bocastephen

After the inbound for UA1765 arrives and deplanes, maintenance goes onboard and shortly thereafter there is an announcement that the speed brake system is faulty, and we have two choices 1) offload 30-40 passengers, or 2) plan a fuel stop in IAH as the aircraft must be lighter due to this issue.

Of course it's not up to us, so without regard for SFO connections, asking for volunteers or attempting to re-route some passengers via the IAH flight, they decide to add the fuel stop which means almost everyone with a connection will misconnect. The gate agents insist they will board to explain options and make sure everyone is informed - of course that doesn't happen, and by the time we know our fate, the door is closed. I immediately call the 1K desk and a great agent protects me on a SFO SEA segment the next morning.

Upon arrival in IAH, the plan is for a quick fuel stop (we've all blown our connections at this point anyway), and one agent arrives to announce there are no hotel rooms for passengers in SFO, so we have a choice of deplaning in IAH, overnighting in a UA provided room, or continuing to SFO and being on our own.

Shortly thereafter, the aircraft descends into chaos with the aisles full of passengers panicking, trying to deplane, trying to ask questions, etc - the one agent is working by herself and is clearly overwhelmed by the rush of people, has no help and no one from UA ops is taking ownership of the problem and coordinating the necessary resources, staff, etc, and try to restore order. Clearly at this point the crew are as frustrated as the customers, if not more so.

To make matters worse, information emerges that this issue plagues certain 737s and UA consistently makes the wrong choice of fuel stop vs volunteers/offloads, etc regardless of the fallout - it's clear the flight should have been canceled in FLL and everyone re-accommodated the next day or via IAH, but that didn't happen.

So a 30 minute fuel stop stretches to over an hour with fuel, someone sending catering, passengers demanding to leave, standing in the aisle, etc. Now my "might have" connection is sunk for sure. The lone GA tries to get me on the IAH SEA flight, but the last seat is gone by the time she can try. I go to my SPG app and book a room for the night near SFO, and yes I expect either a voucher upon arrival, or UA to reimburse me for the cost of this room when I email a copy of the receipt to 1K Voice.

I have never seen such incredible disorganization, poor decision making, lack of communication, etc.

Now I'm concerned that by landing after my original connection departs, the system will auto-cancel the protective segment held tomorrow. I've tested VOIP on the onboard Wifi system (it works) and I'm thinking to call and clean up the record so tomorrow is the only remaining segment, but I think it will be too noisy for effective communication.

I'm not normally a compensation person and only insist on it for downgrades, but I am going to insist on being paid for my hotel room (if no voucher is given to me), and I think they need to accommodate everyone on the flight with some form of compensation. There are a few GS on board in F and they were among the most vocal with their astonishment at the poor decision making, lack of communication, even not having customer service forms on board (we're told to go to the Internet to look for our compensation).

While a first world problem, of course the sundaes melted enroute, and when fresh dessert was requested from catering, did they bring sundaes? No - they brought potato chips.

I have a low tolerance for widespread disorganization like this - Ops had plenty of time (2.5hrs) to work with IAH and SFO airports to proactively rebook customers through IAH upon arrival, block hotel rooms in SFO or IAH where appropriate for each customer's individual case, and have a complete plan ready and set upon our arrival so customers could be told exactly what would be happening, and taken care of properly.

This was UA at its worst, and now there are 150 people, including a stack of 1K and GS customers who are sitting here fuming and shaking their head at how this was (mis) handled.

LilAbner

Not a member of the UC?

LASUA1K

Honestly, not suprised... Another mishandled flight and another 737 having some issue.

bocastephen

I don't understand...given our scenario, how can the UC help? I was not going to deplane in Houston after being told if anyone got off the flight, they could not reboard - thus the risk of being stranded in Houston compounding the risk of being stranded in SF.

Kacee

Yes that post made no sense at all.

What a Charlie Foxtrot. Hope this all works out for you. Definitely a 1kvoice compensation situation.

