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Consolidated "United SYD/MEL Flight Delays or Cancellations" Thread [2014]

Consolidated "United SYD/MEL Flight Delays or Cancellations" Thread [2014]

Old Jan 16, 2014, 1:46 am
  #31  
 
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Originally Posted by flyinbob
I wouldn't get too excited. They switched the ORD-HKG route to a 777 a while ago and it doesn't seem to have a cx record that is much better than the 744. Again today (Thursday 1/16) it is cancelled.
How old are UAs 777s? I bet like UAs 747s they are well past due, so can those of us who fly this route regularly expect to see more reliability? - I suspect not.

Worse still, the reduction in BF seats in 777 is all but going to make upgrades impossible for those of us 1K's who play the GPU roulette.
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Old Jan 16, 2014, 2:12 am
  #32  
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with no upper deck, it really sucks. Also the 777 will have range issues so that will be the next nightmare with load limiting on windy days.
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Old Jan 16, 2014, 8:47 am
  #33  
 
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Originally Posted by IainC
How old are UAs 777s? I bet like UAs 747s they are well past due, so can those of us who fly this route regularly expect to see more reliability? - I suspect not.

Worse still, the reduction in BF seats in 777 is all but going to make upgrades impossible for those of us 1K's who play the GPU roulette.
UA 747s started coming in between 1988 and 2000. UA's 777-200ERs started coming in 1997 and beyond, so the average age is 5-6 years newer. Also the 747s are relatively young...well at least compared to DL's fleet haha. UA has a good number of A320s that are older than the 747 and thus have a lot more landing cycles on those frames.

Originally Posted by flybit
with no upper deck, it really sucks. Also the 777 will have range issues so that will be the next nightmare with load limiting on windy days.
Not likely. the UA's 777s still has a larger cargo capacity than the 747s, and they already fly the longer ORD-HKG route with relatively* little issue. Remember at MTOW configuration; a 772ER's range is longer than that of a 747-400.
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Old Jan 17, 2014, 2:38 am
  #34  
 
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Guess what? Jan 17th Sydney - Sfo cancelled mechanical. At boarding time, aircraft towed onto runway to test engines, due to oil indication. Boarded 1 hour late and was told engine cleared, it was due to extreme heat earlier when aircraft was in Melbourne on the turn. Around 545, flight cancelled.
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Old Jan 17, 2014, 3:30 am
  #35  
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Originally Posted by master029
Guess what? Jan 17th Sydney - Sfo cancelled mechanical. At boarding time, aircraft towed onto runway to test engines, due to oil indication. Boarded 1 hour late and was told engine cleared, it was due to extreme heat earlier when aircraft was in Melbourne on the turn. Around 545, flight cancelled.
So an oil leak is a weather related problem? Sounds like UA are telling porkies. Just as well it never gets to 44 C in any other parts of the world ( thinking the Middle East )
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Old Jan 17, 2014, 4:51 am
  #36  
 
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Originally Posted by og
So an oil leak is a weather related problem? Sounds like UA are telling porkies. Just as well it never gets to 44 C in any other parts of the world ( thinking the Middle East )
The flight officaly was listed as MX
This was nice because my wife is now flying airNZ in J to get to the USA tomorrow (instead of today)

The auto-rebook thing needs to be shot though
GF full fare ticket == rebook into Y apperently
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Old Jan 18, 2014, 8:02 pm
  #37  
 
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Originally Posted by docbert
They had originally said April 1st but it looks like that's changed a little.

863 SFO-SYD is a 777 from March 26
839 LAX-SYD is a 777 from March 29

840 SYD-LAX is a 777 from March 29
870 SYD-SFO is a 777 from March 31

Somehow those dates don't make sense to me - they seem to be short the 747 that is apparently running UA840 on the 28th...
They better not change them too much more or Mrs. Lurker's and my "Vale UA 747 to SYD" flights in late March will be in vain!

Lurker
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Old Jan 19, 2014, 2:17 pm
  #38  
 
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Originally Posted by LordTentacle
The auto-rebook thing needs to be shot though
GF full fare ticket == rebook into Y apperently
Imagine how labour intensive the process would have been before auto-rebooking say for a canx full 747 !

I would be interested to know how the algorithm work with award J and upgrades in the event of a cancellation and transfer to another carrier.

