thebakaronis

Recently took a United Express flight out of SFO. The flight was delayed because the crew was nearly an hour late. The gate agent rolled her eyes and said they were supposed to report at 7:45am for the 8:35am flight. When I asked where they were, she said they were in a shuttle, probably in traffic. Even she was not convinced with her excuse. And there was no traffic, nothing unexpected going on in the area. When they did arrive finally, there was absolutely no sense of urgency or apology. They sauntered in casually and went about their tasks as if they were having a lazy Sunday morning at home.

The ripple-effect of the initial delay was likely felt for the rest of the day. I flew back on the same plane (with the same crew) to SFO on its return (it was a mileage run trip). Needless to say that flight was also 1 hour late. Lots of passengers on that flight were connecting at SFO. The delay probably resulted in some of them not making their connections. Of all the reasons to delay a flight, this just felt extremely irresponsible and inexcusable. I don't think I've seen that kind of attitude from from United crew members before. Are UE standards really that lax? Do they face no consequences for showing up late to work?

WineCountryUA

Perhaps there is more to the story? Seems you and the GA drew a number of conclusions on no data.

halls120

you may be right, there may have been more to the story. But the lack of an apology is interesting. One of my more memorable flights on United was a 737 that arrived late in Denver in which its arrival gate was shifted five minutes before it actually arrived, necessitating a mass at mad dash to another gate. New crew came on the bird, and then the new crew walked off the bird, and we were told your flight to San Francisco is being changed to another airplane and another gate.

by the time we boarded passengers were pretty steamed, because it was a hot day in Denver, and connections were jeopardized. Once we were all seated, the captain came on the PA and told us what it happened. He had rejected the aircraft originally assigned because it lacked the back up system he considered to be necessary for flying into a foggy day in San Francisco.

The mood on the aircraft changed drastically, because the pilot had the common decency and courtesy to tell us what was going on and why the delay had happened - more importantly, the delay was for our safety.

I suspect that on that United express flight, a simple apology and explanation might’ve gone a long way to make passengers less unhappy. I get it that United is cutting costs, but how much does it cost for some simple courtesy?

exerda

While I agree it's frustrating--and I say this as someone who has had irrops on more than a dozen itineraries this year--did you check the flight status in the app, thebakaronis ? What I'm getting at is the GA may not have dug into the reason for the delay other than "waiting on the crew."

Frequently, the reason for the delay there can help explain what happened. E.g. it's possible the crew had come in late the night before, and they have mandatory rest periods which would push back the departure time (had that happen at least twice this year).

I 100% agree the GA and the captain could have done a better job explaining (and apologizing) for the delay. I've had experiences this year where the captain announced it would be "just 2-3 more minutes" to get to the gate, then 35 minutes later, we start moving without further announcement, and finally pull in over an hour late--and the FAs didn't even mention tight connections like they usually do (I was in F but still had to excuse myself past several pax who were casually strolling up the jetbridge side-by-side after deplaning, blocking the way). Circumstances like this, I prefer overcommunications; the captain after those "2-3 minutes" could have said, "I've been trying to resolve this with the ramp, but we're still blocked from entering the alley by several departing planes... I'll give an update in another 10 minutes or so," instead of the complete silence.

thebakaronis

There could have been. I've been on many delayed flights, including those where one or more crew member was delayed. But I didn't give this bunch the benefit of the doubt because (a) their body language when they arrived was just terrible for a crew that was 1 hour late, (I've seen delayed crew members trying to rush to the gate, as I would do if I were late to an appointment) (b) no apology, (c) the GA would likely have known if there was more to the story and would have made a better attempt at explaining the delay when I asked her one-on-one, (d) the UA app had a message that seemed to throw them under the bus ("delayed due to late arrival of crew" or something to that effect), (e) I asked one of the FAs if they'd been stuck in traffic (although I knew the highways all around were clear), and she simply shrugged.

If this was due to a last-minute change of crew or something else, someone (the crew, the agent, the app message, etc.) had a chance to tell us more. None did.

escapefromphl

Commuting in the Bay Area, even for a meeting, I give it what Google maps says it will be + 5 mins, and if theres an accident or other incident it's just too bad. I don't see why pilots and crew would be any different. Sometimes they will be late because of traffic.

thebakaronis

I addressed that. Highways all around were clear. Weekend morning. Extremely light traffic. Even with the Bay Area traffic (I've lived here for decades), it's rare for any trip to be delayed by an hour. If they were overnighting here, they'd have been in a nearby hotel.

I don't mean to litigate this. In the larger scheme of things it was nothing more than a minor fly-buzzing-in-my-ear annoyance for me as I was on a mileage run. (Those with connections should have been steamed about the situation but they were simply told their flight to SFO was delayed due to the late arrival of the incoming aircraft.) What was more interesting to me was the behavior of the crew. Very blase.

PTahCha

Would it make you feel better if they run through the concourse and hustle onboard like the McCallister family?

Since this was a crew with a layover, they do not casually miss their check-in time as a group. Most likely a delayed flight from the night before that required them to report late so they have sufficient rest time, as exerda had pointed out. Any speculation made by the GA is exactly that - a speculation.

halls120

But why not take the time to apologize for the delay? Is it simply too hard these days to exhibit some politeness?

I’m not asking every United flight crew to emulate Captain Denny, I just don’t get the lack of common courtesy.

narvik

While things can go wrong -and do- what usually makes the difference between an unhappy passenger or a content one, is how the recovery is handled.

Seems like they failed in OP's case to turn a bad situation around by offering some explanation, and/or a willingness to [at least appear to] give a damn.

sonyeoshin

If the crew took BART to SFO, they would have been delayed.

LarryJ

Since the crew arrived as a group, not individually, we can assume that they were coming off a layover. Crews don't control their transportation from the hotel to the airport. Transportation is arranged by the airline, including the scheduled pickup time. The transportation companies are far from perfect. I don't know what the UX carriers are using in SFO, but we're changed our SFO provider a number of times due to issues, including being late for pickups.

The agent knows absoletely nothing about the status of the crew's transportation. A message might get through to them, if the crew is running late, but they won't know the details of why they are late.

I've never heard of a 50-minute show time. It's usually 45-minutes on domestic layovers. It doesn't leave much time for disruptions. Being an hour late would suggest a crew rest time issue, though, not late transportation.

Rushing through pre-flight preparations goes against the training we receive from the airline. That is when mistakes are made. The crew should accomplish their duties diligently, but they should never rush.

physioprof

I am having trouble understanding why one would feel better about this scenario if the crew behaved more hecticly/anxiously, as opposed to calmly doing their jobs.

Kevin AA

We're not asking the crew to be rushed and anxious. A simple apology would suffice.

Repooc17

A quick status announcement from the crew would have gone a long way.