Options to PEK due to potential misconnect
 

My 75yr old mother is on her way to PEK from ORD. UA336 ORD-SFO UA888 SFO-PEK 11:50am departure
The issue is UA336 is currently returning to the gate for some unknown reason. Presumably a mechanical issue. If they cant get in the air in less than an hour, I believe she will misconnect.

I'm looking for her best options:
1. Go home and do this again tomorrow. Note that tomorrow's SFO-PEK flight leaves at 10:35am so only a 1:35 connection
2. Fly to SFO and take tomorrow's flight. I assume UA will provide a hotel and meal voucher
3. Fly to SFO and take an alternate flight. I'm not seeing many good options. Connect through FRA or HKG with much longer flight times
anything else?

75 years old? Go home, fly tomorrow.

God Bless my Mom who flew by herself into her 90s

She's visiting her mother in china otherwise I don't think she'd do it.
She said something like "I don't think I can get up at 3am and do this again tomorrow" That along with the much shorter connection time tomorrow made me think that perhaps spending the night in SFO might be a better option since she'd already be there and has plenty of time to get from/to hotel.

Ofcourse there is the hassle of getting to a hotel by herself which I don't think she's ever done on her own.

I don't think any of the connection alternatives are a good idea.


EDIT: NVM, looks like they are rebooking her to tomorrow. Too bad there still isnt a direct flight yet. This kind of delay is nothing for us "young chickens" but I wonder how the "average" traveler deals with this stuff.

75 and visiting *her* mother? Best wishes for a comfortable and safe trip and parental reunion, even after the delay!

Flying from anywhere "East Coast" or even Chicago to Beijing on United is horrible these days. The connections in SFO are most often terribly short (I had several ~50 minute connections).
I would also have suggested to overnight somewhere near SFO, and take tomorrows flight, by the way.
All the best to your mom.

So, she can still fly to SFO today because she is already in ORD today.
You can book her a hotel room near SFO.

Getting to a hotel near SFO is not an easy task for a 75-year old. She will need to find the hotel shuttle stop and look for the right bus. There are several hotels under the same brand names may confuse her as well. I have seen people getting on the wrong hotel shuttle buses and had to return the the airport to take the right bus.

If you are able to, book her into Grand Hyatt at SFO, at least it is a short ride on the air-rail connector.

Just read this update, I feel bad for her (and you). I can understand her frustration not wanting to get up at 3 am to do it all over again.

Is she being rebooked from Chicago or rebooked from SFO?

How about ORD-NRT-PEK on ANA today?
NH 11 (ORD-NRT) departs at 11:00 am. NRT-PEK arrives at PEK at 9:40 pm+1 day. There is 3 h 15 min connection time at NRT.

Update: I guess they fixed the issue. A few others on the flight were also connecting. I guess they all collectively decided to try. I told her it doesnt count til they're in the air but wished her luck. Flight just took off. The 3hr layover is no about 20min (to from arrival to departure). Hopefully connection saver helps them out. It's never helped me out. I did tell her that worst case, she spends the night in SFO and has plenty of time to relax

Thank you for the update.
If she is lucky, she may get a ride to Terminal G, which 1Ks can only dream about in such a situation.
Good luck to your mom.

Looks like SFO-PEK is delayed by an hour due to a mechanical issue. Looks like she should make the connection assuming the issue isn’t serious. Best of luck OP

United will get another B77W plane for PEK flight. So, everything will work out for OP’s mom eventually.

OPs mum’s plane actually just arrived at the gate next to mine at SFO (I’m on UA749 just departing to EWR). I agree I think it will work out for her!

Yep, she had plenty of time to make it with that delay. (no 1k ride over to the gate). With SFO being a general mess these days, I figured there was a decent chance of a delay.
She even stopped in the UC briefly but she said there was no place to sit.
She was upgraded to SFO. To PEK she'll be in E+.

I agree, going to china from anywhere on the east side of the country is pretty bad these days. I don't mind connections but at least make the flight departure time a little later to allow for better connections.


I would assume UA would provide the hotel since the delay was their fault and she has 1K status. However, I recall my last misconnect/overnight in SFO wasn't very smooth. Got slightly lost getting outside to the shuttle pickup. Then had to lookup the number to the hotel to get them to send a shuttle. (I guess I was too late in the night). I've certainly seen people get on the wrong parking shuttle. I always find this perplexing as I would think they would remember the shuttle they came on and probably have used it before being local.
She always travels with my dad or me so she has zero familiarity with airport logistics and hotels. I even got her a wheel chair for her 2hr connection coming back home because she was concerned about navigating customs (even with GE) and getting to her gate, let alone the UC.

It is never as simple as, hey, let's push back departure time, so people can have more of a cushion to connect from east coast/midwest. There are lot of other dependencies and downstream implications. For example, due to travel time, time zone change, and the desire the max aircraft utilization, the same aircraft doubles back (to SFO)...so, pushing the time any later would mean UA888 arrives in the evening time, UA889 cannot depart until later at night, leaving little to no onward connections upon UA889 arrival. Historically, UA888 was scheduled for even earlier departure (10am), and was never meant to be a connection for east coasters because there are other UA flights; the flight was always optimized for west coast connections.

That said, I have done the 10am connection at SFO several times ex-BOS due to cheap J fares.