mduell

What flight were you originally booked on?

I think there's some confusion about aircraft assigned to a particular flight. If Flight 1 has the inbound aircraft delayed by weather and Flight 2 has a plane sitting on the ramp, the airline can swap the plane on the ramp to Flight 1 and then Flight 2 is delayed/cancelled due to weather.

Orion

A few years ago a UA gate agent told me to come back tomorrow for my DEN- ABQ connecting flight. It was a fine early October day in DEN. The gate agent said that the pilot assigned to my flight lived way up in the mountains and due to a sudden snow storm up there, it was not possible for him to even get his car out of his driveway. I stayed the night at a motel my own expense and continued on a rebooked flight the next day. Not even a meal voucher for my inconvenience. My request for a list of discounted hotels for distressed pax was turned down. I was on my own.

Tunapalooza

United has certainly earned a bad rap for its operations. That doesn't mean that every excuse is invented or exaggerated. On the other hand, notwithstanding the spirited defense of UA apologists that reside here, there is good reason to believe that UA doesn't always tell the full truth and sometimes blames weather when MX is the real issue.

In the last year or so, I had a transcon that was delayed at the gate because the cargo door would not close. This was the captain's announcement and MX workers were active on the ground. Shortly after that announcement, I received a UA email that the flight was delayed owing to "en route weather." Other passengers around me received the same email and audibly groaned. We received another update from the Captain about twenty minutes later that MX work was continuing and that he hoped to be underway without much further delay. In due course, we received another email from UA, again ascribing the delay to "en route weather."

Other flights on this route by other carriers had few if any delays. The weather was splendid from take off to landing. This wasn't an issue of a late arriving aircraft. Placing the blame on weather appeared unfounded. Moreover, this excuse was directly contradicted by contemporaneous reports by the captain.

I suppose a creative meteorologist could find weather risks or contingencies somewhere along the route or at the destination to supersede a delay that would otherwise be shouldered by UA. Based on my own personal experience, I would not doubt that this occurs.

Marc

aacharya

Regulations are there but the DOT has enforcement discetion. You also conveniently skipped the next paragraph where they discuss criminal and civil penalties. Interesting cropping there.

And what UA tells passengers is not subject to regulation, but I never said it was.

I imagine you may also add extra children or deductions to your taxes because the IRS does not routinely audit the majority of tax returns.

A hint - the Chicago Tribune is not an official government regulation. The regulation is cited here:

http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/ri...r/14cfr234.pdf

But a nice rookie try to discredit me. Better luck next time.

gnetwerker

The relevant regulation regarding post-facto reporting of delays defines "weather" as (emphasis added):Since the thread is about what UA can and does tell passengers, I think your legalese does a decent job of discrediting itself. The airline is freed from any number of its own compensation guidelines by declaring "weather", and both the anecdotal evidence presented here by others as well as the letter of the regulation leave the matter largely to UA's judgement. The DOT does ensure that the reporting of delays is somewhat accurate.

aacharya

This thread was about what airlines tell passengers, but not what I noted initially, and what you tried to discredit. The DOT has far more legislative ability to assess criminal/civil fines, as with any other CFR reference. That they choose not to does not normally give United or any other company a large leeway to lie.

Intrepid

In my experience bad weather in anyone of the 48 Contiguous states is a good enough reason for this united or the old United to declare cancellation due to weather. Who is there to verify it?

Often1

The sole DOT involvement here is that the carrier's own COC covering compensation and duty of care for delays cannot be false and deceptive in their implementation.

If a carrier, UA in this case, provides for hotel + food when the issue is within its control, generally understood to mean MX, it cannot falsely and deceptively deny that contracted benefit by reporting an MX as something not under its control: WX & ATC, for instance. That would be actionable by DOT and frankly, by an affected pax.

But, the fact that carriers tend to use 2-word summaries because that's what goes up on screens, doesn't change the underlying facts and it's frankly, completely unimportant to OP at the time.

Unless OP has some facts other than looking out the window, he's SOL.

As to the reroute, GA's aren't that well trained in arranging travel. It's not what they do. If there were no seats xEWR, perhaps there were xPHL, BWI, LGA or JFK with PHL as the most likely candidate. Perhaps if there were a seat xPHL and OP didn't bother to get into a fight about who pays for the train ticket, it might have been doable.

dsquared37

A recent flight pushed back from the gate and then, due to a woman vomiting in the bathroom, we went back to the jetway and unloaded several pax in the party. In all we were delayed by about an hour.

Upon arriving and turning my phone on there was an email from United saying the flight was delayed due to: airport operations.

EsquireFlyer

Didn't you know, de-icer mechanical failures are "weather-related" delays, because it's cold weather that requires deicing, and also air conditioning / heating mechanical failures are "weather" delays because it's weather that necessitates climate control, and broken lavs are weather delays too because weather influences how much passengers drink.

YYZtoDCA

Over the last couple of years I have had some experiences with "weather" related delays on United, US Airways, and Delta that range from odd to downright bizarre.

The strangest took place in November on a YYZ-EWR-BWI flight on UA. After boarding on time and sitting on the plane for thirty minutes, the first officer announced that we couldn't leave because the pilot had gone missing. Not "we are waiting for the crew" or "the crew is clearing customs," or "waiting for an inbound crew," but *missing.* The first officer announced that the crew had arrived together, gone through customs together, and that somewhere along the way the captain had gone missing from their group and they were unable to contact him.

We waited on the plane for about another hour. First officer and flight attendents said this was strangest delay they had ever seen. While this is going on, I'm getting e-mails from United saying that my flight is delayed because of "weather." Every time our plane crossed the next scheduled departure time, another "weather" delay e-mail arrived. Maybe the pilot got blown away by a strong gust of wind? I never found out how the situation ended, because I got myself booked on a US Airways flight that actually had a crew with known whereabouts.

Incidentally, I hope that all of our mocking "weather" related excuses doesn't jinx us or bring bad karma!!! I've got a flight at 5:00pm today and would be delighted if I don't have to eat crow on it!

relberger

Can also happen if there's a wide storm between the two locations.

This has happened to me several times for YYZ-JFK flights. Weather is fine in YYZ and JFK, but junk from NE Pennsylvania to Maine. Also, a few more times it happened when JFK was on the 'edge' of the storm, and it was just too windy for an RJ.

I don't think it's limited to United. Based on the the aircraft, they might just not have enough fuel to go around the storm.

LETTERBOY

Had a similar occurrence on AA STL-BWI in summer 2006. GA announced that first officer was missing. Then they found a first officer (either the first guy or a replacement, can't remember) and we boarded, only to find out that they loaded some of the bags onto the wrong plane. So then they had to fix that. After that some jackass started arguing with the captain because he had something in his luggage that he wasn't supposed to have (I want to say it was dry ice, but I honestly can't remember what it was). Arguing with an airline captain is like arguing with a cop who pulls you over - even if you win, you still lose. That was a fun flight.

eunduklee

lol. imagine that the case. all hell would break loose

okwhynot

Good Afternoon:

Was on a 5 PM flight to Savannah from Dulles canceled and re booked for Saturday into Jacksonville no seats to Savannah until Monday

Agent stated weather up the coast and no fault of Airlines so I had to take family of 4 to a hotel with no voucher and no luggage since we chedcked it in that am at 5am San Francisco .
How do you determine it weas weather as people in Savannah indicate zero

Thanks for reading