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 route, so I faced this choice:
- Try to get a hotel room, pay for it, deal with the hassle of getting there, 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 and I was so tired.
I actually slept till 6:00 am and sleep well, so it could have been worse.
Arising, I stretched and made my way over the G Gates where I entered the Polaris Lounge for a shower and breaks.
I may be pushing 40, but I guess I can still sleep on airport benches.
Still, I wish United would maintain their planes…
I can’t imagine sleeping on an airport bench. That sounds miserable. Those aircraft and United’s 757-200 planes need to be sent to the desert.
I still love them…just wish they were more reliable.
The 772s were pulled off LAX-ORD which is why I fly up to SFO now.
Matt that’s like saying “I loved Spirit Airlines except for their unreliability”… because Spirit wouldn’t be Spirit unless they were crappy and unreliable. Same is the case with UAL’s old torn up planes.
But I mean unlike Spirit, these planes are such a pleasure to fly on (when they work).
SFO airport is decent by US standards. The lounges are good, and my kids enjoy the Robot Matcha making machine located between the International terminal and the Harvey Milk terminal.
We avoid LAX at pretty much all costs, and always fly from SNA to SFO as part of a 1 stop itinerary to places further afield.
I should clarify that are strategy above is only if there are no non-stops from SNA.
Unfortunately most of the older Pratt powered 777’s (the domestic ones) are grounded due to lack of spare parts as that engine is so uncommon. United is expecting to bring some back later this year once more parts become available, but for now there is very little slack in that particular fleet.
Are parts being manufactured or where will the parts come from?
Apparently they’ve been parasitizing spares from aircraft they have parked in the desert, but those don’t last forever. The PW4000 is ancient in aircraft engine terms, and given Pratt’s issues with its contemporary models it’s probably no surprise that they don’t supply new, OEM parts anymore.
I’m surprised you find the -200 business class seats comfortable. Less than two weeks ago I flew on a United 777-200 DEN-HNL in seat 1B. The seat was worn out (thin cushioning) and very narrow. I’m 5’8″ and weigh 187 pounds so it’s not like I’m grossly obese. The foot well was so small that lying on my back in bed mode, both feet wouldn’t fit in the well. The seat was so narrow that turning over onto my side was no easy task.
The upside was that we had a marvelous cabin crew, with FA’s who had never been to HNL before so they were energetic and fun to fly with. And the food was pretty tasty, too.
Where in SFO did you sleep? I can’t imagine you slept on those benches in the middle the T3 concourse in your photos…
I slept right on those benches I pictured…I travel with a duvet and I put it over my head, put my AirPods on, and managed to sleep…brought back memories of traveling in my early 20s.
The glamorous life of a travel blogger…
Yep…
Wow…. I flew on one of United’s 777-200s just once (in 2024), and there were no issues–flight was on time, etc. Now I feel like I was really lucky!
Next time you will fly non stop to Chicago instead of joy flying to different city and getting delayed many hours.
Not so fast … did you see what alternate flight(S) he booked ? SFO – *EWR* – ORD ? ….Not only a backtrack but diving into the densest air traffic area of the US ,.. Looks like a glutton for punishment … With all the flying/traveling Matthew does, you’d think he’d tolerate a ride in the back of the nonstop bus with the rest of us unwashed in order to save a lot of hours, not to mention the increased IROPS grief/probability by circuitous connections …. lol
What can I say, after all these years I still love to fly.
And yes, I sat on the tarmac in Newark for 2.5 hours! 😉
You’re gonna be back at 1K with unnecessary PQF like that!
It is not just UA’s old 777s. I had two UA “Max’s” in a row go mechanical at SFO earlier this week. Pilots refused to fly both planes and both planes had to off load the pre-boards when they “discovered” the MX issue(s). United having systemic systemwide maintenance issues this week??
thank you, Matthew, for the article that should shove some humility up the backside of the UA fan club.
Ben and Matt absolutely love finding fault with DL’s NPS and other elements but never bother to tell us how crappy UA’s operation is precisely because of its aging aircraft.
The 777 was a great plane – in its day. But UA was one of the few airlines that chose the Pratt engines and, to no surprise, Pratt doesn’t support the engine now that the few other remaining airlines that operated that engine have retired it.
UA has an incurable fear or FOMO so they won’t put the 772s or the aging 320/319s out to pasture.
AA might struggle to recover from IROPs and DL’s on-time and cancellation rate might have dropped by a couple percentage points but UA still has far more major maintenance issues than any other US airline because of their unwillingness to retire aircraft.
