Returned to gate to pick up diverted pax?!
 

Flying IAH-SJC, we were turning onto the runway 2nd for takeoff and then suddenly went the other way. Captain announced that we were going back to the gate because an international flight to the west coast got diverted to Houston and we had to go back and pick up 2 passengers.

it’s now nearly an hour past scheduled departure and we aren’t even back at our gate yet.

really curious what flight got diverted and who is so important that we had to pick them up like this. Never seen or heard of this happening before - is this a new thing?

"ConnectionSaver".

They know no one is connecting at SJC, so who cares what time you get there.

i thought about that but wouldn’t we just have waited at the gate? Captain was also very clear that a flight got diverted to IAH.

we are now at the gate after a long wait for ramp staff. No sign of the pax. Maybe they’re stuck in immigration…

That was tongue in cheek. :p I agree it is odd.

Let us know what movie star boards your flight!

Well - one passenger boarded and went to one of the two empty seats. Exasperated captain was heard to say “I had to do all that for one passenger?” But we’re on our way 1h20 late. I’m sure the one person is very grateful. I’d probably have apologized to everyone when I boarded though. Nobody I recognized - but then I don’t recognize many people…

apparently they were traveling internationally to the west coast and suffered two diversions. Wish there was an easy way to see all diverted flights!

Any chance this is related to the FRA-IAH flight that diverted to SNN and then got split into two different recovery flights today (one to ORD and one to IAH)?

Otherwise, too hard to look up which intl flight scheduled to LAX/DEN/SFO that might have diverted to IAH today.

-RM

this folks? UA 47 (FRA-IAH) August 3rd Diverts to SNN and then adds IAD Fuel Stop

The recovery flight was delayed to the next day and then delayed another 4 hours, arrived IAH 9:14PM local time. (original scheduled to arrive 5PM yesterday from FRA, so over 28 hours delayed!)

Would hope UA would delay 1 passenger 24 hours, or even 48, rather than delay 100 passengers 1 hour but not sure that’s the logic UA is applying here. Legacy CO used to occasionally delay flights out of IAH to allow inbound delayed pax to connect, I’m sure a function of a limited route network.

Sounds like it. Plus, flights have been very full this week. There is the possibility that there were no seats open the next day.

Both diversions today (UAL2750 UAL1808) were domestic and back to their not-IAH origin.

Could have been a confusing way to phrase something related to the UAL47 recovery.

I find this unacceptable frankly

15-20 min while still at the gate sure. Not this

that seems like a fit with the timing. Assuming they precleared in SNN and raced to our gate on arrival.

Did they make up any time in the air? How late did you actually arrive? Fascinating. I don't ever fly UA (I live in an AA only area), but would be grateful if they did this for me; I'd be annoyed if I were on the delayed flight--though I'd be slightly less annoyed if I arrived close to on-time.

Unfortunately, how ever UA tried to do service recovery from the UA 47 FRA-IAH flight, it appears that they were damned.

David

I know some disagree, but honestly I don't have a problem with this -- the arrival was delayed barely an hour, which is a typical delay one can expect on occasion when flying, and nobody missed a connection. The disserviced passenger was already arriving 24 hours late and would have been stuck with another overnight otherwise. Yeah, "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few", but nobody's needs weren't being met here. I'll take a short delay to save someone a much longer stranding.

Don't get me wrong -- I completely all the logistical reasons get why flights wouldn't normally be "held" in this extreme way, definitely wouldn't want connections missed or multi-hour delays to become common, and wouldn't expect it (and I've experienced both flights held a bit and flights that departed without me). I don't think I'd apologize to the other passengers if I'd been dealing with rolling delays for a day; it almost certainly wasn't his call or fault in any way.

I will say I didn't appreciate the UA flight a few years ago that closed the door a minute before my kids and I arrived (15 minutes before departure) off a mechanically delayed inbound, with the flight leaving 5 minutes early and arriving 20 minutes early with plenty of empty seats (so it wasn't hiding an oversale), where the flight 4 hours later was full and we were booked 8 hours later. I believe that was before ConnectionSaver.