fumje

Looks like 701 is not a flight number used for multiple segments, but I noticed yesterday that the 'where is this aircraft coming from' link redirected to the inbound flight for the wrong segment.

I didn't make a note of all the particulars, but it was for a flight number used for EWR-ORD + ORD-LAX. The ORD-LAX 'where is' directed to a TPA(?)-EWR flight, which was the EWR-ORD inbound aircraft. The ORD-LAX flight's inbound craft was actually doing IAD(?)-ORD.

The ORD-LAX 'where is' did correct itself after a while. (Maybe after EWR-ORD departed? Didn't pay attention.)


Relatedly, I was trying to track my parents' connection, and noticed some funny business with the 753s going ORD-LAX.


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Guessing they did something like just keep moving the later flights' aircraft to the one earlier and then reassigning the water tank dud to the later flight ?

Catbert10

jsloan

Inbound aircraft are always provisional, especially at a hub. I'm sure the operations team assigned to your flight (well, to Houston and Latin America in general) considered replacement aircraft (and probably still are; it's entirely possible your flight leaves on time).

Having said that, UA rarely will update an outbound flight's departure time until the previous flight is in the air, and "where is this aircraft coming from" is a helpful hint.

I'm not sure what else there would have been to do about it -- it's not like they forgot about your flight.

If a 78 minute delay is a "serious delay," I suggest you take a look at the two competing threads about weather-related cancellations in the northeast. I'm sure there are thousands of travelers today who would be extremely happy with a 78 minute delay.

hscottm

jsloan

It's not new, and it's not a glitch -- it's policy. You will rarely (if ever) get a delay notification until the inbound flight is in the air.

There are two reasons that they do it -- (a) people hate rolling delays, and (b) once they've announced a delay, passengers start to adjust their plans based on that delay. While that sounds appealing -- "I'd rather wait at home than sit around the airport," it also causes problems if there's a swap. Imagine having a 4 PM departure that first gets moved to 6 and then gets moved to 5. You're going to have some people miss their flight who otherwise wouldn't, because they're going to show up at the gate at 5:15.

Catbert10

Kacee

Yes, it's been going on forever.

While this can be frustrating, keep in mind that UA provides more info on where your aircraft is coming from than any other carrier. I personally prefer more information, even though it's not always updated as quickly as we might like.

jsloan

A good agent would have told you that they could always swap aircraft. (A bad agent would have just said "my system says it's on time.")

Kacee

Seen that enough. Sometimes it means there will be a swap, sometimes it means you're facing a delay.

Flight planning is dynamic. UA may not make a decision to do a swap (or even a cancel) until they have a better sense how bad the delay is. In the meantime, the information that's available to passengers is potentially garbage. Sometimes it's all about living with uncertainty

jsloan

Incidentally -- that flight is currently scheduled for a 10:35 PM arrival (1 hour, 53 minutes late). It departed at 7:37 PM -- 90 minutes late -- but they're vectoring around around storms in the flight path. (FlightAware shows 1,833 miles planned; 1,558 direct).

It's possible that operations looked at this and decided that they were going to have to wait out these storms anyway, which could have factored into the flight planning as well.

emcampbe

Let's be clear. UA doesn't schedule these kinds of turns in advance. But it has IRROPS throughout the system, and is doing what it can to get the system working best for everyone. That might help your flight on any given date, or cause a delay on another. As mentioned, flight planning is dynamic, and I often, between the time flight status is available two days prior to departure to departure time see a frame swap - sometimes multiple.

I've seen inbound aircraft scheduled to be late for the flight I'm on, and then it goes out on time because they have a swap. I've also seen it the other way - an aircraft that is scheduled, for say, a 2 hour turn, and we end up going out late due to a plane swap. Presumably, for whatever reason, the plane scheduled was given to another flight (presumably so it takes a lesser delay than it would otherwise), despite giving my flight a short delay. Or that aircraft has gone MX, and so can't run like it was supposed to. As a layman looking at one flight, it's impossible to say that its the wrong decision - those in ops have an overview of the system and are doing the best they can to keep everything moving as close to on time as possible.

It turns out this flight did have an aircraft change. Per FlightStats, looks like the plane was going to use N13248, but on Aug. 3 (today), 12:14 UTC was swapped to N24212. Can't say why, but it was. Per FlightAware, it says the aircraft last flew into IAH yesterday, arriving from SFO at 10:20 pm, didn't fly anywhere today, and is scheduled to operate UA 1563 to DEN at 5:30am tomorrow. With it not flying anywhere today, my best guess is it went MX, and so they changed your aircraft. Better to know this before and take a 2 hour delay, rather than fly an aircraft that was broken. Also better to discover this early - if they didn't until, say, just before departure time, the delay could have been worse.

This. There's so much going on behind the scenes, they don't post a delay until they are reasonably sure its going to be delayed that long. Could do a swap and leave on time (seen that enough), or new plane could have something change before it takes off - have ATC delays in, etc. There's so much that can happen/change. I would rather get a new time that is fairly accurate than see rolling delays or a delay that gets rescinded.

Kacee

Rolling delays are the worst.

Phil Level

In March I had an EWR-LAX flight that was delayed 16 minute due to late inbound, new departure was 2:30 PM, but when I clicked "Where's it coming from" the inbound was showing 42 minutes early and "actual" arrival time was 12:30 PM.

mduell

Could be late inbound crew rather than late inbound plane.

SFnFlaGuy

Hello Everyone!

Just wanted to see what everyone would do in my situation.

We're taking one of our few vacations this year and I just wanted it to go without a hitch...so far I'm a little bit concerned.

We're flying on UA726 tonight 1040pm SFO-EWR. Showing on time as of this morning.

Then I check the inbound aircraft (where is this flight coming from) , UA 724 HNL to SFO showing 3.5 hours late due to late inbound due to mechanical estimated to arrive SFO at 1203am

The inbound for that is UA1175 SFO to HNL which is 4 hours and 29 minutes late due to mechanical. 9am departure now 130pm.

What would you do? We didn't do upgrades this time, but we got good seats in economy plus. I guess I can SDC to another flight if possible but the seats would most likely suck.

I know sometimes they find some other aircraft to fly the route to keep it on time....but how long should I wait?

Oh well.....I'm just starting my day and I'm already looking at a potential 4 hour delay.

Thanks for you feedback.