How is it possible that my flight was delayed for not having a crew?

[Gravitycollapse]

I'm sitting in SFO with a delayed flight because it has no crew. How is that even possible and should I ask for some sort of reimbursement?

The United Airlines employee bit my head off when I told her I wanted to know why the crew didn't show up. I'm pretty pissed off.

[darkangel218]

1. Crew called off due to holidays

And the ones on call didn't show up

[Retrograde]

20. Or crew's been working too long due to delays elsewhere

Federal law limits how long a crew can work (I don't know about anyone else, but I like having fresh, awake pilots in the plane) so if an incoming flight is delayed the crew may legally no longer be allowed to fly.

On a flight from SFO to Hawai'i earlier this year, a passenger had a medical emergency that made the pilot return to SFO. Because of the turn-around, and the time it took to refuel and reinspect the plane, the crew went into overtime so we had to wait until a new crew was located. And then they had to re-do all the pre-flight checkoffs. (At least United did feed us when we finally left, and they made sure the dogs being transported were walked and watered.)

[Eleanors38]

45. "I'm a little over weight, and the log book's way behind"

Six Days on the Road -- Dave Dudley, 1963.

OTR (long-haul semi drivers) operators have to keep hours of their driving recorded in a log book.

[okaawhatever]

2. Was the crew coming from a different flight that was delayed? Also, it doesn't have too be an

entire crew. If one vital member of a crew isn't there they can't fly.

[Gravitycollapse]

6. She didn't tell me anything. She just bit my head off.

I wanted to inform her that I wasn't even in my final form of anger but I didn't want to be kicked out. She was a real piece of work. Fucking assholes.

[FrodosPet]

22. When you work customer service in the transport industry

You spend a lot of time getting chewed up and spit out by the public over things you have zero control over. Sometimes, it literally has the same physical impact as being gut punched.

I don't know if this person is always like this. She does sound unprofessional. At the same time, I beg that you give the poor grunts, the drivers and gate attendants and call takers and all the blue collar transport workers of the world, a break when things go bad. Most of them do care about taking care of your needs. But they cannot control the weather, the mechanical condition, hours of service, inadequate staffing, incompetent coworkers, or any of the dozens of other problems that arise in this time critical industry.

[Locut0s]

34. As someone who has worked in retail...

I can tell you I've seen both ends of the spectrum. Employees who receive nothing but the worst degrading and viscous angry shit and still keep a happy friendly face. And the opposite, employees who have the worst possible flicking attitude.

I agree the things you have to put up with in public service. Makes you hate humanity.

[bluestate10]

59. If I managed the airline, I would re-train her and if she didn't improve, I would fire her.

Nothing pisses me off more that people who either don't give a shit, or who can't practice self control. When a person is the face of a business, those people are going to take shit when things are going wrong - that is a GIVEN for the job. The proper situation is for management to compensate front-line workers well and give them adequate time away from the front-lines to regenerate. When workers are treated well by the employer and management, workers should be expected to either block out other issues or take time off with pay to deal with those issues. Any person found to be abusing time off policies should be fired outright because that is stealing.

[SheilaT]

63. Nice sentiment, but the pay for airline employees has

been eroded over the past couple of decades. Meanwhile, flights are fuller than ever, so when anything goes wrong it's difficult to impossible to accommodate the passengers on a new flight. Those passengers are understandably unhappy themselves for the smaller seats on crowded airplanes, the indignities of the TSA, and so on. Which is not to say it's perfectly okay for an employee to be snippy or rude, but you seem to assume that these people are well paid and have lots of time off. It's a job that requires working weekends and holidays, and a surprising amount of mandatory overtime.

I was an airline ticket agent from 1969-1979, and it was bad enough back then. You could not pay me enough money to do the job these days.

[bluestate10]

67. You ticked off a list of problems that airlines have largely created for themselves.

I don't assume anything. I am sure airline customer service reps are underpaid - did you see that I clearly pointed out that they should be paid well and be given adequate time off? If I ran an airline, I wouldn't fire people until I had fixed problem (well, some executives would likely be fired for being generators of problems). If a person is well paid, had adequate opportunity for time off and rotational opportunities to non customer interface jobs, I would expect them to be 100% on their A game when facing customers, if not, they would be retrained and fired if retraining doesn't solve their issues with serving customers. For every asshole customer, there are ten or more good customers, who if they witness the actions of the asshole customer, would give the Rep some sign that they understand and backs him or her.

