April/May 2010 - Volcanic Activity in Iceland and Impact to United's Operations
Apr 16, 2010, 10:50 am
#121
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Once the airspace is opened up again, how are the airlines, specifically UA, going to handle the backlog of passengers? It's not like they have a bunch of widebodies sitting around that they could use for extra flights to "catch up".
My parents are scheduled to fly from FRA to ORD in XF next week Sunday (4/25). Presumably UA can't/won't just go ahead and cancel "free" award tickets in order to accommodate stranded revenue ticket holders from earlier flights?
My parents are scheduled to fly from FRA to ORD in XF next week Sunday (4/25). Presumably UA can't/won't just go ahead and cancel "free" award tickets in order to accommodate stranded revenue ticket holders from earlier flights?
Apr 16, 2010, 11:11 am
#123
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Keep in mind a lot of traffic is leisure, and people who will reschedule for another time of year or to another destination. Even business travel is influenced by the calendar, and a meeting missed today isn't necessarily required again tomorrow. I think the weeks-ahead calendar will absorb a lot of the traffic so it won't be quite as bad as feared.
Apr 16, 2010, 11:22 am
#124
Join Date: Dec 2009
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I'm stuck in FRA trying to get home to SFO. Was rebooked to Saturday - but the flight is now cancelled. Am rebooked on Sunday in a connection through IAD in Economy. The next business/first seat availability is Tuesday.
should United refund a fare difference if I end up flying economy on paid C?
ugh!
should United refund a fare difference if I end up flying economy on paid C?
ugh!
Apr 16, 2010, 11:56 am
#125
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Had to wait 7 mins for the GS line to be answered, after getting a busy signal several times - never had that before!
I was disappointed there was no proactive rebooking by United, but suppse there is little that can be done.
Seems to be some talk of operating some TATL flights from DUB/GLA but think I stand a better chance of getting on a plane from London. Media here making it sound as though this cloud could be around for weeks if not months!
Apr 16, 2010, 11:59 am
#126
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Apr 16, 2010, 12:02 pm
#127
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: LHR (sometimes CLE, SFO, BOS, LAX, SEA)
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Apr 16, 2010, 12:16 pm
#128
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Apr 16, 2010, 12:29 pm
#129
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I'm stuck in FRA trying to get home to SFO. Was rebooked to Saturday - but the flight is now cancelled. Am rebooked on Sunday in a connection through IAD in Economy. The next business/first seat availability is Tuesday.
should United refund a fare difference if I end up flying economy on paid C?
ugh!
should United refund a fare difference if I end up flying economy on paid C?
ugh!
This isn't a DYKWIA type of thing either. What's worse is that even if you get refunded the difference, it will be from C to full Y. Likely, if you chose to fly economy at the outset you wouldn't have bought full Y so you get screwed. It's happened to me before.
Apr 16, 2010, 12:34 pm
#130
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It shouldn't be too complicated - Schengen has nothing to do with it, it's all EU. CDG could even be used as a divert airport for LHR in some circs. However, there are a number of complications, even going beyond practicalities such as inadequate staffing at CDG or BRU. First off, as I understand it, it's possible that LHR will be shut down this afternoon. Eurostar will continue running from Paris and Brussels, but it has limited capacity for all the flights terminating. Second, how are UA pax flying out of London going to get to CDG or BRU in reasonable time for the plane's return flight? Third, LHR is a major transfer airport for UA pax on to other *A flights. *A is weak in both CDG and BRU. In that sense, it would be more sensible simply to increase flights to ZRH, GVA, FRA or MUC (or maybe CPH if it's outside the smoke zone).
UA has cancelled its last three incoming flights to LHR today. Its afternoon arriving flights to FRA are running very late, with significantly extended flight times. The SFO/FRA flight (at least when I have been on it) flies pretty well over LHR, so I'm guessing that route diversions will cover pretty well all of UA's TATL flights and introduce delays.
UA has cancelled its last three incoming flights to LHR today. Its afternoon arriving flights to FRA are running very late, with significantly extended flight times. The SFO/FRA flight (at least when I have been on it) flies pretty well over LHR, so I'm guessing that route diversions will cover pretty well all of UA's TATL flights and introduce delays.
Apr 16, 2010, 12:39 pm
#131
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UA already has one inconvenienced and upset customer. Why would they want to create another!?
And if you downgrade a customer on a future flight, are you going to remove the Y passenger whose place the ug passenger took?
So now you have THREE inconvenienced and upset customers?
That makes very little sense, and I can't imagine that there is any way in the world that UA would do it.
Apr 16, 2010, 12:42 pm
#132
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Times like this is when GS is supposed to make it worthwhile - 3 of the 4 people I spoke with didn't even seem to be trying to help.
Now if that happened we would have loads more rants against GS pax!
Apr 16, 2010, 1:04 pm
#133
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: IAH
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Well I had to revamp my vacation but got a pretty good result out of it.
Original plan was DEN-ORD-CDG today in upgraded C
Return on Sunday, 4/25 BCN-MUC-ORD-DEN in upgraded C
Decided to completely cancel that trip and get the full refund.
Then found a rountrip flight on US to BCN Tuesday 4/20 to Tuesday 4/27 for $800 in Y. No upgrade but I think I came out ok. Still get to be in BCN on the days that were planned plus a couple extra to make up for missing Paris.
As an aside, if anyone's looking to get over to Europe, US to BCN seems like a cheap option!
Original plan was DEN-ORD-CDG today in upgraded C
Return on Sunday, 4/25 BCN-MUC-ORD-DEN in upgraded C
Decided to completely cancel that trip and get the full refund.
Then found a rountrip flight on US to BCN Tuesday 4/20 to Tuesday 4/27 for $800 in Y. No upgrade but I think I came out ok. Still get to be in BCN on the days that were planned plus a couple extra to make up for missing Paris.
As an aside, if anyone's looking to get over to Europe, US to BCN seems like a cheap option!
Apr 16, 2010, 2:03 pm
#134
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Apr 16, 2010, 2:08 pm
#135
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Wait, you are suggesting UA should remove a person with a booked, confirmed seat on a future flight to accommodate someone whose flight was canceled!?
UA already has one inconvenienced and upset customer. Why would they want to create another!?
And if you downgrade a customer on a future flight, are you going to remove the Y passenger whose place the ug passenger took?
So now you have THREE inconvenienced and upset customers?
That makes very little sense, and I can't imagine that there is any way in the world that UA would do it.
UA already has one inconvenienced and upset customer. Why would they want to create another!?
And if you downgrade a customer on a future flight, are you going to remove the Y passenger whose place the ug passenger took?
So now you have THREE inconvenienced and upset customers?
That makes very little sense, and I can't imagine that there is any way in the world that UA would do it.
It's apparent that the flights are filling with re-accoms. I find it hard to believe every [LATER] possible flight routing is filled to capacity with paid customers (including SWU's, miles, etc).
What I'm suggesting is that a GS on paid fare should get the seat, even at the expense of downgrading a RE-ACCOMODATED upgrader. In other words, and upgrader taking a flight a couple of days later should be downgraded to accomodate a GS paid fare.
Anyone taking their ORIGINALLY scheduled flight in a premium cabin, regardless of how they got there should remain.