It was a late night at Los Angeles International Airport last night. Very late. In the end, I drove home and climbed into my own bed at 3:15 am. But for six hours I gave it the good fight in an attempt to reach Newark on United Airlines despite a cacophony of delays. But the trip was not meant to be.
United Airlines LAX Delay: Just One Of Those Nights…
I had two appointments in Newark today. One was for an interview (stay tuned) and the other was to preview United’s new airport lounge in Terminal A, which opens later this week. On Sunday, I booked a ticket via Washington Dulles on a redeye because I figured that maximized my shot of an upgrade (the cabin was booked 12 out of 20 in business class).
The upgrade cleared on both the Los Angeles – Washington Dulles and Dulles – Newark segments, seemingly validating my routing choice. In the back of my mind, though, I did see the weather forecasts. A large storm was heading for the Atlantic seaboard and the lightning makes travel particularly difficult (ground stops are necessary during lightning due to safety concerns for ground personnel).
Yesterday afternoon the texts from United began. My Los Angeles to Washington flight was delayed, which would lead to a misconnect in Washington.
No problem, I booked on a delayed Los Angeles to Newark flight (originally set to depart at 4:30 pm but delayed to 9:30 pm) that would get me to Newark nonstop and in a lie-flat bed. That’s a win.
However, I noticed that my aircraft was coming from Newark and not due in until 9:10 pm. No way we were leaving at 9:30 pm when the aircraft had to be de-boarded, cleaned, and catered.
So I took it easy and did not rush to the airport, arriving just before 9:00 pm. Sure enough, my flight was pushed back to a 10:00 pm departure.
But as I walked into the terminal, the flight was canceled. Crew availability was blamed.
I went up to a kiosk to look at rebooking options…there were none.
With no options, I began walking toward the parking lot to drive home.
However, just before I reached my car I received a text message noting that I had been rebooked.
Ironically, I was rebooked on my original United flight from Los Angeles to Washington with a new connection four hours later to Newark. The LA to Washington flight was now delayed further to 12:30 am. I had lost my lie-flat seat and not brought my bedding along (United only offers bedding on its premium transcontinental flights), but for the sake of my meeting, I was ready to roll with it.
Small problem: our aircraft was coming from Houston and that flight was very delayed.
Hard to depart at 12:30 am 12:45 am when your aircraft does not arrive until 1:23 pm.
Then the Houston – LA delay got worse.
I figured we would cancel, but another aircraft was found. Instead, our aircraft would be arriving from Las Vegas.
For the next couple of hours, I sat in the United Club waiting–not very productive at all. The soup and salad were not bad…
The delay from Las Vegas kept creeping longer.
Just before midnight, the flight from Las Vegas to LA canceled.
I was not surprised considering the reason that the flight was delayed in the first place was to wait for the crew from UA372 (see what I circled in yellow above)…which also canceled.
My pilots were hanging out in the United Club prior to the flight (yes, I had a hunch and spoke to them) and when the Las Vegas flight was canceled, they got up and left. I asked if our IAD flight was still going and they said yes…
At 12:15 am the lounge closed and the staff kicked everyone out…
I proceeded to the gate where I knew the flight would cancel, but like a slow-moving train wreck, I just could not help myself from watching what unfolded next.
At a nearby gate in Terminal 7, Los Angeles – Melbourne canceled because a tire burst during pushback and the captain felt “too tired” to continue the flight (ah, contract negotiation season…).
There was also a medical emergency on a flight to Chicago…
As for our flight, the rolling delay continued and a United Club agent told me before the lounge closed that the internal chatter about the flight was that it would cancel because there was no alternate aircraft at 1:00 am at LAX.
And eventually, the flight did cancel, just before 2:00 am, not that you would know based on the app.
It took the app another 45 minutes to notify us of the cancellation.
United auto-rebooked me this afternoon to Newark via Denver and Las Vegas, including a redeye. No thank you.
By the way, my return from Newark to Los Angeles via Washington also would have been messy. In fact, while driving home I received a text that my return flight from Newark to Dulles this afternoon had cancelled. I had a lie-flat bed from Dulles to Los Angeles, which I hated to miss.
