United Airlines responded to a flight delay by making a strategic choice to divert to Iceland for a crew change rather than delay the flight by a full day. That did not stop passengers from griping.
United Airlines Flight Diverts To Iceland For Crew Change In Order To Reach Newark Quicker, But Passengers Still Grip
UA125 from Athens (ATH) to Newark (EWR) faced a dilemma in Athens on Sunday when one of the pilots contracted COVID-19. The crew could not legally operate the flight all the way to Newark without running afoul of maximum work hour rules. The Boeing 787-10 requires three pilots to operate a flight of that length.
Thus, United could delay the flight by a day, leaving passengers in Athens, or divert to Reykjavik, Iceland (KEF) in order to exchange crews (a smart and out-of-the-box idea). United chose the latter option and the flight took off, with a planned stop in KEF from the very start.
Due to an unexpected crew scheduling disruption, we will now be making a quick stop in Reykjavik/Keflavik to change flight crews before continuing on to Newark. We’re sorry for this inconvenience, and your patience is much appreciated. Your estimated departure time out of Reykjavik/Keflavik is 9:20pm.
The plan was to quickly change crews in Reykjavik and continue the flight to Newark. Although the flight would arrive too late to make same-day connections, it would allow passengers to make early morning connections to their final destinations and allow passengers to get home more than a half day earlier than if the flight had been delayed a full day.
The crew change ended up taking nearly three hours in KEF, but the flight took off and landing in Newark at 1:38AM. The further in delay in Iceland was due to a sick child onboard.
This has been a long damn day. Looks like besides the crew timeout, now they had to remove a sick child from flight (hope they are okay). Our previous captain said the orig cpt had covid. Number of times we’ve been thanked for our “patience” now numbers 129. So tired. #UA125
— positivelynataliedonovan@gmail.com (@TashaDono) August 14, 2022
The onboard medical kit was used for the sick passenger and that required replacement before the flight could depart.
Passengers were understandably angry over the delay, but some of the complaints were a bit much. For example, one passenger complained on Twitter, “One stupid decision after another got us from Athens to a small airport in Reykjavik with no infrastructure to support this flight.”
United flight 125 is currently delayed by at least 8+ hours. One stupid decision after another got us from Athens to a small airport in Reykjavik with no infrastructure to support this flight. @united
— Indy Ghosh (@indyghosh) August 14, 2022
While I wouldn’t denigrate KEF in that way, few (if any) delays are going to be fun. Still, even though some passengers would have preferred to remain in Athens an extra day, I bet many were thankful to get to Newark only 9.5 hours late instead of 24 hours later. United did the best it could under the circumstances.
CONCLUSION
Delays are annoying, but I’m rather impressed at the way United handled this delay. Getting a crew ready in Reykjavik to take over the flight was a smart move and had the handover gone a little quicker, I bet even fewer passengers would have complained. Getting passengers to Newark 9.5 hours later instead of 24 hours later strikes me as the best of two difficult choices. Well done, United.
Ya know, kudos to UA. That was far more than most would do. Very creative and got people moving. It also gave them time to secure hotels etc at EWR for those connecting rather than scrambling in Athens with people waiting many hours to get a room. Curious if the original crew just flew with the plane as passengers or overnighted in Reykjavik.
As well, how did they get that relief crew to Keflavik so quickly? That’s pretty amazing! Not like it’s London.
They may have used the crew slated to do a regularly scheduled KEF=>EWR flight later on, which they’ll just fly another replacement crew out for later?
United only operated 757s out of KEF, they could not use a 757 crew to operate a 787-10. United deadheaded the crew in
Airlines will make choices that save them money even if it inconveniences the passengers mightily. If there were regulations that made airlines behave a certain way it would protect the passengers interest. But Americans live to be bent over and taken advantage of by capitalism, so good luck.
What would you have them do differently? Pilot got Covid can’t fly period. Reduced crew meant they weren’t legal to fly the whole way. They took another crew and got them there. Sounds like United did a great job. No matter what done people will never be happy.
