FlyingNut724

File a DOT complaint. Someone has to bring the DOT in on this filthy UA this practice...

amartin1979

This must be part of Project Quality. Smisek is saving his $2 billion by refusing hotel rooms and re-accomodation by claiming "weather"

spin88

Someone must have failed again to feed the rats that run on little wheels to power SHARES....


Yes, any dishonest response from UAL as to the cause of a delay should be reported to DOT. A few hundred complaints, DOT will address it with UAL, make them stop. Link is here:

http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint

p.s. Am I wrong, or has UAL's facebook page become really really negative? Its all people saying bad things about UAL. It did not used to be this bad (for UAL) and the negativity is nothing like that found on DAL or American's page.

Passmethesickbag

I don't know, but their twitter feed is an absolute joke - somebody with a very poor grasp of English is dealing with an apparent deluge of angry tweets and trying to pretend that there is somebody at UA who gives a damn:

"We know the delay resulting in your overnight stay is an inconvenience & your understanding is appreciate".
"Our Customer Care team would like to follow up with you. Please share the details with us here: http://bit.ly/GM3E9W " [link to generic we don't care form]
"Customer Care needs to investigates carefully. Please give them a little more time."
"We want everyone to be reunited with their luggages. "

amartin1979

The twitter feed is probably outsourced to India or Philippines as part of Project Quality.

iquitos

No, I think they have the executive team doing the tweets.

Passmethesickbag

Compare it to @AmericanAir - personalised, intelligent, and respectful replies, frequently with a request for a DM with further information, and wherever appopriate with a good dose of humour (loved their exhange with @fakeunitedjeff).

redtailshark

I'm catching up with this from LHR. After takeoff our commander revved the machine up and told us we'd be flying at eight five. We did. The vibration and noise are notably different when the drivers flog the machines harder like this. Anyway we made up 30 mins or so on our schedule, for a final arrival 2h 40 behind schedule. I am sure they don't care about the time for pax on 29 but I'm also sure that an out-of-position 772 has serious cascading effects on the system.

Last night at EWR the scene at the gate was not very happy and UA's agents were reaching the end of their ropes in several cases. The lead GA was barking at the pax to follow the revised boarding process (this time BF last b/c of ongoing catering). The pax who asked if there was snack or other provision were told, not unless the departure delay exceeds four hours (we were at 3:10 or so at that point). So no service recovery.

UA does appear to have a problem with delay attributions and the company ought to be careful and honest how they handle these things. This is not the first time I've captured screen shots showing inconsistent reasons for a long delay and this thread suggests that lots of you have seen similar things. What doesn't make sense is that other EWR-LHR services like UA800, for example, same routing, using a machine that also came in from the EU, had much smaller or no delays. Another data point: 940, also EWR-LHR, was supposed to leave at 10pm and did so.

The fact of delay is not the problem. It's the worrying institutional culture that not only permits contradictory information to be offered but that in some cases, UA agents are deliberately misleading pax. For example, at the gate last night, I head more than one GA's say "all flights are being delayed" to the pax, while patently departures like 800, leaving from a gate nearby for the same destination, were on time. That is not helpful to anyone and over time this conduct undermines public confidence in the airline operation. A sad state of affairs for UA.

rjque

And the storm rolled over ORD about 90 min or so before this ORD-AVP flight was scheduled to depart, and hung out for quite a while. I think it's entirely possible that this flight was cancelled for weather and not some other reason.

goingbananas

This is very common with my SO's Deadheads and the flights she works. There is the delay code that UA puts out on united.com and the internal delay coding on the company's system. It even changes after the flight is gone and complete.

It is similar to the upgrade shenanigans that happen. Put the NRSA in first, then after the fact fix the paperwork to show the next person on the upgrade list upgraded to the F seat (showing on the mobile app), but never in reality. This has happened 3 times to her on the DH and 2 times out of DSM.

redtailshark

Yes, some flights are genuinely affected. It makes it harder to parse flights that are probably not affected. But look at the evidence from yesterday and you will see that in the case of 29, that's hard to believe.

Inbound: from FRA. Arrived just after 1pm local at EWR (i.e. early). Source: UA.COM. There was no other frame movement, except the short ground push from one terminal to another at EWR.

Meantime, many other TATL including UA800 EWR-LHR dep. on schedule (1:20 prior to our originally scheduled departure), arr. within 5 mins of schedule. UA940, 10pm, on schedule - these machines are flying between the same points, in some cases have spent less time on the field than our 772, and they leave both before, and after, us - and they maintain schedule. Source: GAs, Club Agents, UA.COM, flightstats.com and others. How does this weather not impact these services too? If ORD weather somehow impacts our 772, which was on the ground at EWR between previous sector and operating 29, then why not the same for the multiple 763s detailed above, with identical circumstances?

So. Using the "severe weather" classification for this particular delay is an insult. The "operations" classification that appeared at some points during the delay is more believable. I agree that UA systematically cloaks irop under "weather" and that the practice is distasteful. I think they did it here.

chitownflyer

I do not recall PMUA having these types of computer system difficulties on a regular basis, and they did have procedures for enabling operations, if it did occur. Why is UA using an antiquated PSS and not making it more functional and efficient and similar to FastAir?

FlyingNut724

you need to send that to the DOT.

cfischer

What do you expect. Sh!t happens and I am o.k. with that as long as it doesn't happen every other day. I am not o.k. when I am fed b.s. and lies about 'weather in the route network (I mean what the hell is that anyway ... it's raining somewhere in the world???)' when in fact the delay and cancellation is fully within UAs control.
They are trying to get out of compensation and accomodation requirements and someone needs to get this kind of stuff to the DOT.

fastair

It doesn't address the issue of bad IT making delay labeling transparent, but what does the DoT have to do w/airline compensation other than in an IDB? This isn't the EU, where it's regulated. As far as the DoT regulations go, an airline isn't required to compensate for ANY reason, be it wx or mech. Only regulation is for IDB comp. it's like going to the DEA to complain about your neighbor's loud stereo, they have no ability to act. If one wants to start a grassroots movement such as the "passenger bill of rights" that was done last decade, that would be Congress.
Any compensation for a delay on flights that don't fall into some other countries jurisdictions is wholly up to the airline.

It may not be consumer friendly, but it's the way the US transportation industry works.

A thread like this appears every few days. That alone points to a problem that needs to be fixed, but the DoT, in it's current function is powerless on this issue.