emcampbe

Yes, from an international station like HKG, flight crew delays can be known that far ahead of time. Crew scheduled likely comes in on an inbound from the U.S., takes their rest period and then flies back. If the inbound gets delayed enough where the crew won't be able to get required minimum rest period, then the flight they are scheduled to work back either has to be delayed or they need to find a crew.

Most international stations this is a pretty sure delay as there probably aren't many, if any, spare crews. Although if HKG is still a crew base (is it?) then chances are better they may be able to find a replacement crew to run the flight on time, in which case you could get another notice saying the flight is back to on-time. Cancelation, I suppose, is a possibility, but if the inbound flight is actually on the way (and normally they don't announce the delay until the inbound flight is on its way so they have a fairly good idea of what the new departure time will be), then I'd say there's probably no greater chance then any other flight. On the flip side, had you not been told anything, showed up at the airport on time, and then been told there was a 2 hour delay that was known a day and a half earlier, wouldn't you have been equally or more upset the info. Was withheld?

Being at HKG, depending on the destination, and because there are several other UA flights, it's possible UA may be able to rebook you. It doesn't hurt to call and ask.

I have faced this kind of situation before in BOM, except the delay was 8 hours and with only 1 UA flight, there was no alternative that wasn't OAL. But UA rebooked me on a Swiss connection instead to get me home sooner than I would've otherwise, and only an hour or so after I would have of my flight was on time.

tkc98110

I wonder that myself! My flying is slowing down as I'm trying to actually retire, so my calculations need to include that most of my flights starting in 2017 or so will be world travel out of my own pocket.

As soon as I hit 2MM (early next year?), I'll consider making the switch. I should probably find the thread(s) that cover this.

st530

So I'm booked on UA 838 SIN-NRT this Friday Sept 25, continuing to IAH on UA 6. UA 838 is scheduled 610a departure 220p arrival. UA 6 is not scheduled to depart until 435p. On Tuesday Sept 22 I get an email from UA saying that UA 838 is "delayed due to operational difficulties," now departs 735a arrives 315p. I thought it was very odd to get such an email three days out, but I figured no biggie, still plenty of time to catch UA 6. Yesterday (local time) Sept 23 we finish up meetings in SIN early, one of my colleagues with the same itinerary as I checks with Global Services to see if he can switch his return to Thursday Sept 24. Apparently he cannot as there are no business seats SIN-NRT. As an aside, however, the GS rep insists that UA 838 is not delayed on Sept 25, that the email he received (same one that I received) is wrong, it's a glitch, and the flight is scheduled for on-time departure at 610a.

Fast forward to this morning local time (Sept 24), I wake up and have another "update" email from UA saying that UA 838 on Friday Sept 25 now departs at 945a, arrives 525p. This will cause a misconnect to UA 6. I open up the United app and I have the "red alert" about the misconnect, giving me options to switch to other flights on any of Sept 24, Sept 25 or Sept 26. I start looking at the options (this part of the story is a bit of an aside to my main story, but I found what I'm about to describe quite annoying) and find one that looks like a possibility, but the only option shown is "confirmed seat". I assume selecting "confirmed seat" will give me the option to look at class and available seats before finalizing a switch, but no, by selecting "confirmed seat" I belatedly realize that I've already re-booked myself into Y on 3 legs (SIN-HKG-SFO-IAH) and can't get back to my prior itinerary in C (and to boot, I had previously GPU'd the SIN-NRT leg to F). When I enter the reservation again, however, I still have the "red alert" and find that I'm still able to look at other options, so I manage to "confirm seat" on my original C itinerary (but I've still lost the GPU on SIN-NRT).

At this point I've lost confidence in the app so decide to call GS to see what other flight options are available given the misconnect in NRT, so I can check on fare class and seats before confirming. (I guess I could have tried this on UA.com first, but did not.) When I reach an agent, she pulls up my reservation and says "I show UA 838 as on-time departure on Sept 25, you will not misconnect." As she's telling me this I'm looking at the flight status on UA.com and it's still showing "delayed due to operational difficulties" to 945a. She insists it's a glitch on both the app and UA.com, that others have called about it, and the app and web site are just "mirroring today's flight". She assures me it's on-time so I ask her to leave me on the original itinerary but can she restore my GPU to F?, which she does.