Most PAX don’t know anything about the intricacies of airline operations and can’t appreciate that they only suffer a 10-hour, instead of a 24+ hour & sleeping in the airport delay. Of course, any connecting pax were stranded at EWR overnight, etc… all they know is that they have no control over the situation and are upset about that
Actually it would have been more like a 48 hour delay for most of those passengers. If United would have canceled the flight out of ATH on the 14, they would have then had to deadhead pilots from EWR on the 14th EWR-ATH flight that arrives in ATH on the 15th. That deadhead crew would not be legal to fly ATH-EWR until the 16th, and looking at the seat map there were no empty seats on today’s ATH-EWR flight, so it would have been a 48 hour delay for those passengers instead of a 10 hour delay.
These passengers have no idea how lucky they are that United was able find a crew deadhead them to KEF and that same crew then operate KEF-EWR all on the same day.
Does that count as 2 PQFs?
I would hope so!
I wonder if they got the crew from London, a couple hours and many daily flights to KEF. And also whether the LHR capacity embargo prevented the flight from stopping over.
Were the passengers stuck on the plane this entire time? If so that’s brutal
If the choice is to spend an extra day in Athens with hotel/food paid for by United, vs take a longer route back with a 3hr tarmac wait in KEF and then maybe or maybe not make early AM connections out of EWR (flights may have been full), I’m taking the extra day in Athens, without a doubt.
United is a clown show in every way.
I agree, very good decision. The sick kid caused the further delay.
My first trip to Iceland was on a diversion. I was so intrigued that I flew to KEF 5 years later.
Contrary to the passenger’s tweet, KEF is not a small airport with no infrastructure. It is a major airport, far more equipped that the likes of Wilmington, Delaware or Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport. SJF/BGSF/Kangerlussuaq, Air Greenland’s hub in Greenland is remote and with limited infrastructure.
If it weren’t for the sick kid, Gander might have been better because it’s shorter for the EWR crew to travel to.
Hey, why are you picking on Lovell Field? Wilmington I can understand.
Lovell Field/Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport has short runways, not much airport food, not so good airline service and is generally a sorry place aside from the dome in the terminal.
I would not mind a diversion to KEF. In fact, make it a day diversion on UA’s dime so I can hit Blue Lagoon next door,
Well done United, indeed. They were able to get away from paying EU compensation by getting the flight out and instead only covering hotels in EWR
UA would get complaints either way. Some folks want to get to the destination ASAP, other folks are kinda hoping that rather than a delay they’ll get an extra day in Athens on UA’s dime.
It sounds like UA actually tried to solve the problem, and I give them credit for that. Sometimes you’re just doomed from the start– pilot gets covid, then passenger gets ill in-flight, that’ll do it.
Getting into Newark in time to have multiple options for re-routing connections seems like a win to me.
IDK.. There has to be more to the story. It left 5 hours late from Athens, taxi’d for over an hour before takeoff, diverted to KEF to pickup new crew, kid gets sick and delays the further departure and ultimately lands at EWR at 01:38 the next day. By the time you clear immigration, collect baggage, and then get a new boarding pass (let’s assume the computer was on top of things), you’re 03:00 for maybe a 06:00 flight out. You sleepwalk through security onto another flight and get home at who-knows-when. At best, United kept the people moving, but it was by no means a pleasant experience. I’d be curious if an EU261 claim would be paid depending on all of the extenuating circumstances. A quick Google on ‘EU261 crew sickness’ comes back with some results saying no. Hope they all get a voucher or better.
Well, they shouldn’t be that disappointed because when EU261 kicks in – that 8-9 + hour delay will result in some serious cash.
They should be saying “thank you, United” because some of them will probably get more back than the original cost of the airline ticket.
Lol I would much rather have the day delay. Especially with kids. Sounds brutal. Isn’t that like 8am Athens time when they arrived? Imagine being in economy with kids for that.
Can’t be that many people who can’t just have a day delay without serious consequences.
Like landing at 138am instead of 11am doesn’t really add much value 🙂
Does *anything* stop passengers from griping…??
Like trying to stop a cat from scratching things. It’s just what they do, bro.
Hi Matthew!
I was on this flight with my 11 year old twins and husband. It was an absolute nightmare!!! From the beginning of the United texts communications notifying us of all the flight changes…to the airport situation…and finally to our inflight experience. Horrible! I am MORE THAN happy to give an interview on our terrible experience with United Airlines – play by play!
Yes please. I will reach out via email.
Sounds good!