United lying about flight delay {sitting on runway, phone agent not seeing delay}
#16
Join Date: Nov 2012
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Good to know. So, it seems that the OP's phone agent was lazy. Maybe OP should have done a HUACA to get a better agent. Or was the OP on an award flight or not on a 016 purchased ticket?
#17
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I suspect the agent just didn't know how / want to do anything without the delay being posted, but that is frustrating if the agent simply would not believe that the misconnect is going to happen. Yes, perhaps a second call would have gotten a better agent.
#18
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Washington DC
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Sitting on UA6255 from IAD to LGA. flight has been sitting off the runway at IAD for more than an hour and a half. United status says flight left on time and arrived 30 minutes ago in LGA. 1k line is unwilling to rebook me since they don't see a delay. Getting very frustrated at this point. Any ideas on how to handle this?
#19
Join Date: Nov 2012
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OP said it (IAD-LGA / LGA-?) was all 016, with just the latter AC operated.
I suspect the agent just didn't know how / want to do anything without the delay being posted, but that is frustrating if the agent simply would not believe that the misconnect is going to happen. Yes, perhaps a second call would have gotten a better agent.
I suspect the agent just didn't know how / want to do anything without the delay being posted, but that is frustrating if the agent simply would not believe that the misconnect is going to happen. Yes, perhaps a second call would have gotten a better agent.
#20
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#22
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OP here. I guess I was annoyed and overreacted. I can easily see why this could be due to incompetence/bugs and not intentional lying. This was a 016 non award ticket. I did HUACA twice but got the same result all 3 times. Tried to talk to UA after I landed in LGA but got sent to AC as I was kind of expecting. The AC flight I was on did leave on time but the next one is delayed but has no seats left in Y.
#23
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OP here. I guess I was annoyed and overreacted. I can easily see why this could be due to incompetence/bugs and not intentional lying. This was a 016 non award ticket. I did HUACA twice but got the same result all 3 times. Tried to talk to UA after I landed in LGA but got sent to AC as I was kind of expecting. The AC flight I was on did leave on time but the next one is delayed but has no seats left in Y.
#24
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OP here. I guess I was annoyed and overreacted. I can easily see why this could be due to incompetence/bugs and not intentional lying. This was a 016 non award ticket. I did HUACA twice but got the same result all 3 times. Tried to talk to UA after I landed in LGA but got sent to AC as I was kind of expecting. The AC flight I was on did leave on time but the next one is delayed but has no seats left in Y.
#25
Join Date: Apr 2000
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Here we have the issue of when does a flight actually leave? If the airline says it has left because it has left the gate, when you are sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half, waiting for wheels up, then any reasonable person would say that the flight has in fact not yet left.
The twofold problem is this:
(a) How to make phone agents understand what's going on. It's quite ridiculous that the phone agents can't check up on Flightaware, or similar, to see the status of the plane, if the airline's own system cannot see that the plane is still parked at a holding apron. That's what I'd ask them to do.
(b) Gate agents book a flight out when it leaves the gate. They don't hang around to see whether it actually takes off. IMO this needs to change. Gate agents should be "responsible" for the flight until it physically departs, even if they are handling subsequent departures. Otherwise you get the scenario (as happened to a friend of mine recently) when the last flight of the day is delayed taking off, and eventually returns to the gate and is canceled because of a mechanical. Long before then, the gate agents have packed up and gone home, and there is no one left at the airport to service the passengers' overnight needs and get their luggage back, let alone rebook them the following day.
The twofold problem is this:
(a) How to make phone agents understand what's going on. It's quite ridiculous that the phone agents can't check up on Flightaware, or similar, to see the status of the plane, if the airline's own system cannot see that the plane is still parked at a holding apron. That's what I'd ask them to do.
