Flight delayed then on time
 

Last May I was flying from BWI to SFO on United departing at 8am. The weather was bad and at 10pm the night before I checked the status of the flight online and it showed 2 hour delay (10am departure time). I double checked again at midnight before I went to sleep and it showed the same delay.

So, if the flight is delayed 2 hours, I can get a few more hours of sleep :)

Wrong! I get up around 7:30am and when I check the flight status it shows an ontime 8:00am departure :eek:

I debate for 2 minutes as to whether I can make it or not since the hotel is only 10min from the airport. I go for it and even after returning the rental car, I'm in the security line at 7:50am when I find out that ultimately the flight was cancelled for mechanical.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone else had experienced something like this in the past. Should I have assumed the flight was going to depart on time before going to bed? Even though the website status showed delayed? Just trying to understand where I went wrong.

IME, an easy update or .bomb projection the night before a flight means little when a delay occurs.

Departure time is almost always revised, usually due to an aircraft substitution.

My home airport is BUR and one thing I love about flying out of BUR is that I have a direct number to UA (now Skywest :rolleyes:) where I can call and get precise information about delays. I run into flow control issues from time to time flying up to SFO and calling BUR will often yield more accurate information than checking on .bomb or calling HAL.

Next time, you might try calling BWI and ask to be transferred to UA.

my very simple rule of thumb....

if i get notified via easyupdate or check the bomb for my flight status and i am delayed, i will still arrive at the airport based on the original departure time* as flight times can change (both +/-) for any number of reasons (i.e shows 2 hour departure delay but they swap an a/c to one that's good to go either from a spare (say at sfo) or take an inbound destined for someplace else on its turnaround and use it for my flight)


*and i'm old school that i still allow myself to be at the airport 90 minutes before (but that's just me)

This has happened to me on several occasions where I get the Easy update notification of delay when ultimately no delay occurs. Once they almost didn't let us on the flight--the doors had not been closed but the Gate agent felt obliged to scold us and threaten us. When we told her that we were notified less than one hour prior that the flight was delayed by 2 hrs. she told us that we can't believe the Easy Update and that it is our responsibility to be at the gate at the originally scheduled departure time.

UA's customer commitment is clear that once a delay is posted the plane will not leave earlier....
Of course who knows what UA will say if it gets updates on .bomb but the airport knows nothing about it.

Do a search on this, there are at least a couple of threads. Even with a delay noted, this can change back to the original departure time, or in between the original departure time and the delayed time. It's happened to me before, and my GF nearly missed the last flight of the night because of an incident like this. UA will tell you to be there on time, even if the flight is listed as delayed.

As I'm sure I've posted before in the previous threads you an search for, there is a customer committment item you could probably use against UA if you are affected by this. It says something to the effect that if a delay has been announced, because passengers might choose to leave the gate area until they need to be there for the new departure, the flight won't leave until the new (delayed) departure time. UA doesn't really follow this, though, in my experience. Especially at the hubs, a late arriving aircraft, or one that goes MX, could be swapped to another aircraft ops find is available, causing an announced delay to be rescinded. This can also happen if a mechanical problem is fixed faster than normal. There are probably other things that can do this too. Another possible situation: a delay due to predicted weather, but this can change frequently, and the window for departure can be fairly short if it is a break in weather.

I'm not saying I necessarily agree that delays should just be able to be rescinded, but, am saying that it does happen.

This is why I have not used Easy Update in many, many years.

Their policy (and other airlines) is that once a delay is posted, they do not leave earlier.

I've seen them (and other airlines) in practice totally ignore that policy.

Never ever trust a posted delay, I always believe there is a chance it could still take off if they find a way to do so.

I'm fairly certain this is applies only when the delay is posted at the airport and only when the flight is under airport control. In the OP's case, the delay was posted on the website and it was many hours prior to airport control (which is typically 3-4 hours prior to departure).

aluminumdriver mentioned on another thread about how airport station managers bonus when a high percentage of flights leave on time. regardless of what .bomb or Easy Update says, if they can get that plane out on time, it's going.

That's always been my observation. Just yesterday in DSM during the widespread Midwest weather-related irrops I was able to pass the time watching a self-identified 1K doing her DYKWIA. Apparently EasyUpdate had said her flight was delayed. Therefore she didn't bother to check in or show up at the airport anywhere near on time, and missed the flight when it went out after all. I listened as the agent patiently explained that regardless of who she was, the plane was gone, and when you don't take the trouble to check in, no one worries about whether you're on board. :D

if the plane does leave before the posted delayed time (thats posted at the airport), does a passenger have a right to vdb or idb compensation? it seems they would? also, what if its the last flight of the day, would ua be required to put a pax that missed their flight for this reason up in a hotel?