UA_Throwaway900

UA 900 on September 23 2023 from LHR to SFO was diverted to IAD due to crew scheduling (presumably timed out after being initially delayed) then continued IAD to SFO under the same flight number. Anyone with a firsthand account on why and what happened? As someone who sometimes fly international, I was wondering in a situation exactly like this (presumably there was no plane change but parked at gate) or similar to this (esp when there is no crew change), would passengers have to get off and clear customs before reboarding, or would passengers stay on the plane and clear customs at the destinations, such as San Francisco in this case? Or would this depend case by case/vary by airline/whatever else? For international flights (especially into the US) that continue using the same flight number/aircraft, do they typically park at a gate and/or offload and do CBP at the diversion airport before continuing, or do passengers stay on board? Who/what would decide this?

docbert

There should be no need for passengers to get off the plane. I've had this happen once (don't recall the route, but something similar - Europe to the west coast) and we certainly didn't have to get off. New FA's came on, old FA's left (in that order, obviously) and we were back on our way fairly quickly.

I'm presuming they have to have some form of special dispensation/approval from CBP, because as you've stated normally you'd need to clear immigration at the first place of landing in the US.

FriendlySkies

FLIFO said it went to IAD for a mechanical diversion which is unfortunate considering they already left LHR almost five hours late Hopefully the passengers know to seek EU261.

wxguy

It appears as though the pax will clear customs in SFO, as the plane is arriving at the A terminal. This is forcing the 10:40pm redeye SFO-EWR to be 85 minutes late, and depart from A10. I'm at the UC/F SFO now, and the agent is making PAs advising pax they need to walk over to A.

econ

Hopefully people budget the time for another trip through security.

Lux Flyer

Case by case basis. In coordination with CBP at both the diversion station and original destination. UA can state a preference, however CBP is the final authority as to how the diversion will be handled for customs processing, which then dictates how the rest of the diversion will be handled..

doug_999

Same plane continued on a short time later. Very weird if mechanical.

UA 900 did the same thing (diverted to EWR on way to SFO). But it left way late out of LHR. So that could have been crew.

I�m guessing the new beforehand and operationally UA made it work with the �diversion� - which was probably planned from the start.

lotemblizej

Can passengers seek EU261 compensation for flights not originating in the EU?

eng3

You posted the reason, crew scheduling. Likely timeout due to the delay.
I once had to stop at SFO going HKG-EWR. Same reason. For long flights there is less flexibility.
For these type of "diversions"/"extra stop", they almost never take everyone off the plane. You just sit there for an hour or so while they refuel and change crew. This is usually the case to avoid needlessly processing everyone.

Sometimes on domestic flights, you might land really close to your airport. (ie diversion to LAX for a flight to SAN) and they may opt to bus you over. In that case, it's usually a mess as they scramble to find enough buses.

Interestingly, whenever this happens unexpectedly (ie. during flight) going to Europe, the crew seems clueless. The FA tells everyone to get ready to deplane as they'll be sending a bus over which ofcourse is never the case. So everyone takes their bag down from the overheads. This is when I usually get on twitter or UA chat, change my flight, then take a nap. Then when they realize we're eventually flying to our final destination (afterall, the plane needs to be there for the next flight), people start asking about missed connections. Then, the FA will say that GAs will be coming to the plane to assist. That will never happen either. The pilot and FA's are clueless. Eventually you make it to your final destination and they say to talk to the GA at the gate. Usually there is no one there either because they drop you at some random place in the terminal. You are expected to find the gates that UA usually uses or wherever the staff is usually at (assuming there are any). You're often on your own in this case. UA should really improve their handling of these types of situations.

No but I believe there is now "UK261"

docbert

EU261 isn't relevant. But as a part of Brexit, the UK mirror a number of EU laws, including EU261 which became UK261. The rules are basically the same (except for the obvious search-and-replace for EU->UK), as are the compensation levels - just converted to pounds (520 pounds rather than 600 euro for a delay like this).

autobahnal

I saw something like this at IAD a few weeks ago.

UA1064 MEX-EWR had diverted to IAD, but it appeared that all pax had cleared immigration at IAD, as the continuation flight was leaving from a domestic gate (D19).

Here's what D19 looked like, and my first clue that was something was up was that the status read "Diversion Stop", which I hadn't seen before.