(b) Gate agents book a flight out when it leaves the gate. They don't hang around to see whether it actually takes off. IMO this needs to change. Gate agents should be "responsible" for the flight until it physically departs, even if they are handling subsequent departures. Otherwise you get the scenario (as happened to a friend of mine recently) when the last flight of the day is delayed taking off, and eventually returns to the gate and is canceled because of a mechanical. Long before then, the gate agents have packed up and gone home, and there is no one left at the airport to service the passengers' overnight needs and get their luggage back, let alone rebook them the following day.
#26
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(b) Gate agents book a flight out when it leaves the gate. They don't hang around to see whether it actually takes off. IMO this needs to change. Gate agents should be "responsible" for the flight until it physically departs, even if they are handling subsequent departures. Otherwise you get the scenario (as happened to a friend of mine recently) when the last flight of the day is delayed taking off, and eventually returns to the gate and is canceled because of a mechanical. Long before then, the gate agents have packed up and gone home, and there is no one left at the airport to service the passengers' overnight needs and get their luggage back, let alone rebook them the following day.
#27
Join Date: Sep 2006
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So, equip them with binoculars and watch until it physically departs? I don't think so......
#28
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 158
I don't think that it is unreasonable for smaller outstations to keep someone around until the last flight has gone wheels up, no need for binoculars just need the aircraft to generate it's off-time which will show up in the system. I do believe that should be limited to small outstations only.
#29
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: What I write is my opinion alone..don't read into it anything not written.
Posts: 9,684
Here we have the issue of when does a flight actually leave? If the airline says it has left because it has left the gate, when you are sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half, waiting for wheels up, then any reasonable person would say that the flight has in fact not yet left.
The twofold problem is this:
(a) How to make phone agents understand what's going on. It's quite ridiculous that the phone agents can't check up on Flightaware, or similar, to see the status of the plane, if the airline's own system cannot see that the plane is still parked at a holding apron. That's what I'd ask them to do.
(b) Gate agents book a flight out when it leaves the gate. They don't hang around to see whether it actually takes off. IMO this needs to change. Gate agents should be "responsible" for the flight until it physically departs, even if they are handling subsequent departures. Otherwise you get the scenario (as happened to a friend of mine recently) when the last flight of the day is delayed taking off, and eventually returns to the gate and is canceled because of a mechanical. Long before then, the gate agents have packed up and gone home, and there is no one left at the airport to service the passengers' overnight needs and get their luggage back, let alone rebook them the following day.
The twofold problem is this:
(a) How to make phone agents understand what's going on. It's quite ridiculous that the phone agents can't check up on Flightaware, or similar, to see the status of the plane, if the airline's own system cannot see that the plane is still parked at a holding apron. That's what I'd ask them to do.
(b) Gate agents book a flight out when it leaves the gate. They don't hang around to see whether it actually takes off. IMO this needs to change. Gate agents should be "responsible" for the flight until it physically departs, even if they are handling subsequent departures. Otherwise you get the scenario (as happened to a friend of mine recently) when the last flight of the day is delayed taking off, and eventually returns to the gate and is canceled because of a mechanical. Long before then, the gate agents have packed up and gone home, and there is no one left at the airport to service the passengers' overnight needs and get their luggage back, let alone rebook them the following day.
- Gate agents dont do times. They process customers at the gate. Youve got whats put in by the crew, based on ACARS data (time it left gate, time it took off, time it landed, and time it blocked in) and stuff put in, often by automation, by the SOC/NOC control centers) which adds in estimated taxi and flight times. In no way is a GA anywhere in the loop of updating taxi and flight times to a flight.
- so e crew will sit at a gate not boarded waiting for ATC clearance times, others will push, hopeing to get a free slot so that theyre ready if the flow control opens up. There are positives and negatives to both, although pushing early, other than the fact you may die on a pad (NEVER A RUNWAY) waiting for clearance can only get you there sooner vs waiting in the airport, which at best, will save no time.
#30
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(a) How to make phone agents understand what's going on. It's quite ridiculous that the phone agents can't check up on Flightaware, or similar, to see the status of the plane, if the airline's own system cannot see that the plane is still parked at a holding apron. That's what I'd ask them to do.