LordHamster

Often1

I sort of hope they don't cater an ULH flight 8-1/2 hours before departure That second meal would be a bit on the "sell by" date.

mduell

Par for the course in the sEWeR.

LordHamster

mduell

The uncleaned mess might be past its sell by date too.

BB2220

JimInOhio

I saw a good one lately (paraphrasing): "Your flight is delayed due to taking longer than normal to load all of the baggage. In flight, expected to arrive 2 1/2 hours late."

seenitall

Same thing happens all the time at SFO, too. Planes arrive in early morning from Australia, TPE, etc. Are towed away to a holding area where they sit untouched for 6-8 hours. Then towed back to the departure gate 15 minutes before scheduled departure where they wait for cleaning and catering crews to arrive and due their thing. Finally begin boarding at T+45.

As noted above, I understand why catering doesn't occur early, but cleaning? Why doesn't UA have a cleaning crew that just goes from plane to plane that is sitting out in the holding area. Would seem to be ultra-efficient for the cleaning crew. And then when the plane is towed to the gate -- which is the really scarce real estate at SFO, 15 minutes of dwell time is saved as no cleaning needs to take place there. Sounds smart to me, but I'm sure someone will explain why there is a flaw in this plan.

prometa

The status messages in the app only show the most recent update. If the flight is delayed 2.25 hours because the incoming plane is late, and then once the plane gets there baggage takes longer to load than expected, the system will update with something like you describe above.

lhrsfo

This is far too sensible for the UA bureaucracy to get their heads around. And, while they are at it, they could cater it shortly before it leaves the remote stand.

Kacee

This drives me nuts.

It's like the people in line at the supermarket who are like, "oh, do I have to pay for this?" and only start fumbling through their wallets after the cashier has finished ringing up their items.

wpcoe

Had it happen in IAH a few years ago, too. Flight came in from S.America before dawn for a IAH-NRT departure around 1030. Plane was already at gate by 0800. After 1000 it was announced that cleaners had just boarded the plane (and we could see them boarding.) Even the pilots and F/As had been hanging around at the gate for a while by then. We were delayed enough that I missed my connection NRT-BKK.

PaulMCO

Must be the same cleaning crew that does the toilets at EWR. Missing in action

TomMM

Anybody take a look at the flight status for flight?

AndyPatterson

That's exactly what happens at SCL! (Santiago de Chile). The widebodies that arrive in the morning are towed away from the gate, parked on a side stand, and (at least in the summer when I was there) all the doors are opened to air out the planes, while the cleaners go through and clean the planes. The newly cleaned planes are then towed back to the gate in the late afternoon shortly before boarding. Although I made several trips through SCL, I did not notice whether catering was done while parked at the stand, or after returning to the gate. But, I did particularly notice how all the doors were opened for hours on end to air out the planes -- a good idea [presumably no mosquitoes etc. in that desert climate...]