More SYD/MEL related delays/cancellation [Merged Threads]
Nov 23, 2007, 4:50 pm
#91
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I have done this flight twice this year with No problems... and I am going again in a few weeks hopefully my luck will continue...^
I have 744 issues on the ORD-HKG more often.
I have 744 issues on the ORD-HKG more often.
Nov 23, 2007, 5:02 pm
#92
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Boy, was I nervous to see this thread pop to the top today. We're flying out in a bit over 6 hours...
Nov 23, 2007, 5:05 pm
#93
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FWIW, 10 of NW's 16 744s are older than most UA 744s and you don't seem to hear that much about NW's fleet breaking down. Not sure whether what's been delivered is still left in the fleet or if there have been lease replacements but the 1st 6 NW 744s were delivered in 1989 with a further 4 in 1990. 4 were added in 1999 and a further 2 in 2002. That'd put the average NW 744 age at 13.5 years.
UA only had 3 delivered in 1989 and 5 in 1990, though a further 36 were added by 2000. 30 remain in UA's fleet with a claimed average age of 11 years as of year end 2006.
CX's fleet of directly-purchased 16 744s are even older. Average of 15.6 years. Not sure how old the 6 acquired from SQ are.
After reading through this thread, I think I better build a full day's leeway on my connection back to YVR and buy that ticket on UA!
UA only had 3 delivered in 1989 and 5 in 1990, though a further 36 were added by 2000. 30 remain in UA's fleet with a claimed average age of 11 years as of year end 2006.
CX's fleet of directly-purchased 16 744s are even older. Average of 15.6 years. Not sure how old the 6 acquired from SQ are.
After reading through this thread, I think I better build a full day's leeway on my connection back to YVR and buy that ticket on UA!
Last edited by iluv2fly; Oct 26, 2009 at 11:37 pm Reason: merge
Nov 23, 2007, 5:07 pm
#94
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Nov 23, 2007, 5:36 pm
#95
Join Date: Aug 2006
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Flew the 863 this time last year. Never again. UAL were the worst I have ever seen them. Turned around about 1.5hrs out of SFO. 24 Hour delay, no hotels provided. Half the passengers left to sleep in the terminal for 24 hours. 2nd 747 the next day couldn't start the engines. Finally made it out on a 3rd 747 and arrived 30 hours late. Ground staff were appalling making threats to passengers as if it was all our fault. They were no better in SYD refusing to honour our QF flights to MEL which UAL at SFO had booked us on!
Nov 23, 2007, 5:37 pm
#96
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Nov 23, 2007, 5:51 pm
#97
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Nov 23, 2007, 9:29 pm
#98
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863 woes
Did this flight on the 17th: came in an hour and change late, enough to
vitiate our 1h30 connx to NZ. The good: UA rebooked us in C on NZ thru
AKL getting us to WLG 9 hrs or so late. The bad: they didn't tell NZ about
this. The good: the NZ staff had the original plane held for us for 10 min,
enough to get us, sweaty and dishevelled, on.
vitiate our 1h30 connx to NZ. The good: UA rebooked us in C on NZ thru
AKL getting us to WLG 9 hrs or so late. The bad: they didn't tell NZ about
this. The good: the NZ staff had the original plane held for us for 10 min,
enough to get us, sweaty and dishevelled, on.
Last edited by violist; Nov 24, 2007 at 3:24 pm Reason: clarity
Nov 23, 2007, 10:52 pm
#99
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Yikes! I'm very glad I didn't notice this thread before my CNZ. My 863 (6-8 Nov) and 870 (15 Nov) were on-time.
Reading through these recent posts jangled my memory and the only oddities were on 863 - the potable water fitness report hadn't come back in time, so an announcement was made at the gate all pax would get bottled water. On the ground, jswong (who happened to be riding in the UD) and I realized how odd that was. Doesn't everyone get bottled water whether in Y, C or F? Tea and coffee are made with piped water? I dunno.
The second memorable event was the nano-second I thought we were going to drop out of the sky. Hit a small pocket I guess.
Reading through these recent posts jangled my memory and the only oddities were on 863 - the potable water fitness report hadn't come back in time, so an announcement was made at the gate all pax would get bottled water. On the ground, jswong (who happened to be riding in the UD) and I realized how odd that was. Doesn't everyone get bottled water whether in Y, C or F? Tea and coffee are made with piped water? I dunno.
The second memorable event was the nano-second I thought we were going to drop out of the sky. Hit a small pocket I guess.
Nov 25, 2007, 8:36 pm
#100
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SFO-SYD delay Oct 26
As we now have a merged thread for these issues and the Oct 26 delay wasn't mentioned here I thought I'd add it for completeness.
This was discussed in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=750681 "Another mech delay: who wants to see the cockpit? "
I'll repost my negative experiences with UA in regard to that delay, seeing as people are discussing rebookings etc.
