lucky9876coins

Figured I would share the story hear since FRA ops have been CRAZY over the past few days. Pardon any bad grammar, I'm quite tired since I just got home.

Basically UA916 (IAD-FRA) was cancelled on Friday night, and as a result most passengers were rebooked on UA916 on Saturday, zeroing out the flight. As luck would have it there were about seven FT'ers booked on UA916 on Saturday, so we got to take part in the fun. Here's a quick (or maybe not) summary:

I was booked on the 2PM TPA-IAD but stoodby for the earlier one which left at 9AM, getting to IAD at 11AM. The RCC agents were all VERY friendly and chitting (I'm allowed to make up words, right?) properly.

I noticed that IAD-FRA (UA916) was delayed about 25 minutes, and the agent confirmed it looked like that would be the extent of the delay since the plane was inbound. At around 2PM I noticed that the flight was now showing a 9:30PMish departure, which would make the connection in FRA very tight, especially since we were going to meet up with FT'ers.

All of a sudden the agent found another "Phantom flight," UA9792, which would be leaving at 4:30PM and was supposed to replace the flight from the day before which was cancelled. The agent immediately rebooked me and preserved my upgrade to Business, saying the flight was still totally empty. It seems like they only created the phantom flight that day instead of the night before because it was totally empty in F, had 50 open in C, and 150 open in Y when I got booked on it. I then phoned the other FT'ers booked on the flight to tell them to make the change before it sells out, since everyone in the RCC started rebooking onto it.

Then they decide to delay the phantom flight, originally only about an hour or so. Long story short they keep pushing it back more and more, and we only end up leaving after 10PM, over six hours late. Everything between 4PM and 10PM was COMPLETE chaos. The passengers that were on the cancelled flight the day before were frustrated as heck, the CS lines were over 100 people deep, the RCC had one to two agents working the lines which were 30 deep at times.

That being said they did a decent job of handling the situation. They staffed the gate well, including a supervisor, gave everyone $10 meal vouchers, and overall were friendly. Still it never ceases to amaze me how passengers will yell at a GA considering a delay is TOTALLY outside of their control. I was getting ready to step in a few times, but the need never arised. There were about eight of us FT'ers at the gate, so we had a blast with this, since we really had nowhere to go and didn't care when we got there as long as we made the return. Foady and mechteach ended up being rebooked on the BRU flight and nov11 was on UA952, took a $500 bump, and was moved to our flight! Upon boarding everyone was given a "Friendship Kit," which apparently gets everyone some travel credits, so we were all happy.

Unfortunately the drama didn't end there. As soon as everyone was aboard part of the crew went illegal, meaning we were down to minimums. As the door was about to close I heard an FA say in German that the rest of the crew would go illegal in eight minutes, although I'm not quite positive how she meant that. I ended up being on a totally full upper deck being served by just one FA who was really working his tail off.

The captain made some idiotic comments over the PA, including "Folks, just so you know we've been here all day too waiting for the flight, so we know just how you feel," or something like that, as well as "Part of our new crew just got out of training, so this is the first time they're working the 747 and they may need some time to adjust to it, so be patient."

We ended up making UA917, which was a different aircraft to our surprise, and spend a total of 18 minutes in FRA instead of five horus.

Anyway, I had a GREAT weekend, and I think the rest of the gang did too. Delays are a lot of fun when you're with a group.

So did anyone else have any issues with FRA the past few days? Would love to hear other experiences! Also, anyone know what a "Friendship kit" is worth?

adambrau

Lucky - I missed you guys! I was on 917 today in 18H and saw a bunch of last minute people come on. I took a 630am flight out of Budapest on LH to FRA so was kinda out of it - I should have figured you all were FT'ers. spent nearly 2 hours on the runway waiting for ATC delays to get us from IAD-JFK!! Next time I'll say hi!

