United Airlines is putting me into a mild panic
Dec 22nd, 2007 by Nick
One of the unfortunate side stories of this trip is getting to Sydney. Specifically, getting to Sydney on the flight on which I’m ticketed. United Airlines’ fleet of 747s is old. They appear to be falling apart. And unlike a 737 or a regional jet, a 747 is not something you can just swap off of a different route if one suffers a mechanical failure. As a result, United’s 747 routes are suffering from a ridiculous amount of cancellations. I haven’t gone back and tabulated, but on average a cancellation every two weeks.
Now, I can handle a delay. (12/21 was a reasonably typical delay - 3 hours for “operations.”) I can even handle a 24 hour delay. I will still have an upper deck seat in business class. I have enough slack in my Sydney schedule that I can survive losing a day on the front end of the trip, and enough slack with work (I’m flying back on a Thursday) that it’s no big deal if the return trip is delayed by a day.
What I cannot handle is a cancellation, such as on 12/19. And that’s because I’m on an upgraded ticket. If they cancel the flight and put everybody on a Qantas flight, for example, I end up in coach. Most likely in a middle seat. Now, I have not flown in a middle seat on any kind of flight, not even a little Chicago-Detroit flight, for over 13 years. I’m not about to break that streak on a 14-hour flight. To make matters worse, United’s Economy Plus on a 747 (where I’d likely end up on January 2, as business class looks about 60% full on both 1/1 and 1/2) is the worst in their fleet, with the tightest (17″) seats and the smallest (34″) pitch. Of course, Qantas’ coach is 31″ of pitch, which is just not going to happen. Yes, I am a snob. I’m also mad at myself because I didn’t think my emergency backup plan (Qantas’ “JetStar” class (38″ pitch) from Honolulu-Sydney) would sell out, but it has.
That means that if the LA-Sydney flight is cancelled, I might be looking at a two day delay to get to Sydney, because on January 3 United operates two flights LA-Sydney, and then face the same uncertainty all over again!
