uber1K_Flyer

I was caught in this as well. I do blame United for the disruption. While it was an early snow storm, it was predicted snow and ORD should be have been able to handle it - it wasn't a hard storm at all. There is no reason that they should have a 1 hour wait to de-ice.

JBord

This often seems to be the issue, especially with early season storms. For whatever reason they never seem ready to handle them effectively in November or early December.

Bonehead

Maybe they have the same deicing contractor as DEN...they screwed up royally a few weeks ago (first significant snow, IIRC).

COSPILOT

In DEN de-icing is done at a remote stand. In ORD, it's done only at the gate, correct?

Pat89339

I guess I made the right choice to turn around when I reached DEN, headed for ORD.

DetroitFlyer

They were expecting snow, but not the same intensity and duration than what actually ended up happening. Most forecasts expected 1 inch with lots of melting and no accumulation within miles of the lake.

What happened was 6.4 inches at ORD, which easily qualified as the biggest one-day first-of-season snowfall in history.

belynch

Not sure if ORD is only at the gate; but that's primarily where de-icing is done.

I was on 2004 last night. Took a bit over a 3 hour delay due to de-icing issues. And then hit some phenomenal turbulence somewhere over Detroit.

SFHokie

Like others on this thread, I too was caught up in the middle of the snow delays. TPA-ORD then ORD-SFO. First leg we landed almost 30 minutes early then sat on the taxiway for 2.5 hours :-( The cabin crew was GREAT on this flight, trying to keep everyone calm. Just wish they came around with water earlier than 90 minutes of not moving on the taxiway.

ORD-SFO departed almost 3 hours late then took another 60+ minutes for deicing. What really sucked was having the air conditioning off during the deicing period as the cabin got REALLY warm. Again the cabin crew on the flight was great and so were the pax; as far as I could tell everyone behaved.

For an unexpected amount of snow, and getting stuck in the middle of all this, I made it to my final destination about 4 hours late but safely and soundly. I'd say United managed everything just fine, not the best, but just fine.

JBord

I believe it is, at least under normal circumstances.

The plans for the ORD renovation (which include extending the train, building hotels, etc.) have a separate de-icing pad IIRC. Someone posted a schematic in the Chicago Destinations forum a while back. But obviously that's a few winters away.

rowenb

My spouse and I were each trying to fly ORD-MSP yesterday evening: me on United at 5:35pm, her on Delta at 5:20pm.

It was interesting to see how the two airlines took very different approaches to updating passengers on the departure outlook. By 5pm, Delta had already moved the departure time to 7:00, while United had moved it only to 5:45. It wasn't until after 5:45 that United moved the time again, by which time Delta had already gone to 7:45.

We started boarding around 6:15, but passengers were still trickling in until about 7:10, and we didn't go wheels-up until about 8:20.

Meanwhile over in Terminal 2, my wife got to stay in her SkyClub until her flight boarded at 8:15.

Honestly I would rather have had Delta's candor and been able to hang out in the club for those hours...

DetroitFlyer

IMHO very, very hard (and dangerous) to compare identical routes, but a hub carrier like UA at ORD vs. DL at ORD. Here's why:

1) DL has few flights coming into ORD. Likely they moved the departure time earlier in the day vs. UA because simply, DL's inbound airplane was coming in late due to ATC delays. If that plane came from MSP, or ATL, or DTW or SLC, it would have been held at the departure point, so they simply moved the flight earlier because their plane wasn't going to get there.

2) Compare this with UA. UA has a large operation at ORD where they have lots of opportunities to re-assign airplanes much of the time within hours of departure to keep the entire operation as on time as possible, while minimizing systemwide delays. For example, if UA had assigned aircraft 3210 to your MSP flight and realized that the inbound airplane would be delayed 2 hours beyond original scheduled time, they will likely instantly find another airplane that's also going to be inbound, to keep you on time, or at least minimize your flight's delay (remember the plane likely will turn back to ORD, so there's a huge trickle down effect).

The constantly minor changes to timing could simply be real-time adjustments to assigned aircraft, and as those realities change, there you have the small changes in time.

These two things can't be looked at in the same context. Not saying I have the inside scoop but I think this is highly possible.

rowenb

Great points DetroitFlyer, thanks for sharing those thoughts.

sim510

I was also caught up in the mess, but on SAS using UA miles. I am from the cornfield country of Illinois, a few hours from the airport, but I always fly out of Ohare. Avoiding the nearby regional airpots/jets is very often worth the drive.

I can vouch for the unexpected amount of snow. I cleaned about 5-6" off my car, with only 1-2" having been anticipated. This was a surprise storm! Pretty to look at, but no fun having to clear it off and then drive in it! Semis and cars were in the ditch. Seems we forget how to drive in the winter!

My flight was delayed for about one hour, but I managed to make it to my final European destination right on time. My connection was a bit tight but I made it, just about last to board.

I really think Ohare and the airlines really got caught off guard with this storm!