My Takeaways
Here are my takeaways from this incident:
- Traveling during a storm is not advised (well, duh)
- Delays compound as the day goes on – getting out early in the day seems like your best bet
- Rolling delays are not to give false hope, but to avoid foreclosing possibilities, even if remote
- I’ll miss being in Newark today, but am happy to be at home
Like my recent Delta delay, I feel like United did the best it could in a very unfortunate situation. Yes, this was a bad operational day for United and today is not looking much better. We’ll see if it approaches meltdown status, but when the weather does not cooperate (unlike the mechanical delay with Delta), there is only so much you can do. I appreciated that my fellow passengers remained remarkably calm, considering the painful nature of the rolling delay.
On the one hand, there was a high likelihood from the start that my flight would cancel. But I don’t blame United for not canceling it right away, because it was actively looking for another aircraft and the crew was there waiting. It was worth looking and not canceling until all possibilities were foreclosed.
But if this foreshadows what we have to expect this summer, I am really going to make every effort to stay home as much as possible (I do have some international trips planned…nothing domestic yet).
CONCLUSION
There’s a piano just past the Terminal 7 security checkpoint at LAX.
I took a few years of piano lessons as a child, but one of my greatest regrets is stopping it. Today I really can’t play more than the simple melodies of a few hymns by ear.
But on my way out early this morning, I had to stop for a moment and play the melody to Beethoven’s Ode To Joy. It just seemed so fitting after such a long day…
None of the events that precipitated your eventual cancellation and abandonment of the trip are unprecedented, they’re not even unusual. Every single one of them are completely routine, completely foreseeable, and to be expected. Even a combination of them, all, are going to happen, frequently, and frequently concurrently. The airlines know this. It’s part of their business model.
The airlines are simply not building enough slack into their systems.
This is exactly what let to last summer’s meltdowns. The DOT said they were going to get the airlines to correct their mistakes. They clearly have not.
What you experienced is simply a example of bad management, based on bad business choices. Expect more of this. Check back in end of August and see how the (entirely predictable) busy summer travel season has gone.
Huge difference between Delta and United delays. Delta was due to a mechanical problem which I would call out of their control. United was about not being able to manage their crew schedules. Too much dirt the best airline in the world.
I don’t understand why you think that United should have a fleet of aircraft and crews on reserve. Sure, perhaps there should be more slack in the system, but when storms cause delays, there is always ripple effect.
Ok, what did I miss here? “But as I walked into the terminal, the flight was canceled. Crew availability was blamed.”.
“Your flight was canceled due to a crew related scheduling disruption.”
Why did you assume I was expecting UA to have a fleet of aircraft’s on reserve? This was a crew problem at least from what I read above. Find new crews. Move your ass. They love to blame their failures on others. I am telling you I have been flying Delta for almost 20 years and I can count on one had the disruptions I had with them. I cannot say the same with a few flights on United. Maybe being based on a Delta hub helps but that is just my experience.
The crew availability was because they timed out because the inbound aircraft was so late due to the East Coast weather and the FAA staffing problems.
Believe me, I’m not trying to cover for United…the last couple of days suggest the schedule is stretched far too thin. But at the same time, I don’t know how much sense it makes to scale back operations in fear of weather that may or may not materialize.
It’s not that they should just have cruise standing by everywhere, although they actually do have standby cruise and a number of their hubs, it’s the way that they manage delays and cancellations and people’s expectations. You seem to be giving them a pass almost as a fluff piece to make them seem like they’re doing the right thing and they’re not. In your article you specifically state that the app didn’t even update for 45 more minutes. You also specifically state that it continued to lie to you as to the timing of your cancellation. You point out that there’s no possible way that you could have been taking off at 9:00 or whatever it was when you’re playing wasn’t even there. You point out they could not deplane replay and cater simultaneously in that window of whatever it was 20 minutes. So this feels a lot more like a defensive United piece than it does calling out the managerial issues. They cannot manage the staff and they cannot manage the ground operations unless everything is perfect. That by itself is a fault and needs to be fixed. Provide reasonable times and reasonable delays. They know exactly when they don’t have a plane or a crew and they need to provide a reasonable estimate of the time that they’re going to be leaving instead of this continued rolling nonsense. It’s not optimistic it’s impossible
According to EU regulations – and before you say it, yes, I know the US is outside of the EU – mechanicals are actually airline’s responsibility and rightly so: this is their problem to find a timely solution, not for passengers to think “oh those things happen”. Of course, the same goes for crew scheduling issues.