This was discussed in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=750681 "Another mech delay: who wants to see the cockpit? "
I'll repost my negative experiences with UA in regard to that delay, seeing as people are discussing rebookings etc.
I was on that flight too and while the way things were handled at the front end were pretty reasonable, the shambles when we arrived in SYD was not.
Captain Wood twice informed us before landing that passengers with ongoing connections were not to worry as the ground staff were booking them on later flights. It turns out the only thing the ground staff did was to book those folk continuing to MEL onto alternative flights (as the UA plane was not continuing to MEL). The rest of us just had to go to QF international to domestic transit area to see about new flights.
To put it midly QF were having a very bad day yesterday in the transfer area. The place was a zoo and hundreds of folks seemed to be missing connections (made worse by some cancelled domestic flights).
QF couldn't get me onto a BNE flight until 2:00pm (original 10:35am) and I was pretty miffed. I'm betting that had UA ground staff actually done something hours before we arrived then I would have been accommodated on a much earlier flight.
Obviously the communication between the ground staff and the plane is not up to scratch as I doubt the good Captain would have deliberately have misinformed us. But a big
to UA for this.
Captain Wood twice informed us before landing that passengers with ongoing connections were not to worry as the ground staff were booking them on later flights. It turns out the only thing the ground staff did was to book those folk continuing to MEL onto alternative flights (as the UA plane was not continuing to MEL). The rest of us just had to go to QF international to domestic transit area to see about new flights.
To put it midly QF were having a very bad day yesterday in the transfer area. The place was a zoo and hundreds of folks seemed to be missing connections (made worse by some cancelled domestic flights).
QF couldn't get me onto a BNE flight until 2:00pm (original 10:35am) and I was pretty miffed. I'm betting that had UA ground staff actually done something hours before we arrived then I would have been accommodated on a much earlier flight.
Obviously the communication between the ground staff and the plane is not up to scratch as I doubt the good Captain would have deliberately have misinformed us. But a big
to UA for this.
Nov 27, 2007, 3:22 pm
#101
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Cancelled UA863/870
Anybody know what happened to UA863 from SFO-SYD on Nov 26 that has resulted in UA870 being cancelled out of Sydney today (Wed Nov 28)?
Nov 27, 2007, 5:27 pm
#102
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Managed to answer my own question and guess what the reason was...."MECHANICAL"
Anyway, my wife was booked on UA870 to fly to meet me here in NY. She is travelling on a "standard award" in business class.
When she rang UA she was told they could not get her on the UA840 flt to LAX and would have to travel on UA870 the next day. Of course she was quite distressed.
I rang the UA 1K desk here in the States and asked if they could do anything. They said "no problem" and proceeded to rebook her on the UA840 flt to LAX and then UA890 to JFK still in business class. They said there was no change fee as it was because of mechanical reasons^. The 1K said my wife will need to go to the service desk in order to have her ticket correctly endorsed.
The fact that the 1K desk here the States was easily able to re-arrange her flight says volumes about the Manila call centre
Fingers crossed that she isn't affected by any further mechanical issues for her flights.
Given the above normal frequency of delays/cancellations on UA's transpacific route and what's happened to my wife, I am giving serious consideration to not using UA any more on my frequent trips to the USA and I'm thinking of travelling SIA via Singapore even though the flight time is longer. I can quite happily put up with an overniter in SQ and then travel onto the USA the next morning. As everyone knows, apart from UA's technical issues, UA doesn't even come close to SQ in terms of inflight service & comfort!!
Anyway, my wife was booked on UA870 to fly to meet me here in NY. She is travelling on a "standard award" in business class.
When she rang UA she was told they could not get her on the UA840 flt to LAX and would have to travel on UA870 the next day. Of course she was quite distressed.
I rang the UA 1K desk here in the States and asked if they could do anything. They said "no problem" and proceeded to rebook her on the UA840 flt to LAX and then UA890 to JFK still in business class. They said there was no change fee as it was because of mechanical reasons^. The 1K said my wife will need to go to the service desk in order to have her ticket correctly endorsed.
The fact that the 1K desk here the States was easily able to re-arrange her flight says volumes about the Manila call centre
Fingers crossed that she isn't affected by any further mechanical issues for her flights.
Given the above normal frequency of delays/cancellations on UA's transpacific route and what's happened to my wife, I am giving serious consideration to not using UA any more on my frequent trips to the USA and I'm thinking of travelling SIA via Singapore even though the flight time is longer. I can quite happily put up with an overniter in SQ and then travel onto the USA the next morning. As everyone knows, apart from UA's technical issues, UA doesn't even come close to SQ in terms of inflight service & comfort!!
