No, it doesn’t.

Just because the operations team doesn’t publish real-time information on their latest contingencies doesn’t mean that they don’t have them. The plans are very fluid because there are so many variables involved, and there’s been a decision made to try to avoid publishing and then rescinding a delay, because it tends to catch people off-guard.

You can argue about UA’s operational efficiency all you want, but impossible turns displayed in the app aren’t evidence either way.

You think there is a secret "second set" of data? Maybe some chatter in the control room. This is the information that is used to rebook passengers reservations, it is what is used by crew scheduling, etc.

Here's another one for you. Next time your gate is occupied and you are sitting on tarmac, take a look at your arrival gate, go to the airport website and find the flight that is still occupying that gate, and check the flight status. See how it compares to what the captain is telling you. Hmm, not even boarding yet but it's "just going to be a few minutes" more and sure enough here comes the delays spinning out in 10 minute increments. If they were realistic about it, then they could get a jump on dealing with misconnects. Reservations has the same data as the app.

Just a couple weeks ago I was sitting in the United Club in Houston looking over my empty gate, tracking the inbound that hadn't landed yet past the posted departure time with no update to the new time. Nice I could see it from the club rather than sitting at the gate. On the return on the same trip, landing 20 minutes early turned into an hour delay waiting for a gate at EWR (with the 10 minute increment misinformation campaign I've seen before). After racing to try and catch a connection still posted as "on time" worried I wouldn't get there before the door closes I find a flight that hadn't even started boarding 25 minutes after is was supposed to start. Had I been a few minutes later I probably would have just assumed a misconnect. It wasn't until 10 minutes after the departure time, with boarding still not even started yet, that they posted a 10 minute delay [facepalm]. Despite what you say, this is the kind of information they run the operation on. There was probably another plane out on the tarmac waiting for the gate being told the same crap about how it'll just be a few more minutes :-). Bad information and poor handling on 3/4 flights on just 1 trip. The operation runs on bad data at worst and hopeless optimism at best.

There’s not a doubt in my mind.

Alternatively, sometimes you’re sitting on the tarmac and suddenly your gate changes — because there are a lot of variables that can’t be captured in a single number. I’ve watched my inbound plane swap three times in an hour as they balance getting all of the flights out with as little cumulative delay as possible. I’ve watched my gate change two times during final approach.

Yes, the rolling delay announcements are irritating. UA considers this a better approach than posting a delay and then having to try to get people to come back to the gate when things improve. You can argue with that if you like, but I still contend that it’s not evidence that the operations team doesn’t know what they’re doing — just that they don’t want to un-post a delay.

And, yes, the rolling delays are used for passenger rebooking, for the same reason: UA doesn’t want to rebook a whole bunch of people only to find that it wasn’t necessary, and now they’re flying a half-empty plane and have absorbed a bunch of slack from the network.

Just out of curiosity, did you use the app to look at the information about the inbound flight? Yes, if you rely on the posted information about an outbound flight when there is an inbound delay, that information is often woefully out-of-date. But the information about the inbound flight is often accurate. I never rely on just the information about my outbound flight when I know that there is an inbound delay. Heck, I usually look up the status of the inbound flight even when I'm not in a delay situation. I find that extra bit of data to be very helpful while traveling on United.

that would be a "savvy" adjustment. ;)

LAX has 4 runways, SFO effectively has two (since they cross) and effectively one when they go to VFR due to weather. LAX is also to the east of SFO, and slightly closer to most points, as well as being the hub for travel south (mexico, etc) so it is a much better place for the commuter flights.

I will agree AA has gotten really bad. But I fly Delta a lot, and they are hands down a better airline. Better, more comfortable planes (A350s/A330neos vs. B787; A321s vs. B739/Airbus with horrible slimline seats; A220/B717s vs. smaller RJs or A319/B738s), planes equipped with IFE, better clubs, better IRROPs, Food and drink are much better, both in F and J. Staff is generally more friendly.

Look, I get that SkyPeso redemptions are a joke. But then so is MileageMinus at this point...

Good point. I am embarrassed to admit that I was just thinking in north-south terms (obviously). :o

I'm sorry but if they think that Spirit and Frontier are better than UA and B6, then I think the WSJ is using the wrong metrics.

I had never implied United being the better airline. I would agree Delta is better overall, and based on my observations, the best US airline. My point is United is nowhere as bad as people think, and Delta gets too much credit. Also, we know very well there are non-US carriers better than Delta and United, combined.

If you're going strictly by quantitative numbers, then Spirit's really gotten its act together from an operations standpoint in recent years.

You need to get into the JD Power surveys and such in order to get the customer service aspect counted, and WSJ didn't seem to go there.

Yeah, I went to the masFLIGHT site and it looks like a paid service, so it's impossible to judge their methodology.

Anyone have access, or better at Googling it than I am?

