prestonh

Which is cancelled out by the disaster that is called UX sfo dispatch

seat38a

So based on what I'm reading here, it seems SNA gets hosed a lot. Happened to me on 12/1/2018. Also, my friend who was heading to SEA vis SFO got hosed by the delay earlier last year.

SFO777

Yeah, that's my read on the situation. I usually drive to LAX for most of my travel but will definitely avoid UA now when I use SNA.

seat38a

Yeah, I flew out of SNA thinking it would be best to avoid LAX and SNA is only 15 min away, but boy was that a mistake. I guess its going to be WN and DL from SNA now.

bocastephen

It depends on your inbound aircraft and crew and time of year - usually the IAH inbounds are OK, DEN/ORD are OK unless there is winter weather or summer thunderstorms, but SFO is the main risk - unfortunately there is no way to tell where your inbound will be coming from when you book the flight.

Kacee

If you're flying into SFO, that's not really going to fix anything. WN can be particularly bad.

The only real solution is to fly into OAK or SJC.

simmang

Unfortunately this did not work for me, even as a 1K. I was flying IAH-SFO-TPE. We boarded the plane in IAH, and right after boarding was completed, they told us we were delayed almost 2 hours due to weather and made us all get off. I immediately called 1K desk to ask if I could be re-routed IAH-NRT-TPE, as the IAH-NRT flight was just about to begin boarding. They told me they couldn't help me but to go to the IAH-NRT gate and ask. I hustled there, and the gate agent thought I was crazy and told me no. I then hustled to a United Club, where they told me they would absolutely not re-route me through NRT. She said "Don't worry; I would bet my salary the SFO-TPE flight will be delayed and you will make the connection." And of course TPE pushed back on time while I was in the air to SFO.

I ended up spending 11 hrs or so in SFO as UA rebooked me on Asiana SFO-ICN-TPE (I was originally W+GPU confirmed on UA SFO-TPE; 1K desk booked me in confirmed biz on Asiana, and Asiana let me board! Topic for a different thread...).

On my spot checks over the last several months, it seems the first flight of the day IAH-SFO gets there on time, but beginning with the 9:35 flight, they all are delayed at least an hour, if not 2 or even 3 hours. Interestingly on the way back TPE-SFO-IAH, several of the flight attendants from the TPE flight were passengers on my SFO-IAH flight.

Kacee

Not a bad outcome. I assume you mean SFO-ICN-TPE.

As a connecting pax, there will be several days a year like this at SFO. It's just luck of the draw whether you hit one.

nnn

Did they give a reason for not re-routing you through NRT? Was it checked baggage or something?

bocastephen

+1

this is very odd, especially given the refusal from multiple agents. It worked out nicely in the end given they would have put you in Y IAH-NRT and certainly NRT-TPE on ANA, but the outright refusal was very strange. I've never had an issue getting my preferred reroute when my connection is at risk - even before I officially misconnect, if the misconnect looks fairly obvious. Once you got off the SFO flight, you should have been re-accommodated ex-IAH right there without any hesitation unless perhaps you had checked bags. The agent's claim SFO-TPE would be delayed is nonsensical unless it was already posting a delay - in a case like this, appealing to a supervisor is the best option rather than listen to agents who are refusing most likely because they don't want to be bothered.

seat38a

Yup that is what I meant. Flying into OAK or flying over SFO and going nonstop fro SNA.

My flight was the first one into SFO which at SNA means that plane has overnighted because of the curfew. Any of the first flights of the morning at SNA its 99% certain that the plane had overnighted.

SFO777

Disagree. While OAK and SJC would be a better bet, WN and AS both performed far better Sunday on SNA-SFO with much shorter delays that United which basically blew off SNA for the entire day.

Kacee

That's one day, on one specific route. It doesn't say anything at all about overall reliability when there's weather at SFO.

WN can be an absolute disaster into SFO. And they won't rebook on OAL.

And as already noted, AS has a nasty habit of diverting to OAK or SJC. Which is really not going to work if you have an international connection (or your car parked) at SFO.

SFO777

Well, SNA-SFO was the subject of OP's comment to which you responded.

Why is lack of rebooking a problem? Like I did on Sunday, I'll just book on another airline and WN (or UA in my case) will refund the original ticket.

For those in Orange County flying to the Bay Area, an OAK or SJC diversion is far preferable than sitting in the United Club for 8 hours. As for those hypothetical SFO connections for OC residents, most of us will drive to LAX and fly internationally from LAX, which is probably why UA shafts SNA since there are so few such connections.

Kacee

A specific day on SNA-SFO. Says nothing about what the next one will be like. I've been completely hosed by WN at SAN. Could easily be SNA next time. Likewise, just because SNA fared poorly for UA flights this time doesn't mean it will be the same next time. I've done quite poorly out of both LAX and SAN when the weather goes south at SFO. Much depends on where your aircraft is coming from.

Because the walk-up ticket day of travel may cost 5x or more what your existing ticket costs. If you have a $69 WGA fare on WN, that's not going to help much when the walk-up fare on DL or UA is over $300.

People here want to dump on UA for what happened at SFO on Sunday. Not really fair IMO. It's what happens when weather causes close to a 50% capacity cut which lasts all day long.

Any time people post questions about the adequacy of an SFO connection in that thread, particularly for travel during winter storm months, they get a chorus of warnings about what can happen on a day like Sunday.