PV_Premier

Good thorough story. Sealed my decision to book DL F for my upcoming travel.

bocastephen

So by using the onboard wifi with a VOIP app I will not identify (so it doesn't get blocked), I was able to reach the 1K desk and get my record cleaned up so I don't lose both segments.

The call quality was actually crystal clear even with the cheaper $1/hr smartphone wifi option - well at least that worked better than expected

What's really galling and frustrating is this being a known issue - it wasn't a shock or surprised to UA - so why don't they have an existing contingency plan template in place that could have been applied to our flight and minimize the impact to everyone?

Why wait until an expected problem occurs, then just shoot from the hip trying to deal with it.

So they announced we can go to united.com/appreciation to receive our offer...thanks to wifi, I did so and was offered 10,000 miles, $250 ecert or a 10% discount cert.

I took the $250 and I'll consider it fair pay for this mess (assuming my hotel is reimbursed)....but I just wish they'd get their crap together and put processes in place to deal with these events effectively.

LilAbner

Well than stay on the plane and go to SFO with no accommodations, a mis-connect, and with all the people yelling the, "Sky is falling"!!

I on the other hand, would have called the 1K line, protected myself on the next mornings first available flight from IAH-SEA. If I was comfortable with the new itin, I would have grabbed my bag and gone to the nearest UC for my hotel and meal voucher. Then I would have gotten a good nights sleep after a few glasses of Cab at the Marriott @ IAH. You were told that you could get a room @ IAH so why go to the next place and pay for it yourself? That is unless you are 100% sure they will reimburse you for some important reason, when you pay for your own room in SFO, which they just may jack you around for months.

I would not have gotten off the plane either until I was assured that I had a seat (for sure) on the next mornings flight.

However, if I was informed that I would be comped a room at IAH, and I managed to reschedule to the next day, I'd be off that plane in a New York min and getting my vouchers in the UC.

Make sense now Kacee?

LASUA1K

And just for the record, I was able to watch the Clippers-OKC game last night on gogo in flight on US. I should've charged the people around me.... crystal clear pictue..

channa

Think about this -- one of CO's biggest weakpoints is IRROPS handling. The airline is more or less CO, with CO's systems and CO's processes and CO leadership.

It takes 10+ minutes to VDB someone with CO's systems by the time you rebook, hotel, food, blah blah, so 40 VDBs would be 400+ minutes of agent time.

Even if a small station like FLL could spare a half dozen agents at that hour to dedicate to the task, you're still looking at an hour of processing time before the last folks are shuttled to their hotel.

I'm not saying what they chose was right or wrong, but maybe that was a factor.

As for your connection, was there an AS flight that is better than the UA flight? #MakeJeffPay

Kacee

Poor management, poor systems, demoralized employees.

They barely manage to keep things together when everything's fine - add any difficulties into the mix, and it completely falls apart.

No, sorry, it doesn't make sense at all - your post implied bocastephen had made some rookie mistake by not going to the UC when that didn't appear to have been a reasonable option at all.

Nor does it make sense why you would gratuitously trash a regular's handling of IRROPS, particularly since it sounds like he handled the situation effectively.

fjfv19

100% with bocastephen on this one. I re-read several times and still cannot understand why there was no plan in place to re-route people via IAH and instead let it go pear-shaped upon arrival at the intended fuel stop.

Bocastephen- did you ever consider bailing in FLL or was there not enough time / alternate availability through other hubs?

Kacee

6:11 p.m. departure from FLL. My suspicion is there aren't any same-day alternatives that will get you to SEA.

danville 1K

And you continue to fly them why? As noted in other posts your best customers won't let you book them on UA, and your horror stories with them abound.

goldelite8

This is so unfortunate, especially since FLL used to have some of the best agents in the system. I've noticed the quality of the FLL team has decreased substantially since the introduction of new routes like FLL-DEN, FLL-SFO, FLL-IAD led to some new people.