dgcpaphd

Please see my most recent post above.

Enforcement of the “one-hour rule” is up to the pilot. This was announced by representatives of TSA several days ago.

Based on your report, the pilot's enforcement of the arbitrary “one-hour” rule (depriving his passengers use of the lavatory and use of their personal property) is little more than callous disregard for passengers comfort.

The pilot ordered the rule after having knowledge that all passengers and their personal belongings were thoroughly searched prior to passengers entering the aircraft.

Your particular pilot is in the minority for enforcing the one-hour rule although there are several cases cited after the announcement by TSA that the enforcement of the rule was up to the crew (pilot).

Those pilots that enforce the one-hour rule should be required to show good cause, particularly since the TSA announcment.

You should write or e-mail United Airlines and complain about this particular pilot. In your complaint, you should describe the search procedure that passengers had to endure prior to being admitted to the aircraft.

If enough of us complain, the senselessness will stop. If it doesn’t stop, the airlines will not survive if enough of the traveling public gets fed up and stops flying. This clearly means lost revenue for the airlines.

The security problem is not we, the passengers. The problem is the security forces.

Instead of gratuitously abusing the traveling public, the security agencies should fix themselves.

Power hungry pilots should not take it upon themselves to mistreat passengers just because they can.

Grace B

Yes, I'll certainly complain when it happens to me. If pilots are so fed up and have such callous disregard for their customers, the airline deserves to go under.

Customer service never was UA's strong suit, though, but the pilots are making the situation much worse. Write the news channels too.

emu

Flew from YUL -> ORD this morning. I don't know if my experience is typical... but jeez. Even as a Canadian Citizen, I'm not going to be flying into Canada until this changes. Would much rather fly domestically and drive up to Canada.

CATSA is clearly ill-equipped to handle their new responsibility, though in fairness this is through no fault of their own. But that said, if they're going to be doing pat downs, they should be done respectfully and calmly.

Montreal police were there conducting pat downs as well and I watched them as I waited in line. Everything was done respectfully. Unfortunately, Mrs. Emu and I didn't get patted down by cops. We landed a pair of CATSA people. My wife's person (a female) literally groped her chest repeatedly and even felt under her shirt and under her bra straps and top of her bra.

My guy, on the other hand, was "patting" me so hard that I almost fell over on a few occasions. He kept swatting at my abdomen until it started to hurt. And yes of course, my genital area was examined with the same necessary force.

And yes, our "descent" started an hour before landing.

Ugh.

jmhayes

Sitting on 947 AMS-IAD on 4-Jan (op up to 1st from NC :^ ) and we're going to be at least 01:30 late from the gate due to extra screening. Staff talk like it's out of their hands, but I think UA could get more help to screen full 777 - only a single magnetometer in use. I got about 4 extra minutes of s teeming, but I waited over anhour for it... Some waited two-plus ...

Asked flight deck crew: no Channel 9...

Runnin' Gal

I should have added that when the pilot announced the seat belt sign would be going on at the one hour mark, she said that it was due to "FAA" security regulations. I laughed at that since I don't think the FAA wants to touch this one with a ten foot pole. Not sure why she said FAA, but she did. I agree that we all need to complain to United on this. They have lobbying power that we individual passengers do not. However, we should also be writing/calling our congress-people.

smashr

For those who are interested, I did recieve a reply from UA CS as to why IFE was disabled on some _outbound_ 767 and 747 flights on 12/26. They reported that if they didnt have the staff in place at the international station to disable the IFE for the inbound segment, they would have to disable it as it left the hub.

That doesn't make me any happier about it, but at least now we know the answer.

dgcpaphd

Runnin' Gal, thanks for the additional information.

One has to wonder about the competence of your pilot who can fly a huge aircraft from one continent to another but does not know the difference between FAA and TSA. In the meantime, all the passengers on your flight were abused and forced to observe the one-hour rule that TSA announced is strictly up to the pilot.

As a result of making you and other passengers follow the “one-hour” rule while blaming the inappropriate decision on the FAA, the pilot should be reported to United Headquarters. If you or other passengers do not report this incident, similar abuse will continue on future passengers who are aboard aircraft flown by your pilot.

As most of us know, on a transatlantic commercial flight there are three pilots required. This means that at the time the erroneous announcement was made to passengers and blaming the FAA instead of the TSA, the other two pilots should have realized an error was made.

