IAH-OIL-TRASH

Can’t blame passenger for much here, but definitely the missed opportunity caused by standing at a customer service line when other, more expedient/direct options exist - 1) call, 2) text, or 3) just walk over to the gate desk of the next flight (while doing 1 or 2). The time spent in a line is accomplishing nothing towards the goal, especially if there are other avenues. Checking the app easily would have shown seat availability of the next flight. All BE passengers would have been given seat assignments, NRSAs wouldn’t have been cleared yet. Even then, no shows might provide a few more. If there’s 2 seats left and 10 people in the customer service line ahead of me, I wouldn’t be waiting in line any more - I’d be trying something else.

HNLbasedFlyer

My point was of a later flight existed then I’d have made a phone call and gotten on it

Repooc17

The later flight is the last flight of the day.

And what if the inbound was delayed further? We also have no idea on the fare availability of the later connecting flight or the earlier connecting flight. There could be a all kinds of scenario, but based on OP's account, UA should have done more, especially those with F seats.

WineCountryUA

They were told it was not available -- without status they could not force it by calling an elite desk.

They had a 2 hour connection, they did not book the last flight of the day and UA could not get a non-status F passenger on the potential backup flight. What more could they have done? I see nothing to fault them. That the nature of irrops for non-status travels and status sometimes.

However, they were not abandon by UA .

Athena53

I appreciate your honesty. I figure any gate agent who says that really has no way of knowing what will happen when the flight lands at the connecting airport so It's useless prattle. Right up there with "Our dreadfully expensive credit card has a sign-on bonus of XX,000 points- enough for a Business Class round trip to Europe!" and "If there's anything we can do to make your flight more enjoyable..."

mduell

25 years later, use the app!

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I do, and I don’t have to make sure I have my “IRROPs quarters” for trips anymore

JimInOhio

The worst GA experience I ever had with any airline was with UA many years ago (well before the CO merger) at Quincy, IL. Our a/c was coming from ORD and was very late to the point that making the last connection to CLE was the only option from Quincy. I told the GA I had to decide soon whether to stick it out or drive to STL to catch the last direct flight home from there. She said the a/c had left ORD and was now enroute so we would be getting out of Quincy. Total fabrication if not an outright lie. The a/c never left ORD. Once that became known I drove to STL to get a hotel.

Afterwards, a family member who worked for UA insisted I write to UA about the incident. All I got back was a form letter saying we hope to see you again soon, or something like that. They didn’t see me soon… not for about the next year.

flyr16

OP back again: boy this is my sentiment. The refusal to hold that 2d to last flight of the night to EWR (when the next flight was nearly sold out and after repeated statements that "they know you passengers are coming" reflects the worst in airline service. Think about it - what other industry could get away with such treatment of its customers time and again? Yes, iI know the airline industry is unique, in some ways, but that is not a sufficient excuse.

Yes, in retrospect I should have immediately called 800 United right way. As we ran to the connection I actually had searched my phone for United's number, but then focused all my attention on running tot the gate instead. And per a prior comment, I similarly said to my iwife: boy, you could have a heart attack sprinting for a connection. We then ran to a rebooking agent desk, rather than hopping on the phone because - like lemmings the dozen plus of us all did the same thing at the same time.

Two hours to connect domestically late at night should have been plenty of time, we thought. We avoid tight connections when we can. Setting aside the fact UA sold the connection to us.

The "cleaning crew in Kona" reference is not me trying to lash out at folks. That explanation was given to me by three different United ground crew at KOA as a few hundred passengers waited to board in the open air terminal. Each said to me the cleaning crew was well known for not moving quickly enough. They explained "we cannot let you board while the crew is still cleaning."

The captain called out every close connecting flight as we approached SFO, together with the departure gates. Plainly UA knew all of our schedules and advocated that we dash for our connecting flights. And then? The worlds' meanest/least empathetic gate agent tells us: "no one ever said anything to us about holding the plane, there was a miscommunication." I don't believe that for a second. And, as SFO was slowing down at 11 pm the idea that our EWR flight "had to clear the gate" is not credible. We waited on the runway 30 minutes, so too could any plane which may have needed that gate. A timing out crew is similarly no excuse.

