I left BKK on 11/5, going to ORD, via NRT. We get to NRT fine, and then after 3 hours of delay, our flight is cancelled to ORD. At the last minute, I am put on an AA flight to ORD.

I was booked in C, travelling NF. I had a special meal (Vegetarian) also on UA.

I was instead put in a middle seat bulkhead row in C on AA. During the 11 hour flight, I got to eat 2 rolls and plate of lettuce.

Now, returning back to SIN on 11/16, LAX-NRT-SIN, the LAX-NRT flight is delayed by 1 1/2 hours, now departing at 1240 PM. This is however a bogus departure time, as the inbound aircraft from NRT does not get in to LAX until 1122 AM. Sure, UA, you are going to turn around a int'l 744 in 1 hour 18 minutes.

The flight director at LAX says it should be ok., with only an original 1 hour 30 minute connection in NRT. How misleading.

Now, Global Services is looking at trying to rebook me on a different carrier, but it is not looking good. I don't want to travel in Y on a $5K C ticket.

This is not just a rant (which it is), but seriously, is it time to switch now ?

I am reaching the conclusion now that one should travel UA only if you are in discounted Y, upgrading to NC with a SWU.

It seems that is what UA wants too.

So other airlines do not cancel flights?

Ouch. My worst transpac experience (recently, at least) was a 12-hour delay, but at least I got the same seat and the same equipment. I think that you got a far worse deal. I would tell the story to CS and see what they say.

I sent an email to GS about the flights on 11/5. Excepting an apology, I was offered nothing, except return of my SWU which was pulled from my account for the BKK-NRT portion in NF.

I don't think you will make it either unless they are using the aircraft from your LAX-NRT for the NRT-SIN segment.

I see UA890 is now due at 11:23am and UA891 is due out at 12:40pm.

New arrival time at NRT is 4:58pm on 17NOV. I guess they expect decent winds because even though they are leaving 1 hr 26 min late they expect to arrive 58 minutes late.

Either way I too agree that 12:40pm is not realistic. I would think 1:15pm is more like it so that would put you in around 5:30pm or so. Not too likely to make that connection.

I see NH5 LAX-NRT is sold out in all classes.

Are you at the airport? There are business class seats on KE2, a 777, at 10:30am to NRT at 3:10pm on Nov 17.

NW1 at 11am also had 8 J seats left. It is a 747-400.

AA169 has 1 J but plenty of F on their 777 at 1140am in on Nov 17 at 4:40pm.

At least that would give you a better chance to make UA891 especially if they had some type of special service meet you at the gate.

On 17 Nov here are some later NRT-SIN flights with business availability:

NW5 has 5 seats 545pm-1230am
JL711 has 4 seats 550pm-1230am
SQ11 has 1 F seat but no business at 7pm

Good luck...and let us know how it turns out!

Couldn't the inbound UA 840 (Sydney) plane be used for NRT? It's due in at 10:36am. You should be fine.

Nope...right now UA890 due 11:23am gate 76 UA891 ETD 12:40pm gate 76.

840 is using gate 74 at 10:36am.

Not sure why they can't use inbound 840 to turn 891 unless it needs some work at LAX.

SQ has no more seats out of SFO/LAX today/tonight in C/F.

Of course they did 2 hours ago, while the GS agent was trying to convince me that no other flights were available and that I would have to overnight in Narita.

He was trying to steer me towards using UA on the transpac sector.

I now have a supervisor involved. They could have put me through SFO before, if someone made a decision quickly. Unfortunately, the GS Serv rep wasted 1 hour 45 min on the phone with me, doing nothing.

UA is totally messed up.

What about some of the other options?

Are you on a full C ticket or upgraded Y to NC....C to NF?

Full C to NF.

I am going to India. I am trying to get UA to put me on LH out of LAX. Space is available, but they don't want to do it. They need special permission, which they don't think they can get.

Does UA honestly think people will want to fly them again in the future when they do s**t like this ?

Hey, just be glad your GS. Think about the poor schmuck who's flying C on the vacation of their life and has to deal with spending the night in NRT.

After lots of haggling and nearly 3 hours on the phone with GS, I got on LH to India, all of the way on 11/16.

This is really pathetic. I was told that the transpac flights have been delayed several times last week. I think UA is in big problems now.

But you are right. If I were a normal 1K, I wouldn't have gotten a thing. There were a bunch of people at the airport (I still had to go to the GS counter at T6 in LAX to get my ticket changed over to LH), who were told they would now have to overnight at Tokyo and would be given a hotel room at Narita. I bet they were in for a rude surprise when they got there. All morning on 11/16, UA kept insisting that the flight NRT-SIN would be held in NRT because they were 32 pax on the LAX-NRT flight, connecting onwards to SIN.

By the way, UA kept insisting that the inbound aircraft into LAX, which would have been my outbound UA 891 to LAX, would depart at 1240 PM. I knew this would be impossible, with the inbound aircraft arriving at 1122 pm. Last time I checked, the UA 891 on 11/17 was due in at 6:20 PM in to NRT, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours after the connecting flight to SIN departed that day.

After a long time, I did get a chance to experience the service in LH C after a long time. Some things were better than UA, others were not. But I think this may be the way to go for me in the future.

I went from BKK to ORD and then was supposed to travel back from LAX to SIN all on UA C, upgraded in advance to NF. Out of 4 UA intl segments, would you believe that I was on only 1 UA Intl flight, NRT-BKK.

Well, vacation of a lifetime or not, I can think of quite a few worse things than having to crash at a hotel in Narita, Japan.

CommittedLurker, why don't you try SQ or OZ from LAX or JFK/EWR and connect back towards India that way?