A mehanical problem is not out of Delta’s control. It is within DL’s control because Delta does maintainence in-house.
I agree with what Dick Bupkiss said. It rains in other parts of the world too, but that never seems to cause meltdowns to the extreme, and with such regularity, that we see in the United States.
I am not sure I agree. Look at the number of cancellations within China each day…and I’ve seen many European meltdowns as well (British ones too).
There is simply a lot more air traffic in the U.S. than in other parts of the world. And also more varied weather conditions. Europe doesn’t get hit with massive squall lines which take out huge chunks of airspace like in the U.S.
Maybe it’s just the sheer number of domestic segments I take in N. America these days, but I think it’s odd to go five segments in a row without any delay, be it weather, crew, ATC, mechanical, whatever. I just don’t experience it with a frequency anywhere near that outside of N. America. Fortunately I’ve always managed to avoid BA’s madness, nor have I had to deal with a strike in Germany or France. Perhaps I’m lucky.
Maybe we should chat about my experience flying United over the last 3 years to a small town in Colorado which I do on almost a monthly basis. I have horror stories about me connecting in Denver that my work team put together a game where they bet if I encountered flight problems or not during my journey. To summarize, flying through DEN in the summer is a total nightmare. Yes, summer. Thunderstorms disrupt everything and turns United into a caos. They hold the upcoming flights into Denver at their origin but they don’t accommodate their connections for that disruption. Thus, over 60% of the times when the incoming flight into DEN are delayed, you will miss your connection. Simple as that. Why? Because United has a very poor way to manage those disruptions. How about you land in DEN and run to get your connection to just hit your face into a closed gate that was closed 30 seconds ago? You see the plane there, you have over 10 passengers arriving at the gate after running like crazy to see a gate agent absolutely ignore them all? How do you feel about riding a 3 hour taxi to your destination because United closed the boarding door on you while the plane was still there? No, this didn’t happen once, twice or three times. This happened a lot. Had to rent a car and drive, had to stay at the airport hotel, had to ride on a taxi, or had to just cancel the trip all together. Thus, they have huge issues with their schedule and crew management. Their crews time out a lot and the weather really disrupts their operations more than other airlines.
I don’t dispute your issues, but I fly 50+ United segments each year and I rarely unto in problems while my first Delta flight in a year resulted in an 18-hour delay. Our experience is different.
United’s Connection Saver algorithm really helps to reduce the sorts of situations you describe in which the aircraft door is slammed in the face of a running passenger.
Apparently United’s Connection Saver algorithm does not work that well when you have gate agents that just want to go home. A few times I received a text from United when my plane landed saying they were holding the connecting plane for me. BS!!!! Showed that text to the gate agent for her just to ignore me.
United connection saver algorithm is great when it works. However I’ve had the door slammed in my face after being told to run literally from terminal a to terminal c on a connection. Why was it late? It wasn’t whether it was operational issues from United’s end. A flight management computer didn’t work and then the computers in the ground control system weren’t working and then they didn’t have a gate for us upon landing for 40 minutes. Again all operational issues. Operational management needs to be relieved of their duty. I fly more than 80 segments a year and am 1K member. From the start of this year forward it’s been very very bad due to non-weather related issues, due to management issues
I would cry for those Melbourne bound pax… that flight isn’t even daily!
Agreed. Honestly, I feel for the pilots as they fight for a new contract, but I really don’t like what the captain did last night on UA98.