It is not comforting to realize that the three individuals (the pilots) responsible for bringing the aircraft from one country to another are less informed about government regulations than are the passengers aboard the aircraft. This is in addition to their callous disregard for passenger comfort.

United needs to train its pilots in connection with the TSA pronouncements. Otherwise, the nonsense that happened on your flight will continue with other flights these pilots fly. There are several other posts on this thread citing other incidents where a pilot inappropriately forced the one-hour rule on passengers despite TSA reporting the rule is up to the pilot.

Eventually, many folks from the flying public will say “that’s enough” and will severely cut back on travel. This will hurt United in the pocket book where it really makes a difference. As a United shareholder, that does not make me happy.

On Thursday I will have my first international flight since the 12/25/2009 incident occurred. If I encounter a clueless pilot that inappropriately enforces the one-hour rule, I will politely ask the FA or purser to show a copy of the latest TSA announcement that states the one-hour rule is entirely up to the pilot (I will have a copy with me to show, if necessary).

If the pilot continues to enforce the unnecessary rule, then you can be sure that after I return home, I will fire off letters to United, to news media, to congress and to all agencies that oversee United.

Please don't get me wrong. I have been a loyal United customer for many years and I think United is doing a good job. I have no intention of leaving United. However, I also have no intention of being a pawn while a few rogue pilots enforce a rule for no apparent reason except for that they can. Travel is stressful enough without this unnecessary nonsense.

mgm321

Not clear if you were in F, C or Y, but do you know if F or C passangers were asked to put their seats in landing position at that point? If so, and you were affected, please include that in your complaint.

bdschobel

Today, 04 JAN 2010: Flew UA896 on two legs, SIN-HKG and HKG-ORD (two different aircraft, both 744s). The map was on but disabled for the first leg, showing only the origin and destination but no locations in between. The map was functioning normally on the second leg, and there was no silly 1-hour rule or anything like that. No special announcements on either flight. Everything seemed to be back to normal, except for the map on the first leg.

Bruce

sfonorth

Just flew my return leg today from TPE -> NRT -> SFO on UA 838 in the new C's on 747s. There wasn't any extra screening on the TPE-NRT leg. However, on the NRT->SFO leg, every passenger's hand baggage was examined and everyone was patted down. It was averaging about 2-3 minutes per passenger. IFE was on for both legs from prior to take-off to after landing. Maps were strangely disabled for the TPE-NRT leg but fully operational with remaining time & location between NRT and SFO--gate to gate. Seat belt signs didn't come on until 20-30 minutes before landing. I'm glad in flight services are returning back to normal.

ORDtoAnywhere

I will be taking my usual YYZ to ORD on Thursday.

I see on United's site that "A laptop computer may be transported in a basic laptop bag containing only computer accessories and one or two thin file folders."

What constitutes a "basic" laptop bag? Can I take my medium sized computer backpack if I pack it with only my computer and power cord? Anyone have direct experience with this?

Thanks in advance.

MKE-MR

I was told "no" to my computer backpack when I flew last week out of YYZ. "No backpacks at all, of any sort" was the AC drone's response at checkin (yes, this is not UA, but it is supposedly a Transport Canada regulation).
I told him I'd be **** if I was going to turn over my laptop, or any of my other items (iPod, Bose QCs) to luggage goons to be pilfered unless AC had recently revised their luggage liability policies, which he confirmed they had not. His manager overruled him and said I was welcome to try my luck at the security area but that results had been inconsistent.

At the security/luggage check station after immigration pre-clearance, the guy looked through my bag and asked me to remove all non-laptop related items (I explained that the Bose was in fact a laptop accessory so this consisted of two notebooks). Then I was OK to keep the backpack.
So, be prepared for a fight but it should be possible.

UAL916

I just got off my flight from DXB there was no map and the one hour rule was strictly enforced. Passengers had to throw all blankets and pillows on the floor and they could not have their coat on and could not have anything in their lap period. Meal service started much earlier due to the rule and they announced that exactly 1 hour before landing everyone had to be in their seats and had to be through with their meals.

hgdf

Perhaps UA is "profiling" certain routes.

dgcpaphd

Maybe so. However, TSA announced that the senseless "one-hour" rule is up to the pilot.

I do not understand why passengers must be punished at the tail end of the flight merely because the pilot can impose this restriction. United should require a pilot to show cause when that rule is imposed.

Like I already wrote, when enough passengers decide the abuse is too much, many will not fly United. This will cause United a loss of revenue which it cannot afford.