Those aging United Airlines 777-200 aircraft with Pratt & Whitney engines may indeed be past their prime, as I found out the hard way after a very long night of rolling delays at San Francisco International Airport.

My United Redeye Canceled After Two Aging 777-200s Broke At SFO

I was flying to Chicago (ORD) and went out of my way to fly on a redeye that had a lie-flat bed, which meant an extra connection in San Francisco (SFO) instead of a nonstop to the Windy City from Los Angeles (LAX). These old 777-200s are not exactly cutting edge with eight-across seating in business class, but the seats are very comfortable and bring back fond memories of my childhood travels on United.

My flight up to SFO was delayed (thanks DOT…), leaving me no time to visit the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge prior to my fight. I had not eaten dinner and was hungry and was looking forward to the coq au vin I had pre-ordered for the flight.

Sitting at the gate, our designated boarding time of 10:40 pm came and went…boarding did not commence. We were told that there was an engine issue and to sit tight. By 11:30 pm, the captain came out and made an announcement that the aircraft needed to be taken out of service, but a replacement aircraft had been found and would shortly be ferried over from the maintenance hangar.

The updated departure time was 1:00 am.

By now it was pushing midnight and all lounges and restaurants were closed. I still had not eaten, but I sat tight trying to work and wait for my dinner onboard.

Around 12:40 am, we finally boarded and I settled into my seat for the 4-hour flight to Chicago. I wanted to eat and then hopefully get three hours of sleep…

Nope.

After the completion of boarding, the captain came on the PA again and said that this aircraft, another “vintage” 777-200 with Pratt Whitney engines, had to be taken out of service as well.

A collective groan rang out and passengers began gathering their belongings and making their way off the aircraft. At this point, the flight had not yet canceled.

I stopped by the flight deck on my out to the talk to the flight crew, who were enjoying their dinner (I was still waiting on mine). They were very nice and explained that the this time the issue was air conditioning. The captain said:

“They actually knew about this issue, which is why it was in the maintenance hangar and were too giddy in ‘finding a replacement’ and brining it over when they had not fixed the problem.”

Lovely….

The captain explained that while he and his first officer were no in danger of going “illegal” (timing out), several of the flight attendants were.

Sure enough, the flight canceled minute later, leaving 300 people trapped in SFO.

The gate agent, clearly annoyed, did not exactly display “Good Leads The Way,” though that’s a tough assignment at 1:00 am in the morning:

The gate agents made clear: there were no hotels available. They encouraged passengers to book their own rooms and request compensation later. I understand how difficult it is to obtain a room at 1:30 am for the night before…

I like turning lemons into lemonade and rebooked myself from San Francisco – Newark (EWR) – Chicago (via United’s chat service), with both flights in business class with lie-flat seating. SFO-EWR is now a Polaris Lounge, so I faced this choice:

Try to get a hotel room, pay for it, and fight for compensation later
- or
Sleep on a bench and head to the Polaris Lounge in the morning

The choice was easy for me: it was the airport bench for 3.5 hours. I had brought a duvet along and curled up and went to sleep. I’m sure I could have had United pay me back if the Grand Hyatt had rooms, but I didn’t want to waste the effort when it was already so late.