DL has older aircraft but has engine maintenance contracts to power almost all of its fleet. To no surprise, their mechanical dispatch reliability is much higher.
Sorry you were subjected to UA’s poor fleet management.
be glad you didn’t check bags – since UA has the worst baggage handling ratio in the industry.
There is it! All the usual claims – so glad you didn’t leave out “Baggage Handling”. That filled out my TD Bingo card!
And, Tim – there are, once again, more inaccuracies in your post:
1) United doesn’t have the “worst baggage handling ratio in the industry”. American does, according to the latest DOT statistics (1st Q 26).
2) United HAS been putting the 319s/320s “out to pasture” as you put it (and that’s rich, coming from the supporter of an airline known for buying older, used planes on the cheap… how are those Delta 717’s and 767-300’s doing, by the way?) Anyhow, check out planespoters.net if you don’t believe me. The original order for United’s AirBus narrowbodies was 205 planes, split almost evenly between the two. As of today, 67 321NEOs have been delivered, and … (wait for it…) 63 319s/320s have been retired (and an additional 10 show as parked). It’s nearly a 1-for-1 replacement, not a flying of old planes that need to be retired.
3) Several sites confirm United has 10 Pratt-powered 777s currently parked. The conclusions I can draw are that it’s not affecting the cancellation rate (the planes aren’t scheduled on flights, after all) and only affecting the bottom-line profits. But if United management didn’t have a plan to effectively use them, I’d would have expected them to trigger the A350 orders they have been sitting on for years. They could have firmed them up years ago (to be receiving them now) when the Pratt problem first came up – but they didn’t. I’ll bet the maintenance department has a plan.
It does suck to have a flight cancel in the end like this, especially so late at night. Sounds like Matt handled it like a champ and a travel pro (<– Not a plug for the bag). But Delta still had a far higher cancellation rate – or so says the DOT (1st Q 26: United cancelled 2.57% of scheduled flights, Delta cancelled 3.70%)
poor paul is trying desperately to fight the genuine criticism – and failing.
UA”s baggage handling in 2025 was the worst of the US industry. 1Q2025 doesn’t change the trajectory.
AA and UA have both long had horrific baggage handling – and labor relations.
It is what it is.
DL’s 763s have engines that operate unlike UA’s 772s and 319/320s many of which are grounded because of a lack of engine parts.
and, no, UA doesn’t have a plan to deal w/ the PW 777s; and they pissed off Rolls Royce so there will be no A350 deliveries to UA.
just accept it.
UA is a second rate airline that has no strategic planning and a bunch of rust buckets for aircraft.
More rookie mistakes than a preseason game.
Which ones were those?
I am impresssed that you get food om a redeye.. I usually do redyes from SFO to ATL after 9:30 pm and have Never gotten a meal on DL!!
you missed that he didn’t get one either.
all the promises in the world don’t matter if the plane doesn’t leave the gate
But he would have gotten one had the plane left the gate. Big dofference.
Kinda like how fast Starlink is but it only exists on 10% of United’s mainline fleet
Promises does not mean delivery
“Promises does not mean delivery”
Remember you said that, when Delta’s Amazon LEO is delayed past the “Coming in 2028!” date, is slower to be installed than expected once it finally starts, and operates at slower rates than Starlink provides.
And remember you said that, when the A350-1000’s don’t make Delta the dominant carrier in the Pacific instead of United.
And remember you said that, when the meltdowns and abnormally long recoveries occur only with Delta this summer, despite your assertions they’ve “fixed” the issues with pilots, that have caused Delta to fall towards the bottom of the list on cancellations so far this year.
it is clear, Paul, that you can’t even accurately quote what was said. No wonder you can’t come to the right conclusions.
poor you.
to be pitied
really
Amazon Leo will be delayed even further. Bezo’s Blue Origin rocket carrying 48 satellites for Leo blew up during launch at Cape Canaveral on Friday.
To the attenion of Scott Kirby & Co.!
For aviation enthusiasts → UA currently has 74 veteran B777-200s (average age: 27 years) in its fleet.
Let’s remember that even if a lounge at a major transit hub airport operates 24/7, they usually restrict entry to 3 or 4 hours before your scheduled flight time. They will not allow you to check in 12 hours early just to sleep there overnight unless you have a specific, approved connection ticket.
If there was any airport I’d be stuck at in America, it’d be SFO. Not that this would happen due to SFO being my home airport.
Greetings to the great SF and the great SFO!
Please let us know what compensation United offers.
I’ll do a post on it…was pathetic.
Matthew should have skiped SFO and flown LAX to EWR instead.