I am sorry, but if you say that even if pay is excellent, time off excellent and excellent benefits aren't enough to have you put up with an occasional asshole, I wouldn't want you as the face of any business that I own. I believe in treating employees well, but I am demanding when it comes to delivering a product or service to a customer. A customer service job is just that, a person has a job solely because customers are being assisted in some way - any person that, if treated well, is paid well and has opportunity for time off, can't buy into that concept shouldn't EVER consider going into customer service.

[SheilaT]

75. But, and this is a huge but, they are not paid well.

They do not get good time off.

Back when I was an airline employee, we got two weeks a year off. We worked fifty weeks a year. We NEVER got an extra day off at at holiday time. Never. We worked fifty weeks a year. Maybe I mentioned that already. We never got a holiday off. Maybe I mentioned that already.

Our pay was decent, but not fantastic.
we did not have any extra time off, especially compared to people in regular jobs. Had the pay been excellent, the time off excellent, then dealing with the occasional asshole would have been a piece of cake. But you try working fifty weeks a year, including weekends, including holidays, not ever having an extra day off in lieu of. Now, think about flights are delayed, flights are cancelled, there are no alternatives to reroute passengers. You are expected to smile and make everything nice. You don't have excellent time off. You have two weeks vacation. Actually after one full year on the job you got one week vacation. After two full years. you got two weeks.
Flights are delayed, flights are cancelled. Everything is running hours late. You have to stay at work, because the flights are delayed. You get home three hours late.

The passengers are abusive. They walk up to you and the very first thing out of their mouth is how crappy this airline is. You smile, because that's what you've been told you must do. You take the abuse. You get the passenger to his destination. You wait on the next passenger, who is nice, who is understanding. And the next ten passengers, likewise. It is now midnight. Your shift should have ended at ten pm, but it's now midnight. You need to be back at the airport at 6 am. You take the bus home, you get there at around 1am, you set the alarm for 4:30am, because you'll need to shower, dry your hair, put on make up, then walk two blocks to the bus stop. You will get to work on time.

I worked that for ten years. There were times when night shift called up the morning shift people at 4 am to ask them to come in early so we could finally go home. And they did.

If you haven't worked 16 hours straight, with no relief in sight, you have no idea. We were decently paid, but we weren't that well paid. I did that job for ten years, and I can tell you that we were not paid for the abuse we had to put up with.

Yeah, maybe the airlines as an industry created the problems, but those people who created the problems NEVER had to deal with the travelling public.

I have phenomenal public contact skills. You'd be very hard pressed to find someone as good as I am. Unfortunately, I've never been rewarded for my skills.

[5X]

80. wish i got a vacation at all,

and decent pay. i am low paid, no vacation, customer service. Been on the job for 6 years. Actually more like 15, the company i was with got bought out, so still on same job. didn't have vacation before either and no cheap travel.

[SheilaT]

81. I am sorry your work life is what you've indicated.

That's a genuine shame, and the fix is that you should be higher paid, have vacations, and so on. Not that it's okay for any other employees to be badly paid, and so on.

[Locut0s]

33. "My final form of anger" lol...

Reminds me of the 3 stages ALL Japanese anime evil boss characters go through.

You have yet to see my final form!

[sakabatou]

35. Dragonball Z

[Locut0s]

36. Exactly! :) nt.

[lpbk2713]

3. The airline scheduled more flights than they could staff.

They simply didn't have the crew to put in the cockpits. FAA regs require a certain
amount of "off" time for pilots between flights and the airline didn't allow for that.

[bluestate10]

60. And they are too fucking cheap to have standby crews that are kept under their flight hours

so that they can fill in during an emergency. The idea sounds expensive, but airlines that deliver good service have full planes, just look at Southwest, which being far from perfect or even good, stands above the rest.

