vegasbased

It seems like there was, or still is a ground stop at EWR due to “thunderstorms” according to United. But, it looks there was very little weather in the EWR area. Regardless, it looks like today’s flights at EWR were 18% cancelled and 34% delayed. There’s some similar stats at LGA, but UA seems most affected, and it’s spread pretty quickly other hubs.

fumje

UA requested the ground stop, although I can't figure out why (aside from the stated "thunderstorms", which isn't really happening).

johnsmith

Sorry to disagree. The thunderstorms in NJ were pretty wild this afternoon. Heavy rain, lots of lightening— this wasn’t “fake” today. From 4-7pm it was a mess in NJ. And fog once the storm passed

fumje

Where in NJ? Pretty regional weather patterns today, I guess.

ty97

There were storms in Newark area for much of the PM hours. At times the storms were over EWR (complete with lightning) but for most of the PM they were at least all around Newark area disrupting many of the departure and arrival paths.

There was a ground delay program most of the day with intermittent ground stops (not UA-requested stops, but weather related stops. I realize that now, as it approaches midnight and the weather is finally improving, that UA has requested a ground stop)

I tried, and failed, to fly out of EWR this evening (along with many many others).

DELee

Airports:
Original ticket must have been purchased by: April 14, 2023

Flight changes/Rebook language:Rebooking window: April 15, 2023 - April 20, 2023

Waiver (normal folks - posted): https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/notices.html#waiver3

Jetstream Waiver (posted): https://jetstream.united.com/#/all-travel-waiver

David

DELee

Note that while the waiver is titled "Newark", it applies to all NYC area airports, whether UA directly serves them all.

David

Barrheadlass

Depends where you were. I happen to be maybe 15 miles from Newark…at that time I heard thunder once and never had more than light rain.

Jeff767

It really doesn’t matter where in NJ the storms were. With 3 major airports anything within a 150 mile radius of NYC will impact the airports. There is very little airspace to shift arrivals and departures to once a published corridor gets blocked by thunderstorms.

PlungeTEX

2x LHR-EWR flights delayed due to crew and 1x delayed 4:30 hours until 10:30pm. My sister in law is on one of the cancelled LHR-EWR and could only get to IAD today and will Amtrak home. If its weather fall out, nice of them to call it crew for EC261 purposes

(Note - pretty pathetic service - she asked to go DCA-EWR after getting into IAD. She is Gold and they refused to give her the seat in First (Y was sold out) on the DCA-EWR leg without charging her $1K despite the fact it was the only UA option to get to New York today - even looking at hubs like IAH and DEN as connection points).

wxguy

Still feeling the fallout to/from many cities this morning. FLL, for example, is still trying to catch up after the rain deluge last week. This morning my 8:37am flight FLL-EWR has 30+ on the standby list. The 7:00am FLL-EWR is delayed eight hours until 3:00pm as the plane was 15 hours late coming in yesterday (crew rest issues). There were a lot of diversions on EWR-bound planes yesterday, so planes and crews are out-of-position and/or dealing with crew rest situations.

gmt4

Agreed. Massive severe storms in the Midwest as well. A line from Arkansas up through Missouri into Illinois yesterday afternoon and evening. Tops up to FL400 so it’s not possible to overfly. Airspace South and North completely saturated with deviating traffic. Thus, you see predictable ripple effects at stations east and west. It’s just that most people look outside wherever they are and see a blue sky and wonder why they’re delayed, not realizing there are capacities of what the various ARTCCs can handle traffic-wise.

Jeff767

The crew issue at NYC airports is weather related as well as contractual with pilots. Most airline crew members based out of JFK/EWR and LGA commute in and out for their trips. When the weather hits their commuter flights get canceled or delayed and they can’t get to the NYC area. Some don’t even try and just call in sick. The good ones do track the weather and come in early or even the day prior if the forecast is bad. Things are worse at UAL because they are working under a contract that expired 4 years ago. Not many are going the extra mile on a contract 4 years out of date. The current contract has a policy on commuting. As long as they comply with the minimal contractual requirements they can’t be disciplined for no shows. Many are not going the extra mile.

fumje

Interesting insight. It feels to me as though during weather disruptions ops fall apart much faster now than they used to do.

lincolnjkc

Meanwhile, in EWR, UA1010 never even had a gate agent show up -- and was posted as on time until after the departure time (it was interesting to see Group 1 and 2 politely lined up just prior to the posted boarding time despite the lack of any announcements). I did AOD and went to other gates; about a dozen people were calling reservations. Wheel chair attendants are trying to board passengers & being accosted by people looking for info since they look close enough to a gate agent. Flight attendants were in the gate area waiting to be let on to the aircraft (and getting "Departure is in 10 minutes, confirm cabin readiness?" messages on their Links)... About an hour after departure an agent showed up, made a PA that the gate agent working the flight will be here "shortly" more time passes and still no agent. FIDS on the concourse show the flight as "Boarding Closed" -- but eventually the podium display pops up a QR code (not explicitly saying anything is canceled but I got the hint & started booking a rental car & about 5-10 minutes later get the "your flight is canceled" message. (Kind of saw that coming because of 6 FAs assigned to work the 737-700 [3 required] come ~7pm only 1 would be legal

App wouldn't let me rebook or cancel, go to Hertz - pick up the car and start the 7 hour drive -- call res to cancel/refund and arrange for luggage repatriation. Cancel was no issue but got yelled at for not doing the bag claim at the airport.

Weather is certainly beyond UA's control but how UA handles/abandons their customers when things go sideways could certainly use help... It got so bad that a retired FA was answering the gate phone

Made it home at 2:15 this morning... not really looking forward to the 6am flight back to EWR tomorrow for my next trip.