could explore to boost the reliability of these Australia flights. UA has a major presence in HNL, which is about one third of the way between California and Sydney. When MX events go sideways at LAX and SFO, why not run the delayed flights with a stop, and crew change, in HNL instead of cancelling the whole flight?

This would require having crew resources in HNL, but once the schedule shifts to 777s in 2014, this should be possible. And for those who don't think the 777s will have MX issues, I'd posit that UA's 80% on-time goal suggests otherwise.

ps9a

"Baggage matching" issues now. All boarded...
Initial SF fog delay. Now can't push back, since they're having troubles matching bags from our initial manifest to current passenger list. More Lanson, please. UA Fail.