UA Flight 748 issues
 

My girlfriend is scheduled to travel on UA 748 on August 8 and the flight has been delayed by over 2.5 hours. Checking on united.bomb it appears the flight was also delayed by an hour or so on august 7 because of "Schedule change due to Aircraft Servicing." No reason is listed for the delay on aug 8, however weather is clear in both DFW and SFO (I understand that theere migth have been weather form the place the plane was coming from). Now it seems that she might miss her connecting international flight.

How common is "Schedule change due to Aircraft Servicing" on UA? I have never seen this reason listed for a flight delay. I understand that flights are delayed because of weather and other "act of god" issues, but this delays really irk me. She is traveling on a reward ticket as I wanted to burn the rest of my UA miles. I made executive platinum on AA this year after making the switch to AA since some issues with UA last year, and couldn't be happier. I was hoping the GF would have a good experience with UA as I have to switch to either UA of DL next year due to a need to travel to ICN often next year. It looks like I will be avoiding UA again.

UA748 DFW 8:27 AM SFO 10:05AM 319 3h38m

That aircraft sits overnight at DFW, having arrived as one of a slew of A319 DEN-DFWs the night before. With that said, however, UA 426 from DEN-DFW was canceled last night. It does appear that another one of last night’s DEN-DFWs came into Gate 29 (the departing gate this morning for UA 748), but the aircraft could have been shuffled to different gates overnight. There are no inbound A319s in the morning, so UA 748 is not awaiting an aircraft.

My guess is a crew delay.

There should be a good number of alternative routings available through DEN, but your girlfriend might arrive SFO sooner by just waiting out the delay.

Mechanical delays are not common, but United's fleet is stretched thin and the A319s are not exactly brand new anymore. Keep in mind that yesterday's delay for aircraft servicing has no bearing on the next day's performance. Purely luck (or bad luck)!

I'd say that wasn't a good guess, rch4u.

UA flight 9806 is now winging its way from DEN to DFW, and it is scheduled to arrive at gate 29 at 9.41. Looks like they will turn that plane around and use it as 748 to SFO. So while the estimated times for delayed flights are often way off base, the current ETD estimate (10.15) probably isn't off by more than 15-20 mins.

Wow ... nice detective work! Never thought that UA would add an extra flight DEN-DFW to avoid canceling downstream flights. ^

Thank you for the info. I realize I might come off as being rather naive in my post, however its mainly a function of the fact that I have no control over my GF's flights. As an elite member on UA (and now AA) dealing with rescheduling and other issues is much easier then as a member of the general flying public. I am frustrated by the fact that I'm not there to help her with her travel. It seems her flight from SFO to NRT was changed to a later flight and she will make it on time. So much of my troubles have been soothed for the time being. Its frustrating to be the frequent trvaeler 6400 miles away who cannot help with the fact that your loved one has been directed to 3 different lines at DFW when you cannot do anything to help.

I hope she still makes her flight. She is now on UA 853 that leaves SFO at 1338 and is due to arrive at NRT at 1630 (aug 9). As she still has decent time between the flights she should be OK. I hope!