broken windscreen delays 839 to Sydney
 

I arrived some hour ago( 4 May) in LAX from DC into gate 74 to connect onto SYD - I noted that there was not the usual 747 in gate 77 or so being prepared for the connection to Sydney.

The flight is now scheduled for a 2330 departure but the a/c has not arrived yet at the gate(2210).

I am trying not to be pessimistic but the cynic in me is wondering if this is an excuse full of open-ended possibilities for major delays.

Still ,my last foray into the US on UA has been really good apart from the ridiculous absence of real Champagne on the transpac sector.However, I can't complain about the domestic sector red as it was a quite drinkable Australian offering.

I also noticed there was a delay last Saturday night on UA839.

For UA's sake, I hope that these are one-time -rare- events.

You didn't mention in your message how you found out that the mech is "windscreen"...is that from a GA? Seems very detailed for a plane not even at the gate yet.

A one to two hour delay on either 839 or 863 (SFO) seems to occur from time to time....all my 744 probs seem to be with a/c into and out of PEK and PVG!

Shows 23:45 now....good luck!

Still shows new config a/c at least. Bummer getting in an hour late - we had 167mph tailwinds coming over from NRT today - no idea how that'll affect the ride down to SYD, but I can't imagine it'll help you make up too much time.

I'm by the gate right now, while I wait for my ride to arrive from iad. I am kind of jealous, the aircraft isn't at the gate yet. Can we say 12:30 dep? I feel bad for those connecting.

The agent in the RCC told me re the windscreen when i got my "OK to board" stamp organised.

I would not care as much but I need to connect onto Brisbane and Qantas is not too considerate if you miss their flight because of a delayed arrival by United.

To be fair , there have been a few announcements re this issue in the RCC - sadly , the bar is closed and the coffee and tea dispensing machines closed round 2215 hours - I could really do with a cup of tea.

Well I feel for you, because with the strong headwinds I can't see this flight making up any time. Hmm, looks like something is about to happening. Everyone, ga's and capt are huddelung around the supervisor, I'm off to the bathroom.

Looks like UA 886 KIX to SFO scheduled for May 5 17:30 departure is gonna be leaving a bit late. At the scheduled boarding time passengers from the arriving flight were still streaming off after flu check. Its almost original departure time & they've announced that they still don't know when we'll be boarding or departing, they're still disinfecting the plane... :rolleyes:

UPDATE: 7:30pm earliest boarding, they're still decontaminating the plane, wonder if there was someone sick on board...

UPDATE 2: hmm, guys in bunnysuits came off a bit ago and they announced that they have finished decontamination & that the last passengers from previous flight have deboarded -- not sure if to take that to mean that someone has been quarantined on there all this time or not, but there was a bus beside the plane a bit ago.

I was just there with you all. The RCC was packed--seemed like people were all waiting for that sydney flight. Amazing.

Too bad. We flew 886 on May 4 and departure was on time.
Checking the status of the May 5 flight it shows a 2:00pm departure time--does that mean it got delayed a day?

Yup! Just got to the Kansai Airport Washington Hotel where UA is putting us all up for the night.

We finally boarded over 3.5 hours late and were away from the gate and ready for take-off when the pilot came on and basically said something along these lines:

I have good news & bad news -- good news is we're first in line to takeoff. Bad news is I've been told by the company that they aren't sure if what the Japanese disinfected the aircraft with is approved by the FAA. They are checking with the FAA & Japanese govt to find out if we can depart.

I dunno how long we waited (probably just as well, it was quite awhile) and the answer was the Japanese couldn't say exactly what was in the stuff they fumigated the plane with and the FAA wouldn't allow us to enter the US if it had been done with stuff that wasn't approved. The pilot said that basically we were in the middle of an international incident between the US & Japanese over what they'd done to our plane. :p So back to the gate for us. We waited onboard for awhile while they arranged hotels for us, then we deboarded, got a sheet of info & our immigration embarkation cards back and reentered Japan (exit stamp got VOIDed) to pick up our luggage.

One missing bit of info on sheet was how to get to the airport (which is the tall one on the other side of the bridge I think). Wasn't really anyone out to direct us either when I passed thru. After all of this I decided to just grab a cab, pay the almost $40 to cross the bridge and have a little more relaxing evening. I'll grumble at UA about this when I get back along with having to burn a comp day at work that I could have used for something else.

So what's the going rate for flight delayed a day due to international incident? :p

Didn't "the company" ever hear of "don't ask, don't tell"?
They've been in this medical inspection regime for at least a week. Why wait to ask about the Japanese disinfectant now?

For a 2P? I think a BOB box cert, which you have to present at the airport, at last a day prior to travel, to redeem. Oh, and it can't be combined with e-fares, and requires a minimum Saturday night stay.

You should feel lucky they didn't bill you for the hotel! :D

More seriously, did UA do anything that contributed to the situation, or were they as much of a victim as everyone else?

UA 839 arrived at SYD at 0730 - still late but the pilots did seem to make up some time .

Immigration was empty - no queues.

I missed the QF conx to BNE but I was able to get the QF agent to put me on the next flight out - not always easy to do if there are no cheap fare based seats on the flight .

Anyone else on UA853 NRT-TPE (5/18)? Four-hour on-board delay ends in cancellation.
 

UA853, NRT-TPE on Monday, 5/18, was a 777XP that was apparently fueled for NRT-HNL and had a fuel pump issue resulting in a 4-hour, rolling, on-board delay. Something about needing to pump fuel out of a central chamber but the computers not recognizing that there was fuel to pump?

Obviously, a number of grumpy passengers, one is now spending two nights straight in a hotel thanks to UA cancellations, one who was going around saying that the plane was unsafe, and a crowd around the cockpit when the captain gamely offered to answer any questions at the 3.5-hour mark.

At the hotel now with no idea when takeoff is tomorrow.

After 200K BIS over the past two years, this is my first overnight cancellation, so I suppose I was due.