Travelers with excuses pay change fees. Airlines with excuses just shrug, pocket your money and move on.
But, just when you think you’ve heard them all, the airlines come up with new and creative excuses. United came up with several this month.
(Open note, I have no doubt other carriers, especially the legacy carriers, are equally creative. However, being based near San Francisco, a large percent of my clients fly United.)
One morning, a client sent me a “WTF?” email because his flight from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco (SFO) was going to be delayed by a “planned fuel stop” in Wichita.
Now, we are not talking winter and trying to get a fully loaded 747 to Australia. We are talking a 737-800 plane, which on the Boeing.com page has a maximum range of 3,115 nautical miles, well beyond the 2,426 air miles between Dulles and San Francisco. (A nautical mile is 1.15 regular miles)
But in this case, the pilot told passengers that it was either stop for refueling or bump 50 passengers. The plane was not only full, it was carrying a full cargo load including seeds. Lots of seeds.
Adding to the fun, when the plane did land and refuel in Wichita, they put in too much fuel. That resulted in another 15-minute delay to remove it. So, the plane landed in San Francisco about 2 hours late.
Another flight, only a one-hour flight between San Francisco and Orange County, spent almost two hours on the tarmac from boarding to takeoff. Because, according to flight attendants, the previous crew had incorrectly armed the back doors and caught them on the emergency slides. Which eventually meant the slides needed to be taken out and repacked, like parachutes.
Other recent excuses involve plane swaps. Flight 647, a nonstop from Washington Dulles to San Francisco at 5:49 p.m., was flat-out canceled — with the message in our computer reading “Inter sub swap.” Huh? (Yep, I hadn’t seen it before.)
After some time on hold with the agency support desk, the agent came back from talking to supervisors and said that it meant they had simply decided to use a different plane on the day of departure, and changed from a “former Continental 777 to a United Airbus 320.” Well, okay, but why swap a plane and cancel the flight?
Apparently, the swap also resulted in a time change — from 5:49 p.m. to 10 p.m. And a new flight number — 2069. So, the flight ended up departing almost four-and-a-half hours later. But, by canceling one flight and scheduling another, it meant the first flight would not get marked as late. Although anyone scheduled on the first flight, unless they were able to get switched to a different flight altogether, ended up in SFO about five hours later.
The most recent excuse, just last week, came about when a client complained about a San Francisco to Washington-Reagan flight delay announced 10 hours in advance, from 2:15 p.m. to 3 p.m. United blamed it on a late arriving aircraft from Chicago. However, the flight coming in from Chicago was actually on time. Again, this turned out to be another plane swap. A flight with a scheduled 2:15 p.m. departure was scheduled to arrive at 2:30 p.m.
This last flight finally left about 3:45 p.m. To add insult to injury, there were thunderstorms around Washington-Reagan which were not as bad as those near Dulles, only 30 miles away. After circling for 45 minutes, the plane was forced to land in Dulles for additional fuel. There, after about an hour, United gave up and told people to get cabs.
In all these cases, passengers eventually got where they were going. And, of course, safety is a priority and “stuff happens” and all that. But, if it’s a passenger with an excuse, unless it’s 24 hours or less after booking a ticket, the airline response is, “Tough — pay up.”
If any readers have other stories, please share in comments. Maybe even or especially if you’re reading this while on a delayed flight.
Travelers would be a lot more understanding of airline excuses if they were more understanding of ours.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
