WineCountryUA

Because there may have been multiple reasons. UA has all the data relating to the delay. The original reason may have not been the most significant reason.

How long was the total delay?

UA has nothing to gain by making up a reason as there is no mandatory compensation. Why lie?

jsnearline

The delays were an hour and 40 ministers on the outbound and 2 and a half hours on the inbound. If the inbound flight hadn�t been delayed, I would not have bothered to write them, but four hours worth of technical delays on the same itinerary seemed worth inquiring about.

Exactly. I think they could have handled it better by explaining that the delays were because of a mixture of technical issues AND circumstances beyond their control. I would hope they weren�t lying, but simply not communicating their position clearly.

WineCountryUA

Four hours on a single leg would not likely get an compensation, the norm norm is closer to 6, maybe 5.

And delays due to weather, ATC, .... that contributed to the total delay would not be covered. Without the data UA has it is impossible to provide a better answer.
There are ways to get this info from public sources while traveling but more than a day or two later, it requires a subscription. But the fact it was access lessen UA likelihood of "lying".

Not impossible some UA rep over simplified the cause a bit too much as this was a non-compensable event but that is not a standard practice. No need to.

2020 No More Auto-Generated Comp for Delays Under Six Hours

jsnearline

It had gotten to the point with the inbound flight where they were already trying to rebook people. My wife�s biggest complaint is that the delay kept getting extended in 30 minute increments, making it pretty much impossible to leave the gate area, although I�m not sure that would have been possible at Heathrow anyway.

I think a simple email reply that said the delays were too short to warrant compensation would have been best. I think the rep who wrote it muddied the waters unnecessarily by even getting Into the reasons for the delays.

jsnearline

I suppose they could have tried to change the reason for the inbound delay to get off the hook for having to pay for hotels in Denver for pax in Denver who missed their connections. In which case, the rep who wrote me was merely going off what they saw in their system for that flight. I’m less inclined to think this though since those pax would likely have the same texts from UA that we got indicating the delays were technical.

WineCountryUA

Until you have access to the entire delay history, it is just supposition.
Reading through past cases in this thread, you will see situations where the full info painted a different picture from the initial assumption.

cfischer

UA is well-known to pull fast ones on customers when it comes to delays. There is a flight history, but somehow that is either not fully visible to agents or when plane swaps occur, that gets erased. Had a case where the inbound flight went mechanical (cancellation, took screenshots) then UA assigned a new plane that arrived 2 hours post departure posting a 2.5 hr delay which was then further exacerbated by weather to a total of 4 hours. UA flat out refused rebooking - due to weather (not covered). Had to buy a walk up ticket to get on my way and ultimately a DOT complaint to get it sorted. It always pays to have screenshots when UA starts lying to the DOT � once you send these in it get settled very quickly.

Lux Flyer

I feel like if they were trying to pull a fast one and lie to the DOT it'd be more efficient to not display delay reasons at all, like every other airline does.

Its been pretty well established their classification system displays only the most recent reason but accounts for all delay reasons and time attributed to determine controllability. And not hard to see why a flight that had 2 hours maintenance and 2.5 hours weather got called uncontrollable until it got to someone beyond the front line to look into it further.

bmwe92fan

+1 -- but as cfischer pointed out this lack of transparency for the agents has caused a lot of head pounding on the customer end of things when our plane gets changed / arriving late and we try to make a change and the uniformed agent won't do it because they "can't" because it's a "weather issue" -- or my current favorite - "We can't change your flight until the delay is posted"....

I realize that it is hard to legislate "logic" -- but when I lived in ROC for many years I ran into this nearly every week. Particularly when the last flight of the night into ROC gets cancelled -- and that plane is the plane for my first flight of the next day -- and the night before they won't change it even though there is no plane for me in the morning.... Then -- at 4am magically the flight gets cancelled and it's an all out scramble to rebook... All complaining aside though -- UA does a better job of allowing us to track aircraft movements than most and most of the time I am grateful for the ability to be more proactive than the average customer -- even if sometimes I can't get the change I want....

cfischer

They will do that regardless. Caught them multiple times when in writing they asserted 'whatever' to the US DOT, just to then be proven wrong by the contrary in writing. Not related to delay posting, but in general.

That is exactly the problem.

Rivarix

I have a question for UA frequent flyers: Depending on the circumstances, will UA return to gate to pickup mis-connecting passengers when it's the last flight of the day? Currently on UA2418. We were already taxiing (and scheduled to arrive on time) when captain announced we needed to return to gate due to some maintenance log issue. Plane door opened, additional mis-connecting passengers boarded ... and apparently no maintenance issue. So now we're ready to go.

I normally fly OW so not familiar with how UA handles mis-connecting flights. Flying UA today as I was out in Loudoun and didn't feel like heading to DCA (to take AA) to fly back to NY.

st530

What is the basis for the �apparently no maintenance issue� / �lie about it� part of the story?

bmwe92fan

Flight status says your delay was caused by a delay in fueling the plane. Is it possible that when the plane went back to the gate it was refueled (it would be under the wing so hard to see) -- thus allowing some late connecting passengers to get on board?

To answer your question -- in general I have not experienced planes going back to the gate like this very often. Yes - UA will sometimes "hold" the last flights to protect passengers -- but not for hours....

Kacee

I don't see any reason for UA to lie about the reason for returning to the gate.

WineCountryUA

You make some very strong, definitive statements. Please lay out your reasoning to draw those conclusions.
What would be the motivation to "lie"?

1) Will UA return to gate for passengers, very rarely. More likely to occur for "must fly" employees.

2) Will UA return to the gate for paperwork, there have again been rare reports of this.

If #2 occur, would UA board additional passenger, hope they would.