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United lying about flight delay {sitting on runway, phone agent not seeing delay}

United lying about flight delay {sitting on runway, phone agent not seeing delay}

Old Jun 4, 2018, 9:48 am
  #16  
 
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Originally Posted by laxmillenial
They can do this for an AC flight (non-award; purchased on 016). I do it when flying out of YYZ which is often a hot mess if you're taking the last YYZ-LAX/SFO flight of the day. I often get protected on the morning one.
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?
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 9:55 am
  #17  
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
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?
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.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 10:01 am
  #18  
 
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Originally Posted by expressboy
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?
Look, did the aircraft leave on time? im sure it did. otherwise it wouldn't be sitting somewhere else waiting for EDCT clearance into LGA. SHould UA app updat e the arrival time? ideally it should. But if it doesn't know a reliable EDCT time (which changes all the time) how should it assign an arrival time? Maybe UA app should just say arrival time "unknown"? then it will scare the crap out of a bunch of people because they think the airplane crashed.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 10:03 am
  #19  
 
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Originally Posted by fumje
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.
My apologies: I missed the fact that the OP was on a 016 ticket. I guess I have been lucky up to now and have always gotten stellar phone agents on the 1K line. Maybe not as nice as the Chairman's Preferred Angels but very professional and they always manage to understand my problems and have taken the appropriate actions.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 10:05 am
  #20  
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Originally Posted by fumje
It did not show the full delay until after takeoff. It was posting estimated arrival of 10:05, even at 10:10 EDT.
This is normal - once the flight pushes they usually don't re-quote the ETA until wheels up.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 10:13 am
  #21  
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The use of the term "lying" rarely applies.

Was OP "lying" because he got it wrong? No. Not in the least. Is the UAX link to the real-time system perfect.? No.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 10:21 am
  #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.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 10:22 am
  #23  
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Originally Posted by expressboy
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.
Ask for J?
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 10:39 am
  #24  
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Originally Posted by expressboy
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.
It's UA's responsibility to rebook you. However, since the delay was due to ATC, they're not likely to go particularly far out of their way (e.g., don't expect J). Do check the other NYC airports, though, as well as any other airlines that fly to where you need to go. If applicable, ask for a taxi voucher. They'll probably say no -- again, ATC -- but it's worth asking if they'll make an exception for a 1K. You should be able to get meal vouchers with less pushback, provided you find someone who knows the policy.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 11:10 am
  #25  
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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.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 11:32 am
  #26  
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Originally Posted by 1P
(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.
This makes no sense, there are far more productive uses of GA time.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 11:35 am
  #27  
 
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Originally Posted by 1P

(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.
So, equip them with binoculars and watch until it physically departs? I don't think so......
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 11:55 am
  #28  
 
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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.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 11:56 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by 1P
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.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
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Old Jun 4, 2018, 12:10 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by 1P
(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.
As fastair alluded to, both OUT and OFF times are logged automatically by ACARS, and any UA employee at a terminal can poll FLIFO to see this. The problem is not that a phone agent can't see that you're stuck on the ground, it's getting an agent with enough intellectual autonomy to look past the /ETA line, draw conclusions, and do what is needed.
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