exerda

However, for the OP (which was merged into this thread), there was plenty of WX in the IAD area yesterday--UA wasn't lying about that.

aacharya

Yes, I always get authoritative news from bloggers, well-intentioned as they are.

ChiFlyer636

On UA1278 today. It is delayed because local captain was a no show. Monitors and emails are saying it's a weather delay. I asked the GA why and asked him to change it. He says he can't control but will ask. Get a response at boarding that they are labeling all delays as weather today and there is is nothing he can do.

Completely unacceptable. Will end up causing misconnects in Denver for people who likely won't get out today because of system wide issues. UA will try to hide behind weather and not pay these people when this delay was 100‰ there fault. Thinking about filing DoT complaint

IAHtraveler

Why even think about it? If they're being falsifying info, go right to the DOT.

UAkls

[QUOTE=ChiFlyer636;22094596]On UA1278 today. It is delayed because local captain was a no show. Monitors and emails are saying it's a weather delay. I asked the GA why and asked him to change it. He says he can't control but will ask. Get a response at boarding that they are labeling all delays as weather today and there is is nothing he can do.

Completely unacceptable. Will end up causing misconnects in Denver for people who likely won't get out today because of system wide issues. UA will try to hide behind weather and not pay these people when this delay was 100‰ there fault. Thinking about filing DoT complaint[/QUOT

I suspect that when there is bad weather, almost every delay/cancelation will be attributed to it. Yesterday, for example, every other airline flew their flights ORD-Europe. The weather caused a few delays, but did not preclude them from flying. UA, however, cancelled every single one of its European flights. Were these cancellations necessitated by the weather, or were they elective? The weather for all the airlines was the same at ORD. But UA flew 0% of it flights and all other airlines flew 100%. That is quite a disparity. Hmmm.....

FlytheTail

Yet another way to cut $2 billion: Don't fly your planes for 1-3 days.

I wish press would ask why UA cancelled all TATL flights whereas the vast majority of other carriers continued to operate them.

ChiFlyer636

Done . I don't even mind the delay. No shows happen. Lying about why makes me very angry though.

Often1

Silly. Even if UA added a category for "Captain delayed driving to airport due to road conditions" that would still not be a condition within UA's control and thus, under the COC, not compensable, e.g. hotels & meals.

DOT isn't going to do anything here unless UA is reporting matters within UA's control as being outside UA's control.

GUWonder

All the more reason why consumers in the US should want something akin to EC261/2004 with even more teeth to bite the airlines.

Thank you for filing the complaint. Staffing level (in)adequacy is fundamentally a UA commercial issue.

ChiFlyer636

Regardless of why, how is unable to crew a plane not in UA's control?

DawgmanOH

Just a wild guess but, weather? If the crew is coming in from somewhere where weather is an issue? Or if weather in the city is preventing pilots/crew from getting to their job? Could be wrong, though.

mherdeg

Just to be perfectly clear, like, the captain did not show up to work for some reason (ill, etc.?) You're pretty sure that the situation is not "the captain was due to arrive on an EWR-ORD flight that was cancelled because of weather problems"?

weirdlyndon

This - coupled with the fact that this storm hit right when FAR 117 went into effect on 1/4/14 that completely changes pilot's duty/rest times. Operations and crew services are still adjusting to these changes. Even so, if a flight was delayed because you're waiting on a 'local' pilot, there could still be an underlying weather delay which ultimately caused the pilot to be delayed.

Unless you work for United operations and crew services, even though you may think something is in UA's control, it may not be entirely. And for what it's worth, the storm that walloped the NE and what's currently going on in ORD, any airline operating out of there needs to be cut a bit of slack.

star_world

UA is much more dependent on connecting traffic at ORD than BA or AA. If a huge portion of your passengers aren't there, operationally it is often better to cancel everything and re-start the next day. UA is operating a schedule today for LHR-ORD that is close to on time, vs. AA with at least an hour's delay on one of their flights (probably due to crew rest after the long outbound delays yesterday).

I think you're missing the essential point here which is that they're operating an airline, whose sole purpose is to carry the most passengers at the highest possible fares. Large-scale cancellations are done for only one* reason, and that is to maximize the overall efficiency of the operation. There isn't some nefarious plan underway that the "press" needs to investigate

* Actually two now - huge per-passenger fines for long ground delays imposed by the US govt. definitely influence decisions on whether or not to cancel flights in severe IRROPS situations.

Often1

Everything other than actual unsafe flying conditions is ultimately within a carrier's control. The question is what is commercially reasonable.

For instance, UA could keep more crews on reserve at ORD (or a nearby hotel). But, those crews get paid and that raises airfares. So, commercially reasonable?

For instance, UA could fly to a destination where it is likely to have its aircraft stuck for a couple of days, thus requiring the cancellation of multiple additional flights. Or perhaps it should just duplicate its fleet so that there is an aircraft available to cover for the one stuck in the boonies. So, commercially reasonable?