[lpbk2713]

62. True that

Most do just what they absolutely are required to do.
Some do even less hoping they don't get caught.

[onenote]

71. Southwest doesn't stand above the rest anymore

Recently they've had the worst on-time record in the industry.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/12/31/southwest-delays-chicago-transportation-department/4261545/

[kcr]

4. That's happened to me, too.

In my case they actually explained the reason. It was Delta. Some of the crew was on another flight that was delayed.

[tblue37]

5. Last year my flight was repeatedly delayed and then finally cancelled

because of an incomplete crew, but the airline would not tell us why we were cancelled--we found out about it a couple of days later.

[LeftyMom]

7. A few things could have happened.

Their previous arrival could have been delayed, and then they had a certain amount of mandatory rest time before they were allowed to fly again which meant they weren't ready at your departure time. Or they could have been coming in on another flight, which was delayed.

It being SFO it's also possible they're in a shuttle van stuck in traffic. But it's probably one of the first two.

Moral of the story: NEVER fly out of SFO if you can help it.

If you wait very long you should ask United for a credit. Don't ask the person at the gate, call the 800 number or send an email to customer service. Tweeting their corporate account is also a good way to get a quick response.

[Fridays Child]

8. I flew into SFO the day after Christmas.

It was a United flight. I connected from there to my destination. No problems, at all. I guess you just never know. Maybe I was just lucky.

[LeftyMom]

9. Between the fog, the runways and the traffic SFO is always kinda dicey, in my experience.

Personally I check all of the surrounding airports (SJC, OAK, SMF) first, and only use SFO if they're the only option.

[gcomeau]

28. Flown out of SFO dozens of times...

...never had a serious issue. Those were all international though, maybe the domestic side is different.

[Bluenorthwest]

44. SFO is often fogged in, it does not matter what your destination is when the fog is on

and that is often. SFO fog creates a cascading chain of fuck ups....

[Revanchist]

10. Could of been a number of reasons:

Staff shortages, sickness (it is flu season), car accident, there are several reasons and the airlines can't control all of them

[HangOnKids]

11. Oh Good Dear!

Don't fly often do you? Good luck with the reimbursement thing, you could sit in a terminal for a few days without even a cracker, much less a reimbursement.

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Besides it being a holiday, with the usual holiday hysteria...

a common reason is that a flight may have been delayed in air and by the time it landed, the crew didn't have enough flight time left for the next leg before they had to take the required rest. A replacement crew was "on the way", assuming they could find one available and sober.

Other than that, often the scheduled crew, or one of them, lives in Phoenix or some damn place and couldn't make a connection to get to SFO.

Or, shit happens.

From what I heard from airline employees, crew scheduling is a black art and we're lucky that we ever get a plane off the ground.

[SharonAnn]

76. Amen! The people at the ticket desk or boarding gate didn't cause the problem. My story -

Being a "road warrior" for years taught me that the individuals are not responsible for the problems and don't deserve our outrage which is really at "the system" or "the company". Traveling a lot on business is very stressful and lots of things happen, most of them unpleasant.

A real example for me was one day trying to return home after a long week on the road, a weather front came through Dallas with terrific thunderstorms on a Friday afternoon. Lots of flights delayed or cancelled. I waited in line with others to try to get rebooked and apologized to the attendant for the behavior of some of the other passengers. I told her I would like to get rebooked but that I understood there were limited options and just asked her to do the best she could do. She not only rebooked me on a flight sooner than I expected but she put me in First Class. I thanked her but thought to ask her "Why First Class"? She answered that after a difficult couple of hours she appreciated a passenger who was understanding and appreciative. Since this interaction helped her out, she wanted to help me out. Again, I thanked her and told her I wasn't expecting anything like this. She said, "I know. That's why you're getting it. You made my day."

[jberryhill]

13. There can be a lot of reasons

And if someone on your scheduled crew is ill, your being pissed off does not entitle you to someone else's health information.

Shit happens. In the last year, I've had flights cancelled, delayed by as much as eight hours, missed a connection, and had my checked bag lost twice. The least productive way to deal with these common annoyances is to get angry or give employees a hard time.