I hope you write about this and identify it better. Perhaps these pilots making $400K a year might rethink messing with people’s lives and trips to demonstrate to all of us that the greed is strong here.
I was on UA98 last night and would be really curious to hear more about what you know, if you’re willing to share. I shared what passengers were told in the “UA Canceled Intl Flights” forum on Flyertalk, which was presented as a standard case of pilots timing out (after the flat tire happened), but it sounds like the story is perhaps far more nuanced than that.
It’s just not that simple. Captain could have continued but decided he was “fatigued” which is so convenient during contact negotiation and can always be held up as being “safe,” but it’s a work slowdown. I have this from a very good source.
Interesting (and I’m not doubting you at all!). So we were told that 1230am (or so) for the pilots was the FAA deadline…but given what you’re saying, did 1230am not really matter in the way they said, or was it something else?
I’m told it was not the FAA, but the captain claiming fatigue.
At least he didn’t die mid-flight like the pilot that did that last November seconds after takeoff from Chicago O’Hare. Or the co-pilot that died on an Air Canada flight this month on the 7th. Or the air steweardess that died mid-flight on the 21st of this month. Or like the private jet pilot that apparently died mid-flight before crashing the jet and killing all onboard earlier this month. No frost in the windows = no loss of cabin pressure. The passengers probably had zero idea what was happening until the plane went vertical.
So, at least this pilot just called it a day. A lot of the shotted get very, very tired. Pilots are tough and they don’t tend to succumb to that. But then, they don’t tend to die mid-flight from cardiac arrests like they are doing these days after the shots, either.
That’s exactly why I have minimized my flights to the East Coast this summer on UA and for those I really have to do get an early connection through Denver in the morning and come back via Chicago super early in the morning.
Ah the old United creeping delay, I’ve experienced it many times.
Also that is probably the most soulless rendition of the 9th Symphony melody I’ve ever heard.
@ Chi Hsuan. I found Matthew’s Ode to Joy rendition to be a perfect ending for his experience that day, if we made a traveler’s short film. And props to Matthew for at 3:00 am for getting up there and doing it for us.
And I was exhausted at 2am! 😉
Have someone make this post a short!
I agree! It suits the situation very well.
Reading through some of the posts on the United Airlines Subreddit it looks like Newark just completely fell apart the last few days.
https://old.reddit.com/r/unitedairlines/
As a long time United 1k and a Million Mile Newark flier this does not surprise me at all. Flying out of Newark has become a challenge at best. United seems to have a big problem keeping their Newark operations on schedule. Their on-time record and operational issues with their Newark-Sao Paulo flights is terrible (I travel frequently to Brazil) and most FLL flights. I’m traveling this week to Europe and my flight hasn’t operated on-time for over 2 weeks. My advice for Newark is to book morning flights as often as your schedule will allow and use of the other hubs for connections as they are better operated.
Also, I especially like their creativity with the delay notices which often are ridiculous.
This post reminds me why I avoid EWR at all costs. The airport is a basket case. Perhaps UA has improved its service and isn’t the Soviet-style misery it was for years, but Newark is the most delay prone airport in the country and it will not take much to tip the scales there. Yes, the thunderstorm activity and staff shortages are more widespread, but EWR is problematic on a clear, sunny day, with apron movements, and so forth. Flew LAX-JFK yesterday, departed 4 minutes early, arrived 22 minutes ahead of schedule. No real problems at JFK other than the usual conga line of flights departing to Europe which created some slow taxiing around the terminals.
Had similar comedy of errors trying to get thru DEN on UA connecting flights last night. Cancelled flights with no rebooking options and no customer service. Bit a bullet. Made them refund the tix, and bought a way more expensive ticket on a NS Delta flight. It was on-time and got me home in the early AM. Delta got me there when UA failed last night. And Kirby says the blame is solely on the FAA??? WTF?
It’s because while most United flights fly out of EWR, most Delta flights fly out of JFK, so I assume you flew Delta out of JFK. That said, JFK and EWR are far enough from each other that they can experience different weathers. This means FAA can have different attitudes to JFK and EWR, restricting EWR more than JFK. These restrictions mean that EWR will allow less arrivls and departures than JFK, also a lot less than foreseen leaving United with no choice but to cancel.
