turkeyRIOO

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...389346270.html


Changing the flight number to clear the stats seems like fraud to me.

PcolaPaul

Bad link

edcho

Works for me.

aacharya

What is (journalistic) fraud is WSJ noting that as the reason for flight changes. The article, while factually accurate,
is a pretty jaded view - especially the blow-by-blow melodrama of one "random" flight. I wish journalists just reported.

Though I do feel for our hublet captives - nobody should pay $800+ for a 2-hour RJ.

tom911

I thought this was more interesting:

How do you work around that when the regional partner says they're doing all they can do?

bob_the_d

haha i take 4352 a lot to visit my brother who lives in cincinnati. i don't know what it is, but yes, this flight is just constantly delayed. the outbound EWR-CVG flights are just as perpetually delayed as well.

the only saving grace is that they moved 4352 from T2 to T3, so at least i can hop over and get some gold star when my flight is inevitably delayed for 3 hours...

there must be SOME sort of pressure that UA is able to put on them. when a contractor becomes too unreliable, i can't imagine there's zero recourse the hiring company can take.

turkeyRIOO

aacharya -from the article "In 12 of the past 24 months ending in March, Flight 4352, which has changed flight numbers five times over the past two years to purge its bad history from airline reservation systems,"

aacharya

I'm aware of what the article said. It's not sourced at all. Hence my comment stands.

AAExPlat

Let's face it...EWR is one of the worst airports in the country to fly into and out of. For years, I used to fly evening flights on CO back to AUS weekly. I expected delays pretty much every week. But eventually, delays become too big an issue. After several bad delays and dwindling upgrade rates in 2008, I moved to AA as my primary carrier after a 7pm departure became a 3am departure the next morning. Weather, mechanical x2, late crew, crew timed out...it was like every reason a flight could get delayed was happening in waves.

Along with my move to AA as primary, I swore that I would fly only morning flights from thereon out. I still fly UA, and I still occasionally fly evenings (if my schedule dictates it), but I have found that staying an extra night at a hotel and flying out first thing in the morning has significantly reduced the number of delays I am exposed to.

Beyond that, I believe UA should be flying more widebodies and mainline out of EWR for domestic, and reduce the RJ frequencies so that the congestion will get slightly better. Unless we all start booking away from RJs, management will not get the message...

weirdlyndon

For that price, it's like UA is INVITING you to participate in hidden city ticketing!

aacharya

Indeed! Or drive to another airport.

spin88

This is not just a EWR problem, its a PMCO problem. They build tight turns and no down time into their scheduled to get more flights in per day with each AC (to pay for the new birds). Then they have no spare AC on hold at hubs. The result is that delays build and there is nothing to replace the plane with. Historically CO was good in the morning, bad late afternoon/evening.

They transferred this to the merged carrier and it was a disaster. A more complex system and cross fleeting overwhelmed them. At this point - with pay for performance and spares added back in - they are still only running an 80% OT rate (with some extra padding added to the scheduled). But Jeff has told the markets is just fine as a better OT rate is more expensive (see 3Q call).

BUT, most of those delays are afternoon/evening, and unlike with PMUA there is little chance that a replacement AC will be substituted in, much more chance the delay will get longer.

I just don't book UA any longer on flights after about 2-3, when there are options, and I don't want to be late, especially if its a CO bird at a UA hub. But Hey, Jeff has made perfectly clear that this is the level of reliability that he wants, and he is getting what he asked for.

FlyWorld

Seems credible to me.

Any thoughts on why the WSJ might have selected that flight for the article as distinct from the tens of thousands of other flights they might have chosen?

FlyWorld

That only works if you drop the last leg, not first leg, right?

The are gouging SFO-KIX for example with a nearly 100% penalty compared with starting at another nearby airport and changing on to that flight at SFO but if you don't show up at first city, I think SHARES will cancel your ticket.

fly18725

Why else do you think the major frequently change their regional carrier's flight numbers?

As someone who has taken (or attempted to take) this and other late afternoon/evening regional flights into NYC, I think the article is a pretty accurate representation of the issues passengers have to deal with.

What was ignored is a deeper explanation of why we have this problem. An insufficient ATC system limits the ability of NYC airports to accommodate the smallest weather delay. UA is basically forced to fully schedule its slot holdings: if it doesn't the slots will be allocated to another carrier, which will use the slots. If the NYC airports had fewer slots, or a mechanism that gave carriers more flexibility to manage slots, and a better ATC system, these type of delays could be minimized.