rostovru

I had a flight last night set to depart at 1800. Weather delayed it to 1922.

I went to a restaurant nearby and came back at 1902, but the flight was closed.

The agent said I was SOL, so started to record the situation. We got into a shouting match since the flight is supposed to close 15 minutes before the flight, 1907 in this case.

The agent really spun out of control. She rebooked me on possibly the worst route the next day, taking me from OKC to IAH to ORD to IND, taking about 16 hours, and of course assigned me seats in the back in the middle.

I called customer service, filed a compliant, and rebooked a normal route from OKC to ORD to IND taking about four hours total.

But in the end, I obviously ended up footing the hotel bill.

My question is how can the agent close the flight early? Another gate agent who came over seem perplexed that that would happen, and it seemed like the gate agent was having a rough day and just wanted to take it out on other people.

jhayes_1780

Weather delays are quite fluid. In your case there was an opening and they took it.

In hindsight, you should have grabbed the food and ate at the gate.

jsloan

15 minutes before scheduled departure was 1745. The flight can be closed any time after that. Typically, when there's a delay, they remind you to stay near the gate area for updates. I had a delay Monday night where the estimate was advanced by 10 minutes after they finally had the last issue resolved.

Points for honesty, but you're not helping your case. Shouting at employees may be considered the norm in some places, but it's unlikely to get you better service in the US -- and your complaint isn't likely to amount to anything once those facts come out.

threeoh

No good end to this sentence.

COSPILOT

Your flight didn't close early, it closed late based on the original departure time. It's annoying, but it's up to you to stay on top of a fluid situation when a flight gets delayed.

dmurphynj

It didn't close early, it closed plenty late.

Think about it ... a weather delay posts for an hour and a half. The weather changes, air-traffic control says "instead of an hour and a half, we can get you out of here in 40 minutes" ... do you want them to take it or turn it down? Of course you want them to take it. That's exactly what happened here - your flight pushed from the gate at 1905. If you read the attached from the bottom-up, your estimated gate departure changed from 1800 to 1818 to 1922, then to 1825, then it actually pushed at 1908.

As for the lousy routing -- be glad that's the worst of it. Shouting at personnel never - NEVER - ends well. If I were the agent, I would do the bare minimum by the book to help you -- and that sounds like exactly what happened. Once you started shouting, any possible opportunity for someone to bend the rules or do something a little nice went right out the window. We reap what we sow.

ANY delayed flight is a dynamic, fluid situation -- if there's an opportunity to go earlier than anticipated, they absolutely will (and should!)

BullishGS

Stay near the gate, or go to a UC where they MAY announce the new departure time/ boarding reminders.

1KChinito

A friend of mine did exactly what you did with his Mom. When they returned to gate, flight was long gone. Whenever there is a delay, I always stay close to gate in case there is a change and they want to get flight out ASAP. Enjoy below thread for your entertainment in similar situation as you just experienced.

Delayed flight leaves earlier than scheduled departure time!

mduell

Flights close 15 min before STD, not ETD. Anything after that is at the agent's discretion.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Advice to stay near gate is pretty useful. Sometimes they'll announce a new ESTIMATED departure time and, in the interim, swap for a different aircraft that might be ready to go earlier. UA's intent is to minimize a delay so as to lessen the impact the tardiness has on connecting passengers and the a/c's planned flights later in the day. The delay of a plane ready to go also potentially clogs up a gate that might be needed for another plane. we've all (at one time or another) sat on a plane waiting for another to push back from a gate.

Sorry for the tough situation...

Would be nice if UA consistently sent out "Your flight is now boarding" notices. I get them very occasionally.

StuckinITH

I don't dare go to the UC as I'm never sure that they will change the boarding information on the App or the screens in the UC. As for any announcements, I only heard them for International flights. It's really annoying when it's rolling delays and suddenly you find that you waisted the last three hours at the gate. In those extreme cases, I only go to the UC when I decided to call it a night and would like the agents there to make arrangements for me to travel the next day or I cancel my trip and would like the agents there to do it so I get my refund (on non-refundable fares).

LIH

I run into this issue a bunch at LGA (literally experienced it yesterday) given that the UC is outside of security. I will say the UC employees are very good about announcing when delayed flights are preparing to board (and that the GAs must be good about keeping the UC informed on that front). I have occasionally asked a UC agent if they wouldn't mind making an announcement, but they can (and often have) said no.

As was stated multiple times up-thread, once a flight is delayed that seriously you need to anticipate that they may get an earlier window and then take it. In that situation, they are highly unlikely to hold the door open for late arriving passengers because it may mean the difference of the flight being able to hit its slot and get out or not. In the future, even if you're going to rely on an estimated departure time, at least show up the 35 minutes early to that figure where they would theoretically begin boarding.

notquiteaff

How many other passengers showed up and found the flight to have closed/left?

spin88

If you are signed up to get e-mail/text alerts, and they did not send you one (last one said 19:22) well then I am sort of in your camp. If you can't rely upon UA's written messages to you, then something is badly wrong with United. OTOH, if it was 19:22 when you left the gate to eat, came back and found boarding done, and they sent a text message/e-mail, timely updated the departure boards, then it is all on you.

IMHO any quality customer focused airline should provide timely notices, and it is your obligation in a delay to be looking for those. E.g. when I'm sitting in the club I get up and check the monitors periodically. And while you may be from your profile a non-frequent UA traveler, if UA is sending messages and you are not getting them, again, it is still on you.

My focused advice, is that if you got text/e-mail updates, and the last (or only) one said 19:22, and you showed up at 19:02, I would write and complain. But the focus ought to be that UA and its GA did not update you when they changed the departure time. But absent that proof, take it as a learning experience.

Yellowjj

How close was this restaurant that you didn't hear the boarding calls for your flight? OKC doesn't strike me as a big place.