Assuming there are seats available on other airlines, do the above canx pax get seats in the same class or downgraded.

Last edited by ozflier; Jan 19, 2014 at 2:18 pm Reason: poor grammar
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Old Jan 19, 2014, 2:54 pm
  #39  
 
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Originally Posted by ozflier
Assuming there are seats available on other airlines, do the above canx pax get seats in the same class or downgraded.
Upgraded passengers (regardless of the form of upgrade) are supposed to be rebooked in their original class of service, even when being rebooked onto another United flight. The exception would be where they schedule a new flight as a replacement (eg, UA839 -> UA1745 the next day) in which case upgrades should stick.

Occasionally there are reports of people being rebooked onto a different airline in their upgraded class of service, but they are rare and probably simply come down to human error when looking at the booked class.
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Old Jan 19, 2014, 2:58 pm
  #40  
 
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Originally Posted by docbert
Upgraded passengers (regardless of the form of upgrade) are supposed to be rebooked in their original class of service, even when being rebooked onto another United flight. The exception would be where they schedule a new flight as a replacement (eg, UA839 -> UA1745 the next day) in which case upgrades should stick.

Occasionally there are reports of people being rebooked onto a different airline in their upgraded class of service, but they are rare and probably simply come down to human error when looking at the booked class.
I don't believe rebooking into an upgraded cabin routinely happens. I had upgraded flights (B fares) canceled two days in a row for a flight to FRA during the alleged ORD snow event in early January. I ended up needing to fork over 2700 to get into a front cabin despite availability of seats in C the next day.
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Old Jan 19, 2014, 10:22 pm
  #41  
 
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UA839 LAX-SYD 19 Jan departure is cancelled.

And UA is claiming that UA870 SFO-SYD 21 Jan departure is going to be 5 hours late departing:

"vuelo United UA870 a las Enero 21 presenta una demora debido a que la aeronave lleg tarde.
Ahora sale: 21:10 a las Enero 21, Sidney, Australia (SYD)
Ahora llega: 15:13 a las Enero 21 en San Francisco, CA (SFO)

Por favor presntese en la sala de embarque para embarcar antes del horario programado de salida de 16:20, debido a que la hora de salida podra ser reprogramada otra vez."

How reliable is this?
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Old Jan 19, 2014, 10:36 pm
  #42  
 
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Flight status webpage confirms that UA 839 out of LAX on 19 January is canx!

This will mean delayed of cancellation of one of the services on 21 january depending on whether an additional a/c is found.

No info re cause of canx but would be great if it happened early to allow for same day rebooking.
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Old Jan 19, 2014, 10:54 pm
  #43  
 
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Yup, UA870 on Tuesday takes the aircraft from UA1758 (10am departure from LAX on Monday after a ferry flight from SFO) making apparently an immediate turn back to SFO at 9pm-ish. The UA840 on Tuesday is scheduled as an on-time departure, taking the UA863 plane doing the MEL run. Happy to see no cancellations downstream of Sunday's UA839.. They've got this game down pat, so much practice...
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Old Jan 19, 2014, 11:39 pm
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by ozflier
Flight status webpage confirms that UA 839 out of LAX on 19 January is canx!

This will mean delayed of cancellation of one of the services on 21 january depending on whether an additional a/c is found.

No info re cause of canx but would be great if it happened early to allow for same day rebooking.
Just leaving LAX now, the SYD folks looked quite unhappy. The UC looked like more of a bank run and less of an airline lounge.
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Old Jan 19, 2014, 11:49 pm
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by jumpingenes
Yup, UA870 on Tuesday takes the aircraft from UA1758 (10am departure from LAX on Monday after a ferry flight from SFO) making apparently an immediate turn back to SFO at 9pm-ish. The UA840 on Tuesday is scheduled as an on-time departure, taking the UA863 plane doing the MEL run. Happy to see no cancellations downstream of Sunday's UA839.. They've got this game down pat, so much practice...
It'll be interesting to see if they can pull this off. They've done the morning replacement flight a few times recently, but I don't think they've ever then re-used that plane for a same-day return to the US.

1758 is due to arrive at 7:38pm, which gives them just over 3 hours until the SYD curfew kicks in. As long as they arrive on-time that's plenty of time, but anything more than a short delay puts them at risk...
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