It seems that UA still has a bit to learn in terms of Customer service...

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/...4238670646.jpg

I can't understand why, since the pax were shuttled back to EWR, UA didn't send a few narrowbodies to pick them up.

I am not a United defender but have checked in on these boards to add some balance to what I have felt is a biased discussion. I have seen improvements across the board over the past 18 months.

HOWEVER, it is incidents like this which scare the beejeezus out of me. I don't understand how United handled this situation. These passengers were basically prisoners. Had I been a passenger on this flight, I would have likely cancelled my business in London and tried to take a car/train/flight back into the U.S. But it doesn't seem like that was an option for anyone. This incident is screaming for United's leadership to step up and say something.

The United Twitter response is just amazing. To shuttle everyone back to EWR then to LHR is the dumbest thing ever. Like another poster said, you couldn't send 2 narrowbody aircraft to pick up the stranded and fly them down to EWR or IAD?

Bad decision after bad decision.

with delayed/cancelled intl. flights? Really? In which world are you flying? the situation is worsening if anything if you look at this thread (which is far from comprehensive).

With respect to the pax overnighting in Gander, I'd be curious if UA had any sports charters working that night that could have diverted after their assignments?

Also, if this happened to your airline, wouldn't you pick up the phone and start calling Air Canada, Swift, Miami Air, even Delta--anyone for an aircraft and crew to rescue your stranded pax? Heck even an ERJ to shuttle pax to Halifax?

UA's planning despite all their lip service to the contrary is seemingly non-existent.

Mechanical issues happen, and better safe than sorry. That being said, the way United handled it was appalling. Even if they went ahead with sending the replacement 763, they could've flown directly from Goose Bay to London. The fact that it took them that long (with another mechanical delay none the less) just to shuttle them back down to EWR is ridiculous.

There are 2 points:

1. How United handled this flight and cancellation is beyond defending. It should scare the bejessus out of everyone.

2. Look at the number of cancellations due to mechanical problems just over the past few days. That too should scare people, and that too demands an explanation.

The top brass isn't going to say a thing. They think it's handled. We got you to London eventually, didn't we?

But happily this outrage has burst into mainstream media and helps make UA synonymous with incompetence and brutal customer relations in the minds of the general public... which in the long run will dislodge this terrible management and lead to positive change. Got to touch bottom first though. I just hope nothing worse happens.

What scares me the most about this Goose Island dealio isn't having to sleep in barracks, the continuing delays, the failure to go directly to LHR. It's the prospect--and I feel like I don't yet have enough information to know what the exact situation was--that the passengers were literally prisoners on this army base. If one of the passengers decided to hike their way into the town, would they have been forcibly detained? This, more than anything else, is what really scares me.

Absolutely you'd have to assume if Customs wasn't opened they'd be detained.

I'd be curious if someone needed medical attention what would the response have been? Could one say they don't feel well, and get transport into town? Or would they be taken to an RCAF medical facility on the base?

I am reminded of another incident last year when two UA flights to SYD were diverted and pax were stranded on the tarmac.

United Airlines passengers stranded in Brisbane and Canberra after Sydney runway closure (SMH-Dec 12, 2014)

You would think, after the incident above, that UA would draft up contingency plans to help pax during diversions to a list of possible airports that it doesn't serve. And it's not like Goose Bay is an obscure place--it is one of the more famous and likeliest airports for diversions.

For UA to act as cluelessly as it has shows that it simply doesn't have customer service high on its list of priorities. Pathetic.

United's Name is Mud on Two Continents
 

Flight 958 debacle trending hard on both sides of the Atlantic.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/7...ne-forced-land
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.2257921
http://www.travelpulse.com/news/impa...-barracks.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/united-a...cks-1434304084
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-n...engers-5881628
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2015/...4611434313854/

Editors are playing up the angle of the flight crew securing comfy hotel rooms for themselves while pax abandoned to cold barracks.

Especially when the crew have just been paid for 5 hours that they didn't work and they didn't need the rest to serve on a relief flight or three.

As they should.

As I was reading this thread in my hotel room in NYC, the local ABC station featured a story on this. Interview of pax, photos of "sleeping" arrangements, and a nice map of the flight path to Goose Bay. Not pretty.