I heard (according to Tim) UA is currently flying 737-900 on that route.
Anybody remember Bob Six and Charlie Bucks’ Chicago Expressway service from LAX late 60s, early 70s?
UA screwed up big time, even by its fanboy Matt’s standards. Imagine the rants if it were AA or DL!
The horror! The horror!
I agree with the agent in that if the passenger does not have checked luggage, then their app is the best tool to either rebook, or cancel and refund the ticket. I feel bad for the passengers who do not use the app, but would rather wait for an in-person agent. I passed through SFO Memorial Day Weekend, and the Polaris Lounge now opens at 5am, and when I went there after arriving from HNL (continuing to NRT in Polaris), the morning back of early Asia and Australia flights were slowly trickling in, and the lounge was quiet. It did begin filling up through towards the 8a hour.
how can it be that supposedly tech savvy UA can’t figure out how to reroute bags to match what a passenger rebooks in the app?
It is a rookie mistake if you slept on an airport bench or you are in serious financial distress kid. It can only be one of those two things.
As for Spectrum Boy, well planes break unfortunately. My own DL flight last night was delayed an hour over missing crew from a broken inbound. It happens.
What is more telling is you always talk bags (I don’t care I don’t check them) but you never talk about DL leading all the airlines in federal racial bias complaints, which it does. Hmm…
Signed,
Your humble teacher
You think I could not afford a hotel? It was 2am and not worthwhile to me…I just wanted to sleep and I can sleep anywhere. The annoyance of trudging to even the Grand Hyatt was too much of a hassle versus going to sleep, knowing that I had Polaris Lounge access when I woke up.
Then you should not complain about it; it is still poor planning. You either can sleep on airport benches and floors honestly, or you can blog about it as if you are a victim, when it is again, either poor planning or it seems on-purpose for the blog now…ok.
Sorry, but this comment is even more idiotic than your first one. I value sleep and saved myself at least an hour and a lot of stress by going right to sleep.
Matthew
I have to compliment you. Tim has been referencing your article here all over the internet as a counter to Delta’s above industry average cancellation rate
well done!
Matthew is far more balanced in his coverage of the industry even w his UA preference. And he writes about economy travel something Ben would never do
lol. ok Tim
And yet you spend most of your day commenting there…
But I do love Matthew’s website as well. We agree!
no, I don’t post anywhere near more than a couple minutes per day on ALL websites. You just are inefficient.
I’ve done that twice in the past two years. Once in RDU and once in DFW. At times, when you rebook on the first flight out in the morning, it is just too much of a hassle to leave the airport, find transportation to the hotel, get three or four hours in the hotel and then reverse the process. I slept well in RDU (on the floor), but not at all in DFW. Even at 70 years old, I can still manage this – although hardly desirable. Sometimes it’s just more sensible than scrambling for the hotel.
Agreed.
Totally understand why you slept in the terminal rather than schlepping to and from a nearby hotel. Perhaps dumb question, but what did you do with your belongings while you slept, especially with a blanket over your head and AirPods on? Did you leave them at your side and trust that no one would steal them? I assume you had your laptop and such in your bag.
I am glad you got some good sleep and have a good attitude about the delay.
Here’s hoping your subsequent travels are smooth.
I did just leave my bag by my side, which included my laptop. A security risk, yes, but the computer is double protected (Apple password plus Duo Push) and tracked, so I took the chance (there were also security cameras everywhere overhead)
In December 2016 I slept (or rather tried to sleep) in a chair at DEN in the landside part of the airport. My Frontier flight to MCI was cancelled due to weather at MCI. I got a refund from Frontier and the next morning I got a ticket on American to MCI with a connection at DFW. I had to wait 12 hours the previous evening and night for Frontier to return my two bags I checked. It got down to -11 degrees F outside at DEN. A night to remember in Denver.
No widebody service between LAX and ORD?
Not anymore, sadly.
Hey Matthew, great write-up and respect for being able to crash on those SFO benches at 2 AM—sometimes saving the hassle of logistics is worth more than a short hotel sleep! Regarding the Pratt & Whitney engine availability issues that everyone is debating in the thread, I noticed a technical breakdown discussing regulatory and verification terms that might impact fleet management or regional operations. Does anyone know if the newer fleet compliance standards mentioned in the documentation could affect how international carriers handle component sourcing or leasing agreements when their domestic aircraft are grounded like this?
I’m going to try and find out.
Try the new Air India Maharaja Star Alliance Lounge in SFO Terminal A next time.
I did! I’ll publish a review soon.