Thanks for calling United. Four hours late!
 

Flew Burbank-SFO this morning. Flight was scheduled to leave at 9:44. I get to the airport to check in at 8:30 and find out the flight is delayed til 11:20. If they had called me I could have stayed home and not rushed to get to the airport HOURS early.

We took off at 11:20. Got to Chicago an hour and a half late. At least my SFO-ORD flight wasn't til 2:00. Fought the hordes of people jamming the gate at SFO. Got to hear the GA's saying over and over "boarding for group 1 only. Not group 3,4, or 5!"... Seems like it almost worked. There were only 50 people at the gate instead of 100. :)

I'm sitting on the plane right now waiting for (delayed) takeoff and my phone rings. It's United calling. To let me know my flight from BUR-SFO is going to leave on time at 9:44! Thanks, United. For the wrong flight information at the wrong time.

In the age of information, why didn't you check the flight with any number of websites or apps? I get up to date flight info from Tripit, flight track pro or gate guru.

Thanks for calling United. Four hours late!
 

You still have to be at the airport on time just in case.

I had a flight last year that was scheduled for 7:00 PM at PHL. Around 10am it was delayed by an hour, by noon it was delayed until 10pm, and by 3pm it was delayed until 1am.

I had an important morning meeting the following day and I couldn't risk the flight being canceled and then having to compete with everyone else to get onto the first morning flight. I decided to book a room at an airport hotel and change my flight to the AM.

As time got closer and closer to 7:00 PM, the delay was shrinking more and more, eventually to only be 1 hour delayed.

Moral of the story, flight delays can be pushed up just as easily as they can be pushed back.

In the age of Los Angeles traffic, I left when I needed to leave for the airport. I received a notice from Tripit while I was standing in line checking my bag. I received nothing from United - Period - no calls, no texts - nothing - until I was already in my next flight in San Francisco.

Not that it really mattered - my SFO-ORD flight left 40 minutes late anyway. But since I was on a 777 LieFlat seat, THAT delay I didn't mind. :D

Good point.

Exactly. Had an experience last month where a flight (UAX) took a mechanical delay just prior to boarding, Capt personally announced to all of us at the gate it would be a minimum of 2 hours till mechanics would even get there, and then probably an hour for repair. Flight ended up departing only 40 minutes late.