Often1

As I read the NH boarding procedures, it is T-30 for international departures. The T-10 is for domestic departures.

OP was 10 minutes late. Presuming an NH ticket, it was up to NH whether it wished to reissue or take the ticket back from UA and permit OP to board. But, presuming not, NH had no obligation to do so.

tylerdurden4543

I am continuously impressed with how quickly and calmly Japanese airlines can board a full 777...

WineCountryUA

I'm guessing "T" in this case is the departure time of the last bus and not aircraft departure.

v11a

UA does this kind of thing.

I thought they were improving, but perhaps not.

pushmyredbutton

Not sure if that's correct. Everything I can read says it's recommended you be at the gate 30 min before Int'l departures, but you'll be offloaded at T-10.

From this page:

boolean64

Well that would make for a complicated situation since my international NH flight on a 787 right before christmas started boarding at T-20. Departing at 2:10, boarding pass stated boarding started at 1:50. oddly it didn't leave empty.

rcodey

I wondered if this new policy accounted for a long delay after landing in EWR on Thursday night ( Jan. 9th ) . My flight landed at 920 pm and on numerous occasions the pilot said we are waiting for the flight at our gate to leave . We finally pulled up to the gate at 10:16 pm, almost an hour wait .

rberk

It's perhaps a somewhat different situation, as it was at the UA express area in Dulles (although the inbound might have been from YUL - I don't remember). But something similar happened to me, perhaps ten or more years ago.

Running late coming into IAD, but I had been talking to another passenger making the same connection I was. As we were racing through the terminal to make the connection, they were calling her name on the PA, but not mine.

Got to the gate while they were still boarding - she got in, no trouble. When I handed in my boarding pass, they seemed quite puzzled, and asked who I was. But, after some time typing on the computer, they let me board, and it was OK.

Next day, checking voice mail, I had an automated message telling me I had automatically been rebooked on a flight the next day. So UA decided I could not make the connection, and automatically rebooked me, so that the people working the original flight were surprised when I showed up. Why they didn't do it for the two of us on the same itinerary (so the connection is too tight for one person, but not the other?) is beyond me.

So I don't know whether the route cause of the issue is the same or not, but proactive cancellation of segments in at least some circumstances has been going on for quite some time.

spin88

They have the same root-cause. UA is auto-rebooking people and cancelling the legs that UA expects people to miss. Really poor customer service. And it is all on UA. Why could ANA not fix? Perhaps UA kept the reservation? Perhaps ANA had meanwhile (since the reservation was cancelled by UA) filled the seat.

Either way, OP, I would write to the executive office, explain you are really POed. Say this is NOT what you expect from a 1st world airline. They owe you big compensation.

jsloan

There is absolutely no evidence of that in either thread. What there is in an awful lot of unsubstantiated conjecture based upon misunderstandings of how airline systems work.

It is nearly impossible for UA to cancel an NH segment on an NH ticket without (a) reissuing it as a 016 ticket or (b) getting help from NH. How would they even do it? They can could cancel a segment in a reservation, but then OP shouldn't have seen himself as being checked in -- and NH should have been able to fix that, unless they gave that inventory to somebody else in the interim.

hotturnip

Something similar happening in this thread a few lines down.

United removed my mobile boarding pass and ruined my trip

I always thought airlines were desperate NOT to re-book. Isn't the "normal" practice to just protect an alternative, but not re-book until the missed flight pulls away?

jsloan

Yes, it is. That's why there is no way that UA is doing what people are suggesting. There's absolutely no advantage to them in it.

Bluehen1

This is not exclusive to UA. AA did this to my brother and his family several years ago as they were meeting us on a family vacation. Flight ALB-PHL left late and AA thought they wouldn't make the connection to MYR so they rebooked them. Family got to gate and convinced agent to let them board. Unfortunately, this screwed up their reservation because AA then showed them as a no-show for the rebooked leg and canceled the return. Fortunately, I was able to get them rebooked on the return but it wasn't easy.

Mr.Nuke

Yes this precisely what happened in the thread you linked to. That person was protected on a second flight. Said protection had the unfortunate IT complication of not showing a boarding pass in the app.

jcp3rd

On 9 Dec flying ORD-NRT-BKK on an 016 ticket, I had the same experience as the OP -- despite having called UA.

The UA flight ORD-NRT had a ~60 min delay, which would result in a ~35-40 min connection at NRT to a NH flight. So I proactively called UA and asked them to (1) keep me on the scheduled NRT-BKK NH flight, but (2) protect me on the next one as well.

But no. Arriving in NRT, all connecting pax were directed towards the gate counter to pick up our auto-rebooked new BPs. Since it was ~T-35 and I had no luggage, I asked to be re-instated on my original connecting NH flight. I was told to hurry downstairs to the NH gate and "maybe they can do something". Arriving at the NH gate (they were just about start pre-boarding), they told me emphatically that UA still controlled the ticket, and I would have to contact UA. So back upstairs to the ORD-NRT arrival gate I ran, again, and insisted (politely and partly in Japanese) to the UA reps that I be re-instated on the original NH flight. They finally did so, and I ran for the third time through the airport to barely make the NRT-BKK flight. (Lost a prime seat assignment, but was glad to be back on the plane.)

The moral of the story: (1) If you can call in before boarding the first delayed flight, be even more emphatic than I was that they should *not* auto-rebook you (knowing this move may be futile if UA algorithms predicts less than MCT); (2) Upon arrival in the connect airport, if you have an 016 ticket, insist that they fix the ticket right then and there.

The upside to this experience, of course, was that all that running was fabulous exercise between two long flights, thank you, UA! ;-)