I’ve been stuck at jfk with storms out of chicago delaying operations. It is funny to see your flight listed as on time and departing in 20mins when the incoming flight is an hour away.
I once booked my parents in law on air NZ biz from Auckland to Los Angeles with a separate paid ticket on United from lax to ord. Unfort due to medical issues they had to cancel the trip. I cancelled the air NZ redemption on LifeMiles but kept the United segment live hoping for a delay or change in route allowing me to cancel it for free. Lo and behold on the day there were storms on the east coast and their plane got more and more delayed until finally it almost got close to the two hour delay and eligible for cancellation. It ended up showing a 1h47 delay but the United phone agent allowed me to cancel for free Very proud of myself ha
United at it’s finest. I can see why Scott Kirby is so highly rated as a CEO.
With regard to EWR they are short ATC controllers in New York Centers airspace. The FAA recently decreed that controllers working at The New York Air Route Traffic Control Center located on Long Island must move to Philadelphia for a 2 year “temporary assignment” many of them said no and quit. And yesterday due to thunderstorms over arrival gate for EWR at Williamsport the FAA cut arrivals by 40% and departures by 75% forcing flights to divert to IAD, ORD, BOS, etc. as a result crews were scattered everywhere. UA tries to staff for these contingencies but there is no way you can have staffing when there are massive diversions. A lot of people like to blame UA but there is a lot that really is out of their control.
Whew! That was close! You almost ended up in New Jersey.
it’s ok things happened in life
when you say you have appointment you meant fly for fun appointment or to earn status appointment?
you can always fly on the different days because you can change your trip blogger appointment to any-day of the week i assume
you’ll ended up with airlines comp voucher for your next trip & full fare rebooked toward your premier
anyways so that’s win win for you
I wish – they rebook in full fare, but it credits in the original fare class. And no compensation either.
But I will take the trip soon.
“ It was worth looking and not canceling until all possibilities were foreclosed.”
But why keep up the charade after the SFO-LAS flight canceled at 11:50 pm? Surely they would have known by them there weren’t any spare aircraft around at that hour? Feels to me like they strung all of you along for an extra 2 hours unnecessarily.
I flew through EWR both Sunday morning and Tuesday morning and it was the worst I’ve ever seen it. Sunday morning had 100s of folding cots scattered all over Terminal C with weary passengers crashed on them. Lines for customer service were longer than even winter storm times.
Then on my return flight Tuesday morning, I got word when I was still on the first flight (from GSO) that my flight to BOS was delayed. So I looked at the EWR-BOS schedule and saw all but two of the shuttles were canceled for the entire day. Uh oh! Very bad sign. So I pivoted to looking for a car rental to drive home. None to be found anywhere in the Newark through Rockland County NY area. So I used my social capital to message friends to see if anyone was in the area who was going home to Boston. Within two minutes I had a call from my next door neighbor who was in the area and going back to Boston that afternoon. Made it home by 5:20pm as I watched the rolling delays pile up. My flight got in at 7:45pm. By that point I was at home with dinner in my belly and the knowledge I had beaten UA at its own game! I’m rather worried about my flight to NRT next week with AC…..
Nice! You did well, Yael!
It will only get worse as we move into PEAK SUMMER and projected ALL TIME NUMBER of PAX in North American aviation history.
I’m going to crawl under the sofa with my cat till post Labor Day!!! 🙂
If you are going to have a meeting in Newark. Checkout blackswan espresso for great espresso. Hobby deli for a good pastrami sandwich. Both are in safe walking distance from the main office buildings in downtown.
If you are eating in Newark the rodizios on adams Street are delicious but boso no basa is great.
Thanks for the tips – meetings were inside EWR airport – was not planning on leaving, ut I will note these tips. I love pastrami!
Oh boy, can’t wait for Saturday! SAT-EWR-RIC with 3 teenagers.