It is called the "flight feed". It's a log that I've seen contain up to 40 or 50 events for a single domestic flight.

Data recorded includes gate changes, aircraft changes, the time the Captain accepted the flight release (flight plan), the time the last (required) F/A boarded, each delay reason that has affected the flight, etc. Often you'll see that automatic re-quotes (of departure time) are disabled on an affected flight to prevent a rapid series of small departure time changes that would otherwise occur as numerous changes are taking place.

The app only displays the most recent delay code added to the flight which can be misleading. For example, imagine the flight crew finds a mechanical problem during their preflight. Maintenance evaluates and determines that the repair will take a significant amount of time. Operations looks for an aircraft to swap to and finds one that is due in ahead of schedule but still won't arrive until your flight's scheduled departure time. When it does arrive, the ground and gate crews do a good job turning the airplane but the fuelers are running behind. The aircraft if ready to go expect for fuel.

On the app you will first see, in sequence, a delay due to maintenance, then waiting for late aircraft, then aircraft servicing. All of these are correct, but none tell the whole story. The flight feed will show the whole story. Depending on when a passenger might look at the explanation in the app, they may get only a small part of the situation which misleads them into thinking that the information is wrong.

The new expanded delay explanations can add a lot of clarity in these situations when they are done well. That program is still evolving.

UA's staff at the NOC in conjunction with airport controllers juggle many more variables and possibilities behind the scenes than what appears to the customer in the app. Usually, that data isn't pushed until decisions are actually made. Things change, of course, but the real-time calculus isn't always reflected in the flight status app.

The MAX debacle has also been a monumental operational headache, as United hasn't pulled back on its capacity growth any more than it absolutely has to. The operation is run pretty lean these days, which negatively impacts redundancy.

Paid subscriptions to Flightstats have access to all but the proprietary entries for the flight feed as well. This includes gate assignments, aircraft assignments, departure/arrival time adjustments, EDCT time, delay codes, out/off/on/in, etc.

On the passenger-facing side, UA has people who will manually input delay explanations instead of the auto-generated reasons tied to delay code.

I'll take EWR over JFK or IAD any day of the year. Maybe that's not saying much but still...

TSA pre-check, etc help a lot at EWR, but the place needs serious help.

I interpret the ranking as how these companies are meeting expectations. For Spirit, Allegiant and Frontier, you have bottom-feeder expectations. They meet them very well. For UA, the expectation is more to begin with--you usually pay more for the slogan "friendly skies" right? Dr Dao's treatment didn't seem very friendly. DL only has to get you there, I think. Something weird's happening at AA. AA's had a lot of brutal reviews lately by its own employees.

There are two sets of "reviews" on just looks at the DOT stats, other than the generic number of complaints, these mostly look at operational issues. WSJ is doing a story on those statics, which are widely reported.

JD Powers does a customer survey. They ask people a form of the question "how likely are you to recommend" which attempts to get at how happy people are with the service/product keeping in mind (given the nature of the question) price. JD power therefore addresses not just opperational metrics that feed into happiness, but because the questions are more open ended, service/product in general. Last survey got 5966 travelers to respond.

JD Powers releases their survey in the May time frame, last one in May 2019 had:

No. 1 (tie): Southwest: 817, down from 818

No. 1 (tie): JetBlue: 817, up from 812

No. 3: Alaska: 801, up from 775

No. 4: Delta: 788, up from 767

No. 5: American: 764, up from 729

No. 6: WestJet: 758, up from 747

No. 7: United: 723, up from 708

No. 8: Air Canada, 729, down from 734

No. 9: Spirit Airlines, 711, Spirit wasn't included in 2018

No. 10: Frontier: 702, up from 693

https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...ka/1256499001/

Given What Parker is doing to AAL (which is reflected in the data that forms the basis for the WSJ piece) my guess is that they fall. Will be interesting to see what the rankings for UA look like.

My understaning (perhaps wrong) is that this is the same DOT data that we have seen every year, OT performance, complaints, IDBs, etc.

I think the DOT rankings have nothing to do with customer expectations (other than complaints). However, the JD Power rankings are clearly expectation based. If I pay SWA to fly, and think it is cheap, and am used to the "friendly" SWA service, I am not going to be upset about the lack of In Seat Wifi, the fact the seats are narrow (737), nor not getting a first class seat. OTOH, if I pay to fly UA in F, I may be really POed by getting no inseat IFE, crappy (or no) food, the lack of a blanket and pillow, or water at the seat. If I am flying in Y, I may be upset at how uncomfortable my A320 E+ seat is due to the very short seat pan....

But more generally, United seems not to care that much. For example, I just got a survey, and due to several issues, my initial ranking was zero. At which point I got a box to fill in on why UA had not met my expectations, and then the survey ended.

If you are doing a "survey" and you cut out anyone who does not answer the first question with a happy face, you are not going to get accurate information.