Adam

ryan182

I flew FRA-LAX on Friday and all was well, except that the flight lands after the UA LAX customs closed and you need to get bused to TBIT , but things at FRA were orderly and on-time and service in C was great. I typically find FRA a great airport and I have boycotted LHR for EU connections in favor of FRA.

lucky9876coins

Ah, I was in 15A and there were also FT'ers across from you in 17AB. I walked over there quite a few times to talk to them and also downstairs to talk to other FT'ers down there. I'm usually not that restless, but after arriving on a TATL flight and not getting a chance to walk around I got up about every five minutes.

So you also had the FA's with the, erm, boots?

alliance

What was the reason for the delay departing IAD?

lucky9876coins

It was a mechanical delay, apparently there were hydraulics issues.

FlyingOnceMore

FRA madness ?

I'd say lucky9876coins madness would be more the case.

11 hours in IAD, man that truly scoops this weeks prize for most insane FTer !

adambrau

haha the boots were a new 'look' for me too!! Although both the FA's were very sweet and the service was quite good, although I slept most of the way to IAD. So you guys do tht a lot - fly over to Europe and then straight back? I flew over Thursday to Budapest and I must say the I really did feel the jstlag on Friday when I was traipsing across the city with my friend. Hmm, well nice to nearly meet you!!!

Adam

lucky9876coins

And ya know something, I enjoyed every minute of it. Got to meet a lot of FT'ers I have talked to a lot but never met before as well as some old friends (not old as in old, but... you know what I mean).
The irony for me was that last week I flew IAD-JFK and the Shuttle America FA was saying how they weren't allowed to wear boots because they looked too slutty... kind of strange that the regionals have higher standards than mainline. I thought service was ok- certainly not matronly, but nothing amazing either, but I also slept for at least five hours. I don't do FRA runs often. Actually this was my first time flying UA internationally in a year. The other Star carriers have been spoiling me too much internationally, I guess.

danville 1K

Were you in the RCC when they came around and announced the club was closing for 20 minutes for cleaning and everyone in the club would have to not only leave the club but go through security again? They had a security guard in front of the escalator to the right as you leave the club to ensure everyone cleared the security area just to the left of the RCC. Interestingly they didn't require you to take your luggage with you, and some people left their luggage in the club. Rather bizarre.

FRA-SFO on UA 927 was uneventful except for about 45 minutes of circling over Point Reyes then making a loop over the tri-valleys before coming in over Lafayette and Oakland and landing on runway 19R.

UCBeau

since you mentioned upgrading, you must have been on a W fare..how the heck did you manage to get that to price out? lucky indeed!

ryan182

No the LAX flight leaves out of a different area than the SFO flights. All the flights to SFO I've taken (usually the evening 777) leave from the C gates by the RCC where as the LAX flight leaves from A63 which is a UA configed (ie has red carpet) gate with all the LH intl flights and interestingly enough does not have the secondary US bound security checks so you can easily get to it from other EU connecting flights. Also one big plus for the LAX-FRA flight is it lands there as well, meaning it was super easy and quick for me to get from my inbound flight to my connecting flight to BCN where as my coworker who was coming from the SFO flight had a bit of a hike.


so that said I was in the SEN lounge enjoying not being in the RCC

All that makes the score ^ LAX-FRA for real easy connections and for FRA-LAX for having to bus to TBIT, which this time was painless from touchdown to leaving baggage claim was only 45 min

Wiggums

I had planned on doing LAX-IAD-FRA-IAD-LAX on UA916 and 917. My Saturday UA916 was horribly delayed so I enquired about 9792. They put me there, E-... ugh. There were also a few seating duplicates and unhappy people. Since UA916 was leaving 30 minutes later, I volunteered to get off UA9792 and go on UA916. They rewarded me with an upgrade to Business. ^

The 747 was absolutely empty! I had expected it to be packed with people. I don't know if it's against FT's code of ethics, but I.. ahem.. downgraded to a row of 4 seats to myself. I think there were about 50 people in the entire 747. Why didn't they didn't move some 9792 people to 916? And there wasn't enough crew upstairs so my 12th row was now 7A.

In FRA, I missed my UA917 back to IAD so I was waitlisted for UA905 back to LAX. At the counter