Exiled in Express

Thank you for doing the CoC research. I struck out on OAL but the rep did ask a supervisor before denying me. I ended up taking a change of origin on UA metal which oddly also took a supervisor to approve.

jws43yale

I had this happen to me a week ago as well. Was on EWR to SNA in Economy last Thursday and was cancelled 6 days out. Was able to rebook to LAX (flying back LAX to JFK for PS lie-flat biz first). This was a huge pain as I needed to be there on Thursday night and had to rent a car plus if I had booked the EWR to LAX flight to begin with would have saved my $130-$150. Have email [email protected] to see about some kind of voucher but it has been a week and haven't heard anything.

Is there something else I can do proactively?

goodeats21

This sounds like it is getting ridiculous. Publish a schedule, have customers buy their flights, then four days out just start consolidating everyone onto whatever planes are convenient to United, regardless of the customer impact.

And even more sinister then the usual advance schedule changes, as everyone would face last-minute fares if they try to refund / rebook.

Exiled in Express

I realized that I would not have purchased a UA ticket if my choices were the reroute I settled on compared to OAL schedules. I filed a DOT complaint on "operational difficulties" and encourage others to do the same.

http://airconsumer.dot.gov/escomplaint/ConsumerForm.cfm

UA-NYC

Excellent - please do follow up back here w/the outcome, this could be an interesting precedent

SamuelS

You credit UA management with far too much savvy. Yes, they furloughed too many on the suUA side. And when they did the recalls, not all of those folks came back (as I mentioned above, when they asked people back they required a base change in many cases, and a lot of folks couldn't/wouldn't uproot and move across the country with virtually no notice). Combined with an increase in summer flying, they're very short right now. "Critical Coverage" (a scheduling term that enacts additional pay, but also means company can start "drafting" FAs) was already enacted a few weekends ago and will almost definitely be re-enacted through July and August at the domestic domiciles.

There are new FA's in training but by the time they are fully on the line and ready to go, it will be late Summer.

goodeats21

Thanks for the details. Between the additional crew pay and the operations melt-down/cancellation rate this month, it is going to be interesting to see the financial results...

Morrissey

This just happened to me as well. I was notified on June 29th that my July 5 PVD-ORD-LAX itinerary was canceled (actually the PVD-ORD portion was canceled). I was rebooked on PVD-IAD-LAX instead. I specifically booked through ORD so I would be on UA mainline from PVD, as the UAX flights to EWR and IAD are never on time. This airline is really testing my patience.

goodeats21

The link above might be of interest to you...

BearX220

It seems clear the company knows it cannot fly its published timetable with resources at hand. It has neither the airplanes nor the staff.

Logically, therefore, we should regard the United timetable as, at best, wishful thinking that cannot be attained IRL; at worst, fiction.

The fair question, then, is: at what point is it fair to regard United as committing large-scale fraud?

When a promoter markets tickets to see the Rolling Stones, but calls ticketholders four days before showtime and says, sorry, no Rolling Stones, we've rebooked you to see a Partridge Family concert, with no refund -- and investigation shows the company never had the capability to deliver the Rolling Stones, irrespective of intent -- that would be legally actionable: a clear case of bait and switch.

IANAL, but how is what United doing so different? You book certain flights at certain times. The company cannot deliver. It forces undesirable alternatives on you. No apology beyond a flip "Sorry about that" on Twitter.

If the company can't be made to do what it promises, I think it ought to be made to pay, perhaps via class action, perhaps via an enterprising attorney general.

Otherwise, what stops them from promising LHR nonstops every 20 minutes all day, then operating whichever 4 or 5 they like?

cfischer

UA is desperate right now, the swapping of equipment TATL is just funny to watch these days. The UA28/29 pair is fun to watch. Supposed to be a PMCO 772 but recently it has been a PMUA 772 which messes up all seat assignments. The past several days they tried to run a 764 but of course they had to cancel the return because the 772 crews from the day prior could not fly the 764. It's comical, unless you are experiencing it (which I had the misfortune the other day).
Yesterday as well as last week the swapped in a 752 (down from 772); it's difficult not to laugh.
Today for the fist time in ages the flight is back to PMCO 772 ... delayed over an hour ... because they needed to swap planes
Operations are so poor and they are so thin on frames it is going to be a tough summer.

airplanegod

Could UA bring back some 757's from the desert to help out? It won't fix the widebody cancellations, but it might help with reducing the amount of domestic cancellations from having to bring over the 757's filling in for Europe flights and the rest of the domestic fleet having to fill in those 757 domestic routes.

PV_Premier

recently, UA uses the "delayed/canceled for operational difficulties" so often that they should instead change to "on time despite operational difficulties"

edcho

Do they have any 752s in VCV? I thought they sold them all.

airplanegod

They do have some stored at VCV, some going to FedEx, and some not. It's not unheard of, Delta has brought back some 757's temporarily and WN has brought back some 733's in the past.