EWR is getting worse and worse. First, with the new terminal A which is impossible to get to with public transportation. And for the past 4 out of 5 times I landed in EWR, they couldn’t find a gate, and I had to wait aboard for a long time. LGA is way better, but unfortunately no long-haul flight :(((( Not necessarily UA issue though. Generally, I think they treated premier member good compared to Delta (had some extremely unpleasant experiences with Delta and trying to stay away from it.)
Here is a tip – if trying to go to Newark (or any other northeastern city) and your flight gets cancelled/delayed, always look to see if you can get a flight to another northeast city – Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, etc. It is fairly easy to then get to Amtrak and take a train to Newark, New York, etc. I was at Chicago when the Newark and New York flight were all cancelled and was able to snag a seat to Philadelphia. At Philly, I took a local train downtown, then switched to an Amtrak train to the Newark Airport station to get my car. Granted, I got to Newark 3 hours later than planned, but otherwise it would have been another night in Chicago.
It is interesting to hear all the different experiences. My home base has been EWR for the past 2 years and I fly United almost exclusively. 20-30 trips each year, so small sample size in the larger picture. Overall I am extremely happy to have EWR as my home base. Over the past 60 or so flights, I have had only 2 real delays in departure. One was due to crew availability and was a 2 hour delay. Thought I was going to miss my connecting flight from LAX to Syndey, but they held the plane (think we had 20+ people connecting) and pulled up directly next to the departing gate. Had great tail winds so still arrived in Syndey on time. Second time was weather. I will say I have had multiple arrivals that had to wait 15-30 minutes for a gate.
I like EWR because I typically arrive 20-30 minutes before boarding starts and it never takes longer than 10 minutes going through security (clear/precheck/no checked bags). Most of the time I am taking morning flights.
Overall I am really happy with EWR as my primary airport. Can’t really comment on clubs and so on, since I am usually not in the airport long enough to use them.
EWR has been good to me over the years. Rental cars, baggage claim, and checkin was always easy, particularly compared with JFK or LGA.
Only two major problems. One was missing an international connection as TSA and Delta kept passing me back and forth between checkpoints, TSA not allowing me to enter either. The other was during a regional blackout. EWR was 12 minutes away from kicking us out of the airport, without the ability to arrange lodging or transportation, when EWR became the first to restore power.
I love your blow by blow with accompanying screen shots. The story feels like being there with you, triggering memories of similar travel encounters, Never fun to watch a trip unravel again and again, I admire your ability to objective the scenario. The upside: staying home to avoid becoming entangled even further.
What is the source on the LAX-MEL pilot comments? I was on the flight and they said they were cancelling due to crew going over regulatory time.
I am not going to reveal my source, but it was someone fairly high up at LAX and I have independently verified the info.
I wondered why my Mel-Lax flight was cancelled! Because the Lax-Mel was due to pilot fatigue.
I’ll tell you- after having a 9+ hour delay to Vancouver from Newark with UA (and then flight cancelled without being able to get my luggage because they ended up not returning everyone’s luggage) on Tues- the last thing I ever want to hear again is someone playing those pianos. I heard way too many terrible renditions of chopsticks. Lol.
You’ll have to pardon my self-medication.
I flew Alaska Airlines SJC-LAX-EWR on the 26th and ended up taking 6 hours of rolling delays before ultimately departing at 4:30pm and eventually landing at EWR at 4:05am after an airborne reroute over WV, 30+ mins of holding over PA, and an unscheduled stop in PIT where we all found out that timeout rules apply differently once the flight has departed (scheduled vs. actual duty time).
Meanwhile, a colleague who was on United’s 11am SFO-EWR flight took off a little over an hour behind schedule and was the first plane to land after they resumed airport operations.
Both flights were subject to the same Ground Delay Program in effect for EWR that morning, so what was the difference?
Well, she smartly put herself on a 777. which United *NEEDS* to move lest they completely screw up the rest of their international schedule. These are the last planes United wants to cancel and their better weather radar and higher tolerance for turbulence mean they’re not scared off a little bit of bad weather.