30 min turn on a 767
 

I'm on UA46 (IAH-FRA) tonight. I received a message that it was going to be about an hour late leaving due to a "late arriving aircraft." Delays always seem to get longer and longer until the inbound is in the air, so I check the preceding flight, which is 1502 from EWR. The scheduled arrival time of 1502 is 6:05pm (it will be 6 minutes late) and the scheduled departure of 46 is 6:35. Why on earth did UA schedule a 30 minute turn on an international-bound 767? They wouldn't let me schedule a 30 minute connect to an international flight (not that I'd want to, but still). Why would they schedule a certain delay?

More than likely, the aircraft that was originally slated for your route went MX and they found the next best alternative.

This happened to me LAX-LHR as the original inbound aircraft was LHR-LAX and was on time. I checked a few hours later and my LAX-LHR flight was delayed by 2 hours due to "inbound aircraft" which was now coming from NRT. Found out at the airport that the first aircraft had gone MX when it landed in LAX.

That's certainly a possibility. Amusingly, they have changed the departure time five times in the last two hours - never the gate or aircraft, just their estimate of how fast they can turn it. It went from 6:35 to 7:26 to 7:00 to 6:35 to 6:53 to 7:22. Fun stuff!

I am in the E club and it was announced that the inbound flight had just arrived at about 550p and they would begin boarding at 630p. I still that that is a bit of a streach...

trek, I'm back in the E club after boarding, deboarding and hoping the new 10pm departure will hold.

They build ridiculous turn times into delayed aircraft all the time. I don't know why they do this, but I've had lots of amusement watching departure estimates that imply a/c turns of 20-30 minutes based on the estimated arrival of a delayed plane. One time I even said to the gate agent "who do you think you are, Southwest? You haven't turned a [fill in A/C type] in 30 minutes in your life". Not really fair, they don't set any of it, they're just the messenger (if that).

United trying to match Southwest's turns?
 

Southwest Airlines is noted for its hustle in getting flights in and out fast, and their corresponding high number of on-time arrivals.
Today United Flt. 435 IAH-EWR is scheduled to depart 12:00pm. The aircraft is coming from BOS (Flt. 751) scheduled to arrive 11:40am.
Can United do a 20 minute turn with a 757-200?

Not possible. What will happen is that after the inbound aircraft arrives, United will eventually post a delayed departure time for the outbound.

Previous histories don't make a rule book, but last Thursday, my 752 LAX-SFO was scheduled to depart at 10:33 pm. The inbound was delayed and did not block in until 9:50 p.m. New crew was at the departure gate. The outbound did not start boarding until 10:19. Shortly before boarding, the outbound departure time was changed to 10:43 and we pushed about 10:51. That was a 1:01 turn from block-in to pushback. UA can do it faster but not as fast as WN turns 73s.

There must have been a last-minute swap or some other IrrOps that caused this to happen. It takes at least 15 minutes to deplane, and there's no way they can board faster than 25 minutes. Add in a super fast 5 minute clean, and I can't possibly imagine less than a 45 minute turn on a 757.

This is what happens when UA pads the schedule. They subtract 15 minutes from the departure time, and add 15 minutes to the arrival time. Their on time matrix appears improved, but it causes other various issues down the line.


SunLover

I don't think it's last minute. For the last several months, operations has been doing swaps up to several hours in advance that lead to impossible turnaround times. The frustrating part is that they wait until the clock has expired to notify the passengers. And the reason for the delay? "Awaiting Inbound Aircraft". I guess that's technically true, but I had a 30 minute delay last week for that reason with the inbound aircraft arrived 16 minutes early!!

They can barely pull that off with an ERJ145.

And I, like crenshaw, find it highly irritating when they claim impossibly-fast turn times. At one point a couple of months ago, I saw that my flight was listed as 30 minutes late. I tracked the plane (a 737) back through the system and saw it was running well over 2 hours late, and that it would require 3 consecutive <20 minute turns for my flight to depart only half an hour late. I called customer service, asking to be moved to an earlier flight, and the agent refused to acknowledge that my flight was going to be seriously delayed.

Wouldn't that make their on time departure rating worse, since it's compared to their scheduled departure time which you claim they're moving earlier?

Part of the issue is there is almost no sanction for continuing to lie about this and disservice customers. I feel that one of the benefits of EU261 is that airlines have become more proactive about downline delays.

This is absolutely true! I've had several flights recently, where I knew it would be delayed. The incoming flight was on time but it was landing 10 minutes before departure. UA knew this flight would be delayed but they still kept on insisting it would be on time. This has hapenned 3 times in the last month alone.