Nov 27, 2007, 5:56 pm
#103
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The fact that the 1K desk here the States was easily able to re-arrange her flight says volumes about the Manila call centre
Given the above normal frequency of delays/cancellations on UA's transpacific route and what's happened to my wife, I am giving serious consideration to not using UA any more on my frequent trips to the USA and I'm thinking of travelling SIA via Singapore even though the flight time is longer. I can quite happily put up with an overniter in SQ and then travel onto the USA the next morning. As everyone knows, apart from UA's technical issues, UA doesn't even come close to SQ in terms of inflight service & comfort!!
Given the above normal frequency of delays/cancellations on UA's transpacific route and what's happened to my wife, I am giving serious consideration to not using UA any more on my frequent trips to the USA and I'm thinking of travelling SIA via Singapore even though the flight time is longer. I can quite happily put up with an overniter in SQ and then travel onto the USA the next morning. As everyone knows, apart from UA's technical issues, UA doesn't even come close to SQ in terms of inflight service & comfort!!
Regarding traveling From SYD to the US via SIN, I have been doing this for years. I am very rarely in a breakneck hurry to get there, and it means I can cut my flights down to 7 hours or less, and have a brief stopover in any of SIN, TYO and/or HNL. Fourteen hours on a clapped-out UA 747 (if if goes at all) is not my idea of fun, and it's no more expensive to go via SIN either.
UA is definitely shooting itself in the foot by annoying the regular US-AU travelers like us. Their near monopoly days will end one day, and then they will be in trouble...
Last edited by iluv2fly; Nov 27, 2007 at 6:33 pm Reason: language
Nov 27, 2007, 6:24 pm
#104
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I totally agree with your views on Manila. They try and do everything by the "book", even if it means inventing a few new pages from time to time, to suit themselves. Better to call the US if you have a real issue.
Regarding traveling From SYD to the US via SIN, I have been doing this for years. I am very rarely in a breakneck hurry to get there, and it means I can cut my flights down to 7 hours or less, and have a brief stopover in any of SIN, TYO and/or HNL. Fourteen hours on a clapped-out UA 747 (if if goes at all) is not my idea of fun, and it's no more expensive to go via SIN either.
UA is definitely shooting itself in the foot by annoying the regular US-AU travelers like us. Their near monopoly days will end one day, and then they will be in trouble...
Regarding traveling From SYD to the US via SIN, I have been doing this for years. I am very rarely in a breakneck hurry to get there, and it means I can cut my flights down to 7 hours or less, and have a brief stopover in any of SIN, TYO and/or HNL. Fourteen hours on a clapped-out UA 747 (if if goes at all) is not my idea of fun, and it's no more expensive to go via SIN either.
UA is definitely shooting itself in the foot by annoying the regular US-AU travelers like us. Their near monopoly days will end one day, and then they will be in trouble...
I have SQ flights to Singapore/Phuket in February and will be needing to do another visit to the USA in March. Whereas I would normally direct the mileage accrual to my UA account, I will now think about flying exclusively on SQ and accruing mileage with SQ Krisflyer. The only bummer is that, if I'm not mistaken, Krisflyer's status accrual starts from April 1 and therefore the flights I'm referring to above would not count towards *A gold status during 2008.
Base upon my experiences with SQ, even travelling in Y class on SQ will provide a better level of service than having to travel in J class on UA. There's also the added advantage that SQ does non-stop SIN-EWR flights which is usually where I need to end up and this would eliminate the need to transit via SFO or LAX which is got to be another incentive!
Just out of interest, what carriers do you fly with when doing your AUS-USA trips (you can PM if you like).
Last edited by iluv2fly; Nov 27, 2007 at 6:33 pm Reason: language in quote
Nov 27, 2007, 6:32 pm
#105
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I've seen the SFO flight go tech, and the LAX flight delayed for about 1.5 hours, but very little customers were transferred over to the LAX flight.
I even had the entire 4 seats in the middle free for a sleep on the trip, after grabbing them once the door closed, before the delay at the gate started.
The people in the exit row with me could not believe I would give up my exit row seat for a blank row.
The AU gate people are not the best when it comes to helping, either ask at the RCC, or ring the USA via Skype from the airport.
How does one book on .bomb MEL/SYD to SIN and onwards?
I'm trying to put together a trip to Japan early next year, using rewards for 2 friends (Different Surnames) but can not get them to SIN for the UA flight to Japan.
I even had the entire 4 seats in the middle free for a sleep on the trip, after grabbing them once the door closed, before the delay at the gate started.
The people in the exit row with me could not believe I would give up my exit row seat for a blank row.
The AU gate people are not the best when it comes to helping, either ask at the RCC, or ring the USA via Skype from the airport.
How does one book on .bomb MEL/SYD to SIN and onwards?
I'm trying to put together a trip to Japan early next year, using rewards for 2 friends (Different Surnames) but can not get them to SIN for the UA flight to Japan.