I hang up but still have an uneasy feeling about this. I check the flight status of the in-bound aircraft to SIN, and it shows as arriving on-time, so the "operational difficulties" e-mails seem like they could indeed be some kind of glitch. But I also check UA 838 (or its equivalent) on Sept 23 and Sept 24 to see if one of those was delayed to 945a (to test the GS's agent's theory that the "glitch" is just "mirroring today's flight") and see that both flights are on time, so what is this "mirroring" stuff? in the end, my apprehension wins the day and I go on UA.com and switch to the NH flight to NRT that departs SIN on Sept 25 at 555a, to ensure (knock on wood) that I will connect to UA 6. Needless to say, it will be interesting to find out what the actual status of UA 838 ends up being on Sept 25!

To sum up:

(1) Either phantom e-mails (and UA.com) giving false information about flight delays, or GS agents unwittingly reassuring callers with false information. They can't both be right, and it puts a flyer in a tough spot to decide whom to believe.
(2) Ancillary to the main story, but I don't like that the app gives only one option (or at least was only giving me one option on this occasion) to "confirm seat" on a new itinerary without being able to see class and available seats first. (Maybe this an existing problem that's been identified in other threads and I just hadn't experienced it before.)

joseeantonior

This may sound really weird, but I would've gotten early into the airport, like to catch my original flight. Then, if it was delayed, I would've let a GS agent handle the IRROP. Maybe you could've gotten some sort of compensation too?

Well, all of this if it wasn't necessary for you to get to NRT into your original schedule.

(Yes. You can clearly see I've never had to handle IRROPS. But I think it may be fun if you have time to spare.)

bmwe92fan

My idea of fun doesn't involve getting up at 330 am to make it to the airport to battle with UA on how to get home....

Smiley90

That's so wacky. Is there another flight that day you can switch to that doesn't have glitches to avoid the uncertainty? I'm surprised even the GS phone line couldn't clear it up. You can't have been the only one. I'm picturing the plane now being empty as everyone gets to the airport late, that can't be the case.

Often1

It will be interesting to see what happens after the fact. But, two senior agents at two different times did tell OP that the auto rebook was wrong and that the flight is on schedule.

wrp96

Have you looked to see if there's a crew delay into SIN today (or yesterday, I don't know what the rotation on crews there is).

1k-all-the-way

I had this happen recently on a short domestic flight - so it didn't have the same drama. Turns out the emails saying it was delayed were right, and agents and web were wrong...but who the heck knows with United?

kluau88

There were some IRROPS involving flights to NRT and SIN earlier this week (9/20-9/22) on consecutive days and with pilots working "W" trips this might have thrown the downstream schedule slightly behind schedule.

The flights I am referring to include UA 803, UA 804, and UA 895.

malgudi

A friendly suggestion:

Lots of verbiage in the OP ... perhaps try distilling it down to make it easier to read?

Thanks!

RobOnLI

How were you able to book NH? Did you just process a ticket change and pay any fare difference and change fee (assuming there was one)?

Or did United.com also think you would misconnect and allowed you to change because of IROPS?

-RM

st530

I actually just booked a new one-way ticket on UA.com (it was a few dollars cheaper than my existing one) and canceled the existing one (it was refundable).

st530

Ah, FlyerTalk. Where you can get flamed for leaving out details, and also for writing too much.

Short version: UA flight notification e-mails, UA app and UA.com all say I will misconnect due to a delayed firs leg; but GS agents insist it's a glitch and that the first leg is on time and there will be no misconnect, so there is no need to rebook. Basically they're saying "trust us" despite visible evidence to the contrary on every available public UA forum.

mduell

I wonder if any of these woes are related to the flight number changing on that day. The UA SIN-NRT ping-pongs between 804, 838, and 882 over the schedule:

I doubt it, since plenty of domestic routes have changes of flight numbers nearly every day, but it stuck out as a day with a change.