JimInOhio

Among the thousands of flights I've taken, I can't recall one ever being canceled due to a 15 minutes delay causeing a time-out.

Nor have I declared UA's operations team "incompetent". I certainly wouldn't call them infallible, either.

mduell

Ok. Does that mean it doesn't happen, especially in the FAR 117 era?

elmira56925

I feel ur pain. Sad thing is I’m willing to bet that gate agent is laughing under their breath. They probably feel it’s one of the joys of their job to be non empathic in these situations. That’s my biased opinion of course.

Lux Flyer

As did I, 6 hours prior to docbert. Still doesn't mean it's impossible for someone else to have only read the OP and walk away with the impression that it was only an hour delay. Again that was my impression too until I had looked up the flights.



You're entitled to your biased opinion, but I'll just leave this here again because in my experience a gate agent exhibiting this behavior one moment isn't someone who then takes joy in having to tell someone their flight has left. If they wanted to do that they wouldn't bother trying to find out if they can wait in the first place.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Yeah, I was going to comment on that also. The KOA didn’t get its normal time to clean the plane due to its very late arrival. I wrote off OP’s comment about the cleaning crew’s performance to a desire to strike out at any available target.

I also concur w/ other posters who have suggested calling UA (or now scanning the QR code provided to chat) w/ an agent rather than stand in a customer service line. That’s a lesson I learned, like, a quarter century ago. I think it was so long ago I used a pay phone to call United There’s a far better chance you would have been put on the later flight in minutes. Maybe United needs an announcement that goes off automatically in the CS area that says you'll probably get faster service calling or chatting. The QR code responders are definitely experienced IRROPs problem solvers. On the other hand, if inexperienced travelers start calling/chatting instead of lining up, the rare instances I need a problem resolved might take longer…

txaggiemiles

Exactly. There are certainly times that people come to FT with ridiculous complaints but this is not one. While UA didn't necessarily do something wrong and "followed policy" - this is a frustrating one I'd expect UA to address and make whole; which they may have already done.

HNLbasedFlyer

This seems all on the passenger to me. Kind of irresponsible to book a tight connection at SFO and expect it to go smoothly

WineCountryUA

I would not consider 2:04 domestic connector at SFO tight, especially later night

kulak

Reminds me of AA experience from Kona to LAX to MCO. Delayed at Kona and proactively rebooked LAX to DFW to MCO. Arrive at LAX to find original flight LAX to MCO delayed.

Learned very quickly Kona to LAX and LAX to MCO were the same plane. Somehow AA didn’t know this but was able to get back on the original flight.

Allan38103

OP should consider whether the EWR flight they missed had any standby's who got cleared and took the empty seats at the last minute. And the reason for the standby doesn't really matter (IRROPS, missing a previous connection, weather, maintenance, non-rev, etc.). If you show up late after flight closing time (that's what they call "no show") and there are others waiting to get on, standby's can get cleared so the plane doesn't go out with empty seats.

This forum is full of stories of lucky flyers who got last-minute seats or upgrades simply because someone else was a no show.

HNLbasedFlyer

Personally, I would never try to connect to the last flight of the night

Repooc17

Agreed. 2 hours is a breeze at SFO. I once connected from BOS to SFO to PEK (on the same ticket) well under an hour - F to G.

OP says UA wouldn't let them on the 11pm flight. There should be another one around midnight. There are also a lot of other connecting flights.

HNLbasedFlyer

Then they should have booked that - that’s what I would’ve done.

UAPremierExec

As a former counter dragon/Gate slayer, and airline manager - anytime someone says "don't worry, you'll make your connection" on a late or delayed flight - its a lie. We want to get you on the plane so we can go home, make you someone else's problem. (Not being a b... or anything, just being honest).

WineCountryUA

personally, with a 2 hour connection to the 11PM flight and a back up with a later flight, seems a very reasonable choice. Unfortunately UA was unable to get them on the later flight.