Your gate agent is not going to fly your plane and is not going to tell you what happened to any or all members of the crew, and you being snitty is not going to change either of those two facts.

[pinboy3niner]

14. It's total BS. They can always fly using...

...OttoPilot.

[Agschmid]

16. Total win.

[William769]

52. I thought Otto worked for us?

[TeamPooka]

23. a laugh and a spit take while drinking ...you got me good. :)

[Eleanors38]

46. "Our crew has been delayed in Miami." LOL from passengers.

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. This happened to a friend of mine tonight. He's in Detroit, crew is in Milwaukee...

supposed to be in Houston by 11 p.m. That's obviously not happening.

You will not get a reimbursement. Sometimes, they will bump you to a better class, but this is out of their control and you will just look like a mean-spirited fool.

[jberryhill]

17. Looking at the SFO flight board...

There are four outbound United flights cancelled and three delays.

If your crew was connecting through somewhere with severe weather, then they simply aren't there, and it looks like United is having a number of problems at SFO tonight.

[calimary]

19. There were evidently three United flights canceled out of Madison WI today. Weather.

My boys were heading back west after playing New Year's Eve there. What a harrowing day they all had today!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. I saw on the teevee machine 630 flights at O'Hare canceled today.

We got about 5 inches of snow but the north west closer to airport got 13 inches.

O'Hare doesn't show that much but it snowed all afternoon, last night and all day today.

[jberryhill]

40. That'll do it

[LuckyLib]

18. Try following the weather. The entire country has been in a steady stream of huge

weather systems that have been disrupting scheduled flights in and out of airports everywhere. (Plus it's peak travel season.) No doubt the airplane you were scheduled to fly out on was brought in by a crew that had finished its time on duty and left for home. The new crew was more than likely delayed on their incoming flight, sitting at an airport that was iced in, fogged in, or in the midst of a blizzard. They can't get there until they get there, (maybe not at all) and a "reserve" crew has to be called in. Each individual crew member has to be called by telephone, get into uniform, get in their car, and drive (sometimes an hour away or more) to the airport, get checked in, and get to the gate. If I were an agent in the midst of all that chaos, I can't imagine trying to explain this to a passenger in a line of 60 folks trying to rebook. While they shouldn't bite your head off, travel-savvy folks understand that it's a complicated process. They try to understand how tough it is for all concerned.

[HangOnKids]

24. When I Read This Post I Kept Thinking

You have got to be shitting me. Obviously does not fly much.

[TeamPooka]

31. Infrequent fliers...

[LuckyLib]

73. Yup. And there should be a separate security line for them

Along with folks with strollers and the very elderly who seldom fly.

[TeamPooka]

21. In any airport, rent a car or hotel situation being sympathetic is more productive than being pissed

I've been a pro traveler for many decades.
A long time ago I was in line for a NY to LA flight behind an irate angry guy at a gate check-in, when they had them back in the day.
This guy was being a real asshole to the gate agent about his seat assignment or some BS.
After he stepped away and she called me up with a tired "Next." I smiled at her and said
"I'm not with him but I'm sorry he put you through that. It was totally uncalled for. I'll take any seat you have on the plane as long it's NOT next to him." and I rolled my eyes his way with a funny face.
She bumped me up and put me in 1st Class.
Sympathy, humor and smiles are powerful tools for any traveler.

[FrodosPet]

26. Thank you

For being one of those people instead of one of THOSE people

[truebrit71]

69. I had a very similar experience flying from Dallas to Chicago at christmas-time...

When I got to the gate the agent was pretty frazzled, there was snow on the ground, which for Dallas was out of the ordinary, and the plane was going to be delayed getting into O'Hare. I smiled, told her not to worry, the weather and the delay weren't her fault and as long as I still got home I really didn't care how long it took, and suddenly I was bumped up into business class.

The funny thing was, one of the employees in the Dallas office I had been visiting whose husband was a pilot for United at the time, had tried, unsuccessfully, earlier in the day to see if she could get me an upgrade to business class....I got one anyway just for not being a dick...Wish everything worked like that!! :-D

[TeamPooka]

74. honey vs vinegar. only one works on people. nt

[Common Sense Party]

27. What EXACTLY did you say to her, and then what EXACTLY did she say in return

that made you feel she "bit your head off"?

