PV_Premier

All,
I need some somewhat urgent advice. I need to get to RDU today, and I am currently booked SMF-SFO-RDU. Of course, I monitor the upline progress of the equipment for SMF-SFO as it is one of the most unreliable routes on the network. Currently one of the upline flights from SBA-SFO is showing a 1:27 delay which will affect the SMF-SFO flight obviously. I understand they could swap different equipment in, but it is not common on this route IME.

I am willing to drive to SFO to get the direct flight, or take a reroute from SMF to IAH. Of course, stupid .bomb still shows the SMF-SFO I am scheduled on as "on time". As such I doubt I will be able to convince an agent to drop the segment or rebook me without a change fee.

Any advice? My fear is that by the time the SMF-SFO shows as "delayed" it will be too late for me to drive to SFO, and the IAH connection will be sold out (it's Y1).

Edit:
awesome agent in HNL dropped the segment no questions asked!

PBAudit

Glad to hear that the agent was able to drop the SMF-SFO segment. A few questions.

Since will have your car @ SFO, were you able to get the return modified? Specifically if you are connecting via SFO, they were willing to drop the SFO-SMF segment. Did you ask to be booked on the SMF-IAH-RDU? I would assume this would have been more convenient. Also, did you get the sense that this accommodation was an "elite" benefit? In other words, would a general flyer be provided the same courtesy?

PV_Premier

I told the agent I needed to reach RDU today for a family emergency (which is 100% true). I am not sure if that caused her to go above and beyond or not, but nonetheless she offered me both the direct SFO flight as well as the IAH routing, both of which I knew were essentially the only UA options that would get me there before tomorrow. I took the direct flight because there is less that can go wrong with one fight vs 2, the IAH-RDU is a jungle jet, and only middle seats available SMF-IAH.

It is a one way ticket so it doesnt matter, but I left my car at SMF and rented a car from SMF-SFO, as it is cheaper to do it that way than to park at SFO if the duration of being away is more than a few days.

This is the second time in 6 days I have had to drop a SMF-SFO or vv segment due to delays. So annoying.

kranabargar

United's service to Hawaii has become very unreliable - those flights used to run like clockwork and were rarely late. Nowadays there are at least 4-8 flights a week that are massively late (mainly because they decide to switch out aircraft and create 5-9 hour delays).

1226 on 7/2 (LAX to HNL) is interesting to note - close to 7 hour delay (which is longer than the flight itself to Honolulu) / reason stated is they switched aircraft. Yet, when you look online, the inbound equipment arrived the evening before.

buckeyefanflyer

UA 1801 CLE-MSP charter today the aircraft was suppose to ferry back to EWR but the flight 1844 was cancelled and at the same time 4:30PM departure instead added UA 1763 revenue flight to EWR. Looks like the late afternoon MSP-EWR RJ was running more then 1 hour late so I guess operations decieded to cancel the ferry flight and make a revenue flight. Nice job by UA to do this. I guess the whole crew was to ferry to EWR so they had a complete flight crew.

Wildfan88

The charter CLE-MSP. Must be the Cleveland Indians as they play the twins this weekend.

avi8tir

anyone know why?

WineCountryUA

Don't know how to interpret this one (from EF)

sannmann

I'll be flying UA102, the non-stop SFO-DCA flight next month. Last week or so, seems like it's been delayed nearly 90 minutes every day. Any idea why? I guess with the August recess placating the Congressional staff and members that use this route is not so important to UA.

Kacee

August delays in/out of SFO due to low visibility flow control are hardly atypical. Fog has been very heavy for the past several weeks.

endrond

In addition to the standard summer fog delays, I wouldn't be surprised if the airport is still running a bit slower in the wake of the Asiana crash. (pilots choosing to go around, ATC adding a bit of extra spacing, avoiding simultaneous landings, etc).

Kacee

Yes, IIRC, they are not letting foreign carriers do parallel landings now. Although this is a moot point when the visibility is as poor as it's been since they don't do the parallel landings when it drops below a certain point (maybe 1000 feet?).

RockinPete

August 6, 2013 SAN-SFO 3:09 pm

Completely cancelled.


I normally take Southwest SJC-SAN but my co-worker booked the flight this time and wanted to fly in/out of SFO.
We flew Virgin America down and were scheduled for UA back. Ended up refunding our ticket and buying last-minute tickets on Virgin for their 5:30 flight.

sannmann

Is fog still a problem in the afternoon? UA102 is supposed to leave SFO at 1:40pm and is supposed to arrive DCA at 10pm.

Kacee

Seriously? Have you ever been to San Francisco in August??? Here's a suggestion: Bring a heavy coat.

Also, note that when it's foggy in the morning, there is a cascade of delays that can throw off the flight schedule all day long. The plane inbound for the 1:40 p.m. departure came from somewhere else, which means it had to land at SFO at least 90 minutes prior to 1:40 p.m. And therein lies the problem . . . .