johnden

What is the official policy for changing the departure time on a delayed flight?

From my UA experience, the normal is usually similar to:

1) After the departure time has passed, increment by 15-30 min (despite the fact boarding has not begun).

2) 15 min after the departure time has passed, increment by 30 min (despite the fact boarding is only 1/2 complete)

3) An hour before the departure time, set the departure time to 25 min past the estimated arrival time of the late inbound flight

4) An hour past the departure time, continue to increment the time by 30 min every 30 min, despite no aircraft at the gate.

All of these result in 100% guaranteed inaccurate information to passengers, family, etc. I understand during a delay that a time is only an "estimate", but what is the point of intentionally estimated numbers that have a 0% chance of being correct?

There has to be a rule/calculation used, a rational human would not consistently guess these times and wait so long to update them by 15/30 min.

transportprof

UA 300, SFO-HNL is running 4.5 hours late today, May 16.

Looks like a 747 has been pressed into service on this route. ^

Anybody know what went down? Any trip reports?

Gallager2014

UA4936 cancelled due to "Crew Availability"

I was rescheduled on a DL flight that got delayed 5hr due smoke in the cabin. While DL did a decent job at taking care of customers in the gate area by providing snacks, I think the UA flights that I was originally scheduled for would have been better.

kranabargar

Bad day on 5/17 for 1128 DEN to HNL. 11:50 a.m. departure gets out at 2:34 p.m. and diverted to LAX. Looks like they swapped the equipment in LA for a different bird.

physioprof

They just cancelled UA3991 LGA-IAD, as a knock-on from cancelling the incoming IAD-LGA, due to ATC fog situation at LGA.

I had booked on this flight when the Amtrak derailment occurred. I was in a car on the way to LGA when I received a text from UA reporting a one-hour delay. I immediately told the driver to turn around and take me to NYP. I am currently on the Acela to DC, and very, very glad I'm not dealing with IRROPS at LGA!

wto605

See... sometimes irrops can be a good thing, now you get a refund

Seriously though, Acella all the way... the only time I even used to book flights between BOS-NY/DC/etc. when I lived back there is if I was hurting for PQM (and then if there were irrops it was a refund and off to the train). Nice to see that it's back online (and hopefully getting PTC a bit sooner now).

PV_Premier

well, not really, cause they got canceled...

better service quality? perhaps. you'll never know. but you also never would have gotten there on the same day presumably.

pushmyredbutton

IRROPS today UA1085 ORD-LGA
4 hour delay and counting due to fog

Was at the airport early and asked CS to go standby on an earlier flight to LGA or EWR: "Nothing available sir"

Meanwhile, I was able to purchase a seat on an UA1744 just to get out of ORD and to LGA.

Should UA have accommodated me as at least a standby, instead of having to purchase the same flight? 1kvoice says tough luck.

PV_Premier

yes you should have been allowed to standby. putting pax on SBY isn't trivial in SHARES, and a lot of agents don't know the rules. you should have pressed harder.

claim a refund on your original ticket that i assume you are not flying on now. you are entitled on the basis of the delay.

love_to_travel

YUL-EWR was delayed almost 3 hours this past Sunday, causing me to miss my EWR-HNL flight home. They rebooked me on AC but on non-lie-flats.

It wasn't too bad though the YUL-YVR flight had great service and awesome food and the YVR-HNL flight was on AC Rouge and was very empty so I gave up my Premium Rouge seat and took a whole row in the back to myself.

I'm doing another PQM/PQD run in June HNL-EWR-YUL-IAD-HNL and I hope YUL-IAD does not get delayed, otherwise I'm asking them to send me YUL-CDG-NRT-HNL

PV_Premier

don't forget to claim ORC with MPSC

kranabargar

Anyone have insight into what has been going on with UA1128 (DEN to HNL)? In the past week it has been diverted to LAX (then onto HNL) resulting in a significant delay. The 5/19 flight looks like it was direct, but had over 2hr delay getting out of DEN. Headwinds forcing a fuel stop?

LXboy

I flew TUL-IAH-EWR on Sunday night and due to some delay of the feeder, I barely made it on the connection to Newark.

- Boarding began about 30min late
- We were on the Tarmac for a while due to bad weather. First we had to wait as the starting regime was changed from west to east
- Then weather got really really bad and airport was shut down
- After 3hrs in the plane we had to go back due to the federal rule
- We couldn't not dock to the gate as there were severe lightning going on and it would have been to much of a risk for the people at the ramp
- Once back at the gate, everybody was de-boarded and we waited in the terminal
- Planes didnt get refueled immediately due to the lightning and some of teh crew timed out.
- After another 2 hours of shifting back we boarded again (or whoever was left...)
- It took another hour until we finally took off an arrived in EWR at 6.15am instead of 11:47pm the day before.

This is not ironic, I would like to thank United for the organization and bringing me to New York today. It would have been an expensive day at work if I missed it. Situations like this are stressful for everybody involved and as we tend to complain about every little detail, I wanted to point out how professional the situation was handled:
- While in the plane the captain updated the passenger every 15min with tons of details and not per-recorded statements. He added additional information such as this is his view and not the official estimate, his experience tells that, etc. which made it sound very authentic
- He clearly indicated when people can walk around in the airplane
- Biscuits were given out in Economy class. I mean that was more of a symbolic gesture but that means they have 200 packages of little sweets on board of every plane for such occasions?
- Once back at the gate the information given was no BS at all: They said they cannot refuel due to the lightning, they early communicated who of the crew would time out when and we saw the reserve coming in as we waited.
- People were given the opportunity to re-book even though the flight was not cancelled and whoever didnt want to wait on the phone or counter could simply buy a new UA ticket and would get reimbursed for that
- Both the captain and the gate agent were very talkative and explained what is going on, why we wouldnt consider this and that... they didnt hide and the pilot made fun and also run forth and back to the crew room to plan a new route.

I had many situation like this and it is obviously frustrating. But what makes it worse is if you don't get informed in Lufthansa or BA style. It was annoying but United did a great job of keeping people informed, entertained and didn't bs anybody at anytime.

I was tired today but glad that they didnt just cancel the flight after half of the passenger changed the travel plans but still flew us to EWR. Very professional handling of the situation.

I wish this would become industry standard again...

dfreeman02

Trying to get out of AUS yesterday, our inbound plane from IAH was diverted to SAT. It was rescheduled for SAT-AUS with the same flight number, left the gate, and then showed cancelled. A few minutes later it showed up with a ferry flight number (2166) and the seat map showed empty. After a few more hours delay, it eventually took off, and when it got to AUS no pax and about a dozen FAs got off the plane.

Questions:
- Why would UA cancel the diverted flight?
- What happened to the IAH-AUS passengers?

UA did a decent job of handling the delay (ultimately 7 hrs) but I sorely missed Ch9 during the 1.5hr taxi. (It was a reconfigured A320.)

united78

great post and detail, thank you. agree this is a good level of communication and makes all the difference during delays.