[Gravitycollapse]

30. I asked her if we actually had a crew assigned...

As opposed to one that MIGHT make it. I said I was asking because I needed to know if the flight had the potential of being cancelled since I work in the morning. She stopped helping me and proceeded to tell me she didn't appreciate my tone. Sure I was not happy but I don't think this woman understood what it means to have a bad tone. I've seen people rip airline employees apart before. I was doing nothing of the sort. I just wanted to know if a crew was actually on its way and why they weren't there in the first place. I think that's a reasonable request. If she didn't have the answers she should have said so instead of beating around the bush trying to find flights for me in the morning when she knew I had to get in tonight for work.

I asked another employee and she literally made a story up that it was flying from JFK. It was actually from San Diego and had been at SFO on time for two hours prior.
None of these people understood that I just wanted to know what was going on. I didn't want to be lied to or pushed around. That's not good customer service.

[pintobean]

42. The tone argument again.

It's everywhere.

[Ms. Toad]

49. Well - that sounds pretty sarcastic to me.

It would have been better for her to remain polite, but satisfying your curiosity about why your flight doesn't currently have a crew will risk any chance you (and all of the passengers behind you) might have of getting on the next flight out.

When plane troubles cascade (as it sounds like was going on from others' reports in this thread), all the empty seats on any flight going anywhere near where you want to be for the next day (or three) get snatched up quickly - particularly since flights have been cut back and most are flying full or nearly full. Rather than being able to get you in the next morning, insisting on answers about why the crew isn't there may result in the tomorrow morning seat you (and the next person behind you, and so on) being given to someone else standing in another line. And then she will have to deal with an angrier you, since you will be two days late for work, plus angrier folks behind you who - believe me - are already annoyed with you.

Chill. It isn't her fault. She may not even have complete information. And it really doesn't matter why the crew isn't there. If it isn't, the plane can't fly - you may as well find out what the alternatives are.

[grasswire]

29. INFLUENZA is grounding some flight crews

Flights here and there are cancelled this week for crew influenza.

Tonight on the news, they recommended wearing a mask when flying this week. I wonder what TSA thinks about that.

[bluestateguy]

32. That happend to me once too

But the airline did comp us a hotel room for the night in Chicago.

[MADem]

37. All it takes is for one person not to show up, not the entire crew.

If there's no pilot, or they are one FA shy of FAA minimums, then the plane doesn't go.

Also, if the flight was a second leg of a longer flight, and they got delayed over the first leg, it could be that they'd go over their maximum work day if they participated in the second leg, and a new crew needs to be scared up to continue on.

If the city is one where flight crews are based, then there are often people who are on stand-by in that city and they can get a crew there in fairly short order. If the city is not one where flight crews are based, they will have to fly that crew in.

The employee likely doesn't know why they didn't show up--if it's a scheduling issue or someone stuck in traffic, or what. They're often the last to know.

[Motown_Johnny]

38. Your crew could have been working a flight that was delayed

and if so, you need to wait for them to arrive on that flight before they can transfer over and work your flight.

[Codeine]

41. There's a nasty flu going around, and it's been impacting pilot availability.

You don't want a sick person flying your jumbo.

[Glassunion]

43. A case of Affluenza?

Have you checked Boucle in Terminal #3, Burberry in International A, Coach in International A, Gucci in International A, Hermes in International G, Berman Reflection Room - A center for quiet self-reflection and meditation in the Main Hall, XpresSpa in Terminal #2, or the Yoga Room in Terminal 2?

[seveneyes]

47. Flying a plane is just another job

We all have missed a day or more from work. We are all at the mercy of ourselves.

[AngryAmish]

48. if the crew is commuting from texas and got delayed...

This is the price of cheap travel. Don't likw ir? Netjets.com

[MineralMan]

50. How is it possible?

Have you looked at the weather map for the US? No crew available can mean almost anything. Maybe the shuttle bringing the crew to SFO was in a terrible accident. The thing is that the gate agent has no idea why there is no crew available. The gate agent only knows that there is no crew available. Insisting that the gate agent tell you why ignores the fact that the gate agent is there to check boarding passes and see that everyone boards. That is it.

