Travel Waiver: SFO San Francisco Runway Construction (1R/28L) 29 Sept - 1 Oct 2018
 

Just got this email about SFO 28L
Possible travel disruptions in San Franciscohttps://ci3.googleusercontent.com/pr...RS_CP__/sp.pnghttps://ci3.googleusercontent.com/pr...RS_CP__/sp.pnghttps://ci3.googleusercontent.com/pr...RS_CP__/sp.pngUnited is offering complimentary options to change your flight tomorrow, September 29th, as we anticipate potential delays in San Francisco. The city plans on doing extensive work that would require the closure of Runway 10R/28L for up to 30 hours.https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/pr...RS_CP__/sp.pngTo rebook your flight, please use the United app, united.com or a self-service kiosk at the airport. If you need additional assistance, please contact United at 1-800-United1 (800-864-8331) within the U.S. and Canada.https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/pr...RS_CP__/sp.pngIf you still plan to travel, please be sure to check your flight status on the United app or at united.com/flightstatusbefore arriving at the airport. We also recommend downloading the United app and opting in to receive push notifications in the event of changes.https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/pr...RS_CP__/sp.pngThank you for choosing United.

Travel waiver in place for SFO

https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/tra...eptionPolicies

Somebody better call Air Canada's OPs team ASAP!!

HUCA - you can probably get an agent to push that through.

I got an agent to change LAX-SFO-SEA into LAX-EWR-SEA

They'll need time to put big, red NO! Bad Pilot! stickers in all the aircrews' SFO landing manuals :)

This seems kind of last minute. Do we know what the story is? I googled and only saw: https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/...end/1483156195 and https://www.flysfo.com/flight-info/a...30-maintenance

Just pare for the course here in San Francisco, along with a sinking/tilting luxury highrise condo building and a brand new multi billion $ transit center shuttered due to cracked steel beams.

hockey7711 thanks for posting this. I just changed my flight on Monday since I was connecting through SFO. Given my prior experiencing connecting on a normal Monday at SFO, it already would have been a challenge. The 1k desk changed my routing as a result of the waiver and didn't flinch, only downside is an economy middle seat, oh well.

But the miles!

I always wondered if anyone ever took the sometimes ridiculous routing options offered by the app for same day changes. Now I know.

My inlaws are currently transitioning in SFO tomorrow on a flight heading overseas. With half the runways down, how long do you guys think the delays will be? Their flight is scheduled to leave in the morning, so I was hoping it wouldn't be as delayed as the ones in the afternoon. Does anyone have any experience with these types of closures at SFO before?

Since the waiver expressly applies to rebooking on United flights, I doubt calling back will help. You could switch to, for example, SAN-ORD-CDG.The AC reference is to AC pilots not paying attention and attempting to land on a taxiway when 28L was closed, very nearly causing the worst disaster in aviation history.
What do you mean by "transitioning"? Are they originating somewhere else? If so, that could be a problem. If they are starting their trip at SFO, I would not expect major delays for an international departure. It's the shorter flights which will be most impacted.

They originate in Phoenix, connect in SFO, and have a direct flight after that. Supposed to arrive in SFO at 8am and depart 4hrs later.

Where are they going?

If runway capacity is indeed being cut in half, there is some risk their PHX-SFO flight will be cancelled or substantially delayed. Although with a 6:15 a.m. departure from PHX, odds are it will be okay.

Heading to Beijing. I think I'll call and see if we can route then through LAX or something. Thanks for your replies

I'm afraid there are not going to be many good options for PHX-PEK (really nothing on United metal, except backtracking via ORD). Probably best just to hope the 4 hour connection at SFO is sufficient. And if things go south at PHX in the morning, get on the phone and see what UA will offer.

I guess the algorithm for UA at SFO is usually - keep long hauls going, merge frequent services (e.g. LAX), cancel regionals? I wonder what outstations are instructed to do and if SFO will hold some outbound longhauls for late connecting passengers since some of the long hauls will overnight overseas anyway.

Still think this is kind of crazy with so short a notice. Were they (SFO) waiting for the weather to be more certain?

Inbound BOS-SFO now on UA433. Before pushback, pilot mentioned this and said we could be delayed at BOS, slowed enroute, or hold before landing. Now 45 minutes out, and on flightplan. Channel 9 is on, and no mention of any delays.

ETA: Arrived right on time. Not even a wait for a gate!

SFO has 4 physical runways. For this work they are losing 2 of them for 30 hours.. So yeah, they are losing half of their runways.

This runway construction has been going on for months, but normally only results in one runway being shutdown. The problem this time is that they are working around the intersection of 28L and 1R, which means that both of those runways need to be shutdown together (plus, obviously, 10R and 19L which are the same runways).

Moderator Note.
 

To clarify that this construction affects two intersecting runways (not merely reciprocal runways), 1R and 28L, earlier this morning, I updated the thread title and the wikipost. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

Originally on UA349 SMF-SFO and then connecting to UA1597 SFO-LAX this evening. The two midday SMF-SFO flights were cancelled but 349 was holding until mid afternoon and then started to slip.

Used an ETC to book and was looking for the extra 500 BIS miles for my trek to 1MM LT. Anyway, with the slips to an estimated 8 pm departure and even with the SFO-LAX slip as well, I was going to be arriving at SFO at the same time as the SFO-LAX last flight was departing. So I accepted UA's offer to take the SMF-LAX non-stop.

So I'm now sitting at the SMF A17 gate awaiting the Skywest GAs and the SMF-SFO flight is departing earlier and the app shows the SFO-LAX flight is now scheduled for a later departure that the SMF-SFO flight will work for a connection.

Let's see how this finally plays out.

David

p.s. As the ranking 1K, just got called up for the upgrade but another 1K who was on one of the earlier SMF-SFO flights and connecting to get to BOS (but on a BE ticket) honked up the distribution of boarding passes 'cause his PNR went wonky...and didn't get promoted to F...

Basic economy is not eligible for CPU.

Yes, I know - that's why it was a bit amusing that the 1K insisted on getting serviced first so that everyone had to wait even though the GA had reeled off a dozen names for folks either getting upgraded or moved off the standby list - and most of those getting a new piece of paper were the BG5s.

As a follow up to my earlier post, the SMF-LAX flight left the gate over 10 minutes early (and was the same crew that had flown me up to SMF the night before, but that's another story). We landed @ LAX almost an hour early and had to pull over on the west side of the field for our gate to clear. After all was said and done, we got off at the gate 15 minutes early.

Had I tried to switch back to my original flights, I would have made the connection in SFO but would not have gotten into LAX any earlier than after midnight. Instead, I was home by 10:30 pm and asleep well before midnight.

So, 500 fewer miles or a bit more sleep. A toss up for those of us who fly too much. ;)

David