Finally, save for one outstanding supervisor in SFO who got us blankets, some snack bars and water we were shown no empathy at all from any United agent we interacted with that evening. Frankly, UA created the nightmare; for hours led us to believe they were on top of a solution ("you will make your connections"); lied to us when we arrived at the EWR bound flight; and then treated us terribly when we tried to solve the problem they created. insult to injury? Not once did we ever receive an "I'm sorry" from anyone we dealt with that night.

gaobest

Ngl Hawaii to New Jersey is just a brutal long day. Total shame that the koa-sfo wasn’t earlier in the day. It totally bites to connect late at night. Just not fun. I don’t know what to suggest for future Hawaii trip other than choosing an intentionally long connection in order to enjoy a day or half day in your connection city.

restlessinRNO

flyer16 - You have my complete sympathies here. You have clearly explained your flight saga. A very credible account. Surely it is reasonable to book a two hour connection at SFO, late in the evening. This was not one of SFO’s frequent weather related delays. United Airlines failed you, as well as the other connecting pax. It was hardly their Finest Hour! No one took it upon themselves to address the issue of connecting pax. I suppose only GS members rate personal concierge service these days. “Abandoned” is a strong word, but I don’t think it is inappropriate here. I hope you write to UA and request compensation for your overnight delay.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

United doesn’t have to allocate anymore time to cleaning at KOA than any other station due to staff. And the ground staff you spoke to at KOA on the Island of Hawaii have worked at other stations to have very detailed knowledge of difference between cleaning crews? standard practice is not to board planes while they are being cleaned. After the cleaning crew departs, the FA go through the cabin to do a cabin/safety check - they can’t do it with passengers boarding. I guess you can cite many instances/airlines where it is. Your experience is not unique to a United. Every airline has passengers who say “I will never fly this route or airline again”. Southwestern left travelers stranded for days recently. More experienced travelers. The cleaners were dealing with a very short time period due to the late arrival of the plane, not because they were lazy. They are under pressure to turn the plan.

The real problems for your late arrival to the gate were 1) the late departure from SFO of your plane, 2) the long taxi at SFO on arrival, 3) the 15 minute wait for a gate. No need to smear cleaners based on hearsay. 1, 2, and 3 are facts.

jsloan

Why? What possible motivation is there for someone to lie? Nobody on the plane had to call SFO to get the information about connecting gates. It's available to each flight attendant using their handheld app. And in post #12, Lux Flyer claims that the gate agent -- presumably the other gate agent, not the one you talked to -- actually did call to see if the flight could be held, and was told no.

Do you think the pilot just wanted to enjoy the view? Or maybe he was a bad apple trying to make UA pay for a bunch of hotel rooms? Or just a sociopath who thought it would be fun to inconvenience an entire planeful of passengers?

Not every gate at SFO can accept a widebody plane. And even if an alternate gate were available, it wouldn't necessarily follow that an alternate ramp crew, gate agent, etc. were also available.

Huh? You weren't waiting to let some other plane unload first. You were waiting for another plane to depart. Or, if you're just saying, "why didn't they prioritize my flight over all other flights for some alternate gate," see the previous point.

Except that it really could be, and in fact it fits what you describe quite well (except that the gate agent could have just said that). The rest of it though -- pulling away from the gate and then stopping to finish paperwork? That's absolutely in line with the idea of someone nearing the end of their duty day. The airline needed to make a decision whether to offload you all or not, because not only might someone else on standby already have taken your seats, but they also needed to know how much fuel to load and whether or not the weight and balance checked out. Closing the door and pushing back from the gate ensures that the flight gets logged as an on-time departure and the cabin crew gets paid; waiting to complete the calculations can then allow them to make their wheels-up time that would allow them to land prior to hitting their flight duty limits. While you may be thinking that another minute or two might not make a difference, or since the plane was just sitting there, they should have let you on -- a minute or two really could make a difference, because if they miss wheels-up they may have to wait behind on-time traffic; and they may have to throw out all of their calculations and start from scratch, or even take on additional fuel, in order to accommodate 15+ additional passengers that they didn't think were going to make it. The three additional minutes it would have taken to allow you on the plane really could have meant a time-out and cancellation. (And, unless you checked the seat map and saw a bunch of empty seats -- there probably were standby passengers for SFO-EWR. And since you were traveling up front -- I can just about guarantee your seats had been given to upgraders when you failed to appear -- so if you'd have gotten on board, at best you were looking at middle seats in the back of the plane).

UAPremierExec

Bingo.

Fact is, we can't predict the future, and just as what happened with the OP - they got screwed by the ground delay time in SFO. Any agent working isn't going to have time to read thru the comments in the reservation, see what was promised, etc. That human being (who is probably being yelled at, and called EVERY name in the book) is either going to follow company policy & handle you, or do *whatever it takes* to get you to Point C. Sadly, the tone of the downline station causes the first part to happen more than most, which then swings the agent helping you mood to the crapper.

Sometimes stations WILL hold planes, but its not a guarantee. Airlines will honestly hold planes for a certain amount of travelers (or even a cerrtain ONE) - but its not always at the discretion of the folks working in the 1st station.

EJRofChicago

But...UA has the fewest hubs of the Big 3...AA and DL both have like three hubs a piece along the Northeast Corridor...