You were upset that the flight was delayed. OK. We're all upset when a flight we're on is delayed. The gate agent, however, cannot make a crew appear, and doesn't even know why one is not available. When the "Delayed" flag appears on the screen, you can go up an ask the gate agent how long the delay is likely to be, but he or she won't know that information either. When they figure it out, an announcement will be made in the gate area. Until then, the best plan is to get another cup of coffee or a Cinnabon, and use the free wireless access at the airport to good purpose.

I hope your plane finally took off.

[Marrah_G]

51. There have been many delays for weather

Also flight crews have a limited amount of hours in a day they are available to fly.

Also the people working in the airports have been having a hell of a week. Not only is it a high volume time due to the Holidays and school vacations, but the weather has also sucked. You were probably short and maybe even a bit snarky towards her in you admitted frustration and she, being a human being, decided she didn't like the way you were speaking to her.

[bowens43]

53. probably weather related

[Orrex]

54. If you had to fly a plane for minimum wage, you'd call off too!

And the United employee should take a flying leap--part of her job is dealing with frustrated customers, and if she can't manage that, then she's in the wrong line of work.



Seriously, that sucks for you.

[quakerboy]

55. Does it matter why?

your question of if they are en route, ie leading to "is this flight likely to be canceled?" is pertinant, though she might not know.

The why is fairly irrelevant. Unless you think she personally asked them not to show up for work today, all that does it put her on the defensive and set up an antagonistic situation.

That said, seems airline front line folk have gotten a bit too used to lying, based on my experiences. I get why. People are shits to customer service folk no matter what industry. But lying doesn't really make it any better. The plane will arrive when it gets there, and the people waiting for it will be roughly equivalently po'd if they have to wait an hour that they know is going to be an hour, or if they wait an hour that they were told would be 15 minutes. In the end it does is frustrate the good passengers and make the bad ones feel justified in their assholeness.

[snooper2]

56. so you rent a car yet?

[alc]

57. pilot over his monthly max hours

Probably not your situation since it's the 2nd of the month and you said the entire crew.

But I sat next to a pilot who was being flown to another city as a substitute. The pilot who was supposed to fly had to circle for an extra hour the night before because of weather. That put him over the FAA's monthly limit so he couldn't fly. The man I sat by was the closest pilot they could get as a replacement and my flight was delayed until he got to the airport.

I've also been on a flight that was delayed until enough of us gave up our seats for a crew that needed to get to my destination city. Their earlier flight that would have taken them to that city was canceled so that flight didn't have a crew. That's probably closer to your situation.

[LWolf]

58. I've spent too much time in my life

"delayed" in San Francisco; usually weather delays. I haven't flown anywhere in a decade, but I always do my best to avoid having to go through SF, which used to be difficult getting from So Cal to Oregon and back. This is the first time I've heard about THIS kind of delay, though. Too stringent cost-cutting?

[malaise]

61. Easy

Flight delay because of weather probably meant they had worked too many hours and needed the same number of hours off before starting another flight.

Happens a lot in winter.

[SheilaT]

64. Like just about every single company out there,

the airlines have cut staff, including flight crew, to the bare minimum. It used to be the the number of pilots and flight attendants on reserve were more than enough to fill in as needed. Not so much any more. By the end of the month, if there have been lots of delays of various kinds that eat up crew time, they might possibly be completely out of crew.

Same with airplanes themselves. They can't afford to keep several multi-million dollar planes out of service just for the times they're going to need a spare. So when a mechanical issue rears its ugly head, flights are going to be cancelled.

[salin]

65. Years ago I was stuck in Indianapolis (on the way to SFO)

because the crew was "stuck in snow and having trouble getting to the airport". We got this message and kept getting further delayed. After 2-3 hours were told that they were stuck in snow... IN PITTSBURGH~!!!

Eventually we were all re-routed on other flights and other airlines.

That was USAir (now a part of United).

[onenote]

72. USAir merged with American, not United.

[Brickbat]

66. How is this even a question?

[Brigid]

68. I live in Indianapolis.

Snow has been piling up since last night, and isn't forecast to stop until around 4pm. I haven't looked, but I'll bet the airport is in chaos with delays, cancellations, etc. That means problems at other airports. Add to that other airports experiencing weather problems, and the whole system is affected. I did hear a rumor that it's winter.

[Retrograde]

70. On a recent international trip, 5 of my 6 flights were delayed

Flight #1 was delayed because the pilot had the mechanics checking on something (fine, I don't want a plane with me in it to fall out of the sky)
Flight #2 was delayed first to wait for passengers whose flights were delayed (this was the trans-Atlantic leg, and I was one of those passengers) and then spent an additional hour getting de-iced.
Flight #3 was delayed due to heavy fog at the destination (observation: German passengers can be just as dickish and rude as Americans)
Flight #4 was delayed because it had to wait in line for the de-icing equipment at a small airport.
Flight #5 was delayed and I forget why: it was becoming the new norm by then
Flight #6 was actually on time, but because #5 was delayed I missed it. The airline rebooked me and got me home the same day - barely.

Since a lot of the flying I do goes through Chicago I've come to expect weather-related delays. I've seen flights cancelled because the pilots didn't want to fly through the tornado approaching the destination (one frustrated passenger started screaming that it was all Dick Cheney's fault, which didn't help matters any), and was once on a plane waiting for takeoff when a small tornado came through (the airport insisted on sending people out to inspect all the runways before letting anyone more, delaying us a further couple of hours). I haven't been delayed by a volcanic eruption or earthquake yet.

[2naSalit]

77. In case you hadn't noticed

the majority of the major airports from ORD to JFK and in between have been basically shut down since sometime yesterday. It takes time to recover from that storm in scheduling and placement of crew members as well as (mentioned above many times) the fact that hours of service also applies to human beings. You need to have some patience in this. It is not the direct fault of you, the airline or any of its employees that there are these types of delays - and I speculate that it is a combination of the reasons mentioned above - and you need to calm down and get a grip on yourself and let the person who snapped at you have some slack. It's rough on all of the employees at this point in time as it takes about a week to get things back to normal after a big weather event like the one that just happened. Not only that, there's another one churning in that direction so this could be a rinse and repeat series of events for the next several days.

If you can, bail on the flight plans and ask for a refund, then reschedule if possible. Not everything can march along to your parade when depending on others for transportation, it seems your safety is at stake so that should prompt you to be considerate of that fact.

Just sayin'

[Historic NY]

78. Its happened to me 3 times with United Express.

stuck in Ohare for hours....only to find they didn't have a crew, The last time 3 yrs ago a pilot from another carrier came and flew the packed plane to Detroit. We were then stranded there w/o a connecting flight. I won't fly any more from my local airport because the regional service sucks.

[Th1onein]

79. How is it possible? You're flying United, aren't you?

WORST AIRLINE in the world. Absolute worst. It took me 18 hours for a normally four hour flight with United one time. Never will fly United again. I spoke to people at the airport who told me even worse about their trips with United. One poor lady had been at airports trying to get from New York to Florida, for three days. She said United had ruined her vacation.

NEVER fly United.

[KatyaR]

82. Probably something between the weather and the new crew flight rules.

The rules take effect today.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2014/01/03/pilot-fatigue-mandatory-rest-new-faa-rules/4304417/

"New rules that require pilots to get a minimum amount of uninterrupted rest and limit the number of consecutive hours they can fly will go into effect on Saturday.

Airlines, which have had two years to prepare for the changes, say they are bracing for potential delays and cancellations, especially on days like today when bad weather is already mucking up flight schedules, the Wall Street Journal reports. If crews time out and relief pilots have to step in, that could cause disruptions, they say.

....

The new regulations, which don't apply to cargo pilots, require that pilots get at least 10 hours of rest between shifts. Eight of those hours must involve uninterrupted sleep. In the past, pilots could spend those eight hours getting to and from the hotel, showering and eating.

Pilots will be limited to flying eight or nine hours, depending on their start times. They must also have 30 consecutive hours of rest each week, a 25% increase over previous requirements."