Originally Posted by Kacee
(Post 35123193)
One final bit of advice - NEVER stand in a long rebooking line. Call UA. Or use one of the video kiosks.
|
Originally Posted by flyr16
(Post 35126564)
OP back again: Fascinating/informative information above. I did not know that. It makes sense. Of course, that does not dissuade me from my view that over a dozen passengers late night connecting from KOA and running like banshees through the airport should have been able to make their connection in SFO five plus gates from where they deplaned.
In terms of Hawaii travel - our though is we/folks may be better off getting to HNL on a nonstop from the east coast and then worrying about the connection there. That is what we did on the outbound, and with two hours connection time in HNL made our KOA flight easily. But we opted for UA on the return via SFO. We thought breaking up the flight in CA made sense. Perhaps using HNL as the connection hub for East Coast travel to Hawaii and back is the way to go. . . . |
Assuming these were the flights on Friday, 24 March:
The flight from KOA was recorded to arrive at 10:36 at the gate. The scheduled SFO-EWR flight was scheduled to depart at 10:45, which means that OP was not at the gate 15 minutes prior the flight. This give the GA the right to give away OP's seats. What I would have done is the following: 1) If the connection is going to be close or nearly impossible, and knowing there is a flight right after, work with KOA staff to get rebooked, even if already boarded. 2) Self help with United app, either during inflight or upon landing 3) Use remote assistance, such as facetiming the remote agent or call the reservation line. They can now issue hotel and meal vouchers remotely. 3a) Use agents at United Club, if access is available. 4) If there is a subsequent flight, go to that gate and get on the standby list, if same day change is not possible. 5) As last resort, get in the (long) line at the rebooking desk. During all of this, research on what options are available and present to the agent as solutions. There is no abandonment here. OP got rebooked and chose not to use the hotel voucher. OP was inconvenienced, but not a victim. |
Originally Posted by denver19
(Post 35130087)
Ya, I think you have hit on the answer. I fly OGG (Maui) / mainland all the time. A flight to SFO or LAX with a late connection is risky. I don't do it anymore due to getting stranded on the west coast for the night. A nonstop eastbound, to your destination, is the answer. It's easy to make an outer island hop over to HNL on the front end.
And how you have to interline with HA, who are awful partners with UA. |
Originally Posted by PTahCha
(Post 35130401)
Assuming these were the flights on Friday, 24 March:
The flight from KOA was recorded to arrive at 10:36 at the gate. The scheduled SFO-EWR flight was scheduled to depart at 10:45, which means that OP was not at the gate 15 minutes prior the flight. This give the GA the right to give away OP's seats. What I would have done is the following: 1) If the connection is going to be close or nearly impossible, and knowing there is a flight right after, work with KOA staff to get rebooked, even if already boarded. 2) Self help with United app, either during inflight or upon landing 3) Use remote assistance, such as facetiming the remote agent or call the reservation line. They can now issue hotel and meal vouchers remotely. 3a) Use agents at United Club, if access is available. 4) If there is a subsequent flight, go to that gate and get on the standby list, if same day change is not possible. 5) As last resort, get in the (long) line at the rebooking desk. During all of this, research on what options are available and present to the agent as solutions. There is no abandonment here. OP got rebooked and chose not to use the hotel voucher. OP was inconvenienced, but not a victim. |
Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer
(Post 35130421)
Or, get a hotel and deal with it the next day.
|
Originally Posted by PTahCha
(Post 35130449)
I usually sleep better when I know I have a confirmed flight the next day. :D
They were at SFO - with multiple nonstop options or via LAX, DEN, IAH, or ORD |
Originally Posted by PTahCha
(Post 35130401)
Assuming these were the flights on Friday, 24 March:
The flight from KOA was recorded to arrive at 10:36 at the gate. The scheduled SFO-EWR flight was scheduled to depart at 10:45, which means that OP was not at the gate 15 minutes prior the flight. This give the GA the right to give away OP's seats. ..... Another thing - UA has plenty of wide-body gates at SFO. At that time of night, they start overnight parking of the planes at some of the gates. Seems like UA could park some planes elsewhere to minimize waits for gates in the evening, especially if there are some late night arrivals and connections still to be made.
Originally Posted by LarryJ
(Post 35126373)
....The wheel-up time applies to the pilot's duty and flight time limits. The F/As duty limits are based on the time that the main cabin door is closed. In this case, if there was a time-out issue, it would likely have been the F/As as pilots don't fly a leg prior to a red-eye like the F/As often do. That is another possible explanation for why the cabin door had to be closed when it was. Re-open it and the F/As could time out.
|
United used to be absolutely brutal seemed to have soften up a bit.
|
Originally Posted by Hilmar Lehnert
(Post 35132796)
United used to be absolutely brutal seemed to have soften up a bit.
|
Originally Posted by halls120
(Post 35133156)
….FAs felt bad for me and brought me a J meal and lots of drinks throughout the flight.
|
We can probably also accept that east coast to Hawaii is just not going to be the best connection situation for delays. It’s like flying west coast to Europe with a connection in USA instead of Europe. It can just have risks of missed connections. It’s more that we should assume that a rare missed connection can happen to US so that when we make our connection, we are just happy. Like getting through tsa pre without a problem.
|
What's the deal with the "sacredness of the plane door closing"? Like once a plane door is closed, it cannot and shall not ever be reopened?
If there are 15 connecting passengers standing in the gate area who will be stranded overnight, and a plane parked at the gate and will not be moving for 20 minutes, and empty seats available for those passengers, why not violate the "sanctity" of the closed door? Reopen the door, let the passengers on board. It's right from a customer service perspective, from a business perspective, from a kindness perspective, from a logical perspective, and it's just the right thing to do. |
Originally Posted by andrewk829
(Post 35135178)
What's the deal with the "sacredness of the plane door closing"? Like once a plane door is closed, it cannot and shall not ever be reopened?
If there are 15 connecting passengers standing in the gate area who will be stranded overnight, and a plane parked at the gate and will not be moving for 20 minutes, and empty seats available for those passengers, why not violate the "sanctity" of the closed door? Reopen the door, let the passengers on board. It's right from a customer service perspective, from a business perspective, from a kindness perspective, from a logical perspective, and it's just the right thing to do. Understand operationally it is not as simple as just opening the doors and letting more people on. Adding additional passengers and/or bags after close out causes significant delays by obtaining new “numbers” for weight and balance and aircraft performance. These numbers have been adjusted and tweaked multiple times as passenger boarding commences and are uploaded to our computers just prior to push. Changing any form especially any additions of weight nullifies all these figures. Not saying it’s impossible to obtain new numbers or rework the takeoff data. It takes time for the information to be amended by the ramp/customer service agents, inputted by load planning, approved by dispatch, then re-uplinked to us in the cockpit where we verify all data is correct, appropriate for the weather conditions and programmed into the FMS computer. It’s a process. If you’re up against some constraint (duty times, curfew, weather, etc.) that additional 15 minute delay could be the difference between a flight departing for the night or outright cancelling. |
Originally Posted by findark
(Post 35130414)
Why would connecting to a (often 1x daily) HNL flight be any better or safer than connecting elsewhere? OGG-HNL could take a delay and you'd be in the same position with fewer recovery options.
And how you have to interline with HA, who are awful partners with UA. I prefer to hop to HNL and grab a nonstop because it's usually an earlier flight in the day with possible options if it gets cancelled. And you aren't going to get significant delays inter island to miss your next leg. OGG-HNL isn't going to take a delay because there are many, many flights of that route every day. You'll be covered. If you fly to SFO from Maui, and land at 5pm with on flight left on to, say, Denver at 6:30 delays on the first flight means you get to spend the night in SFO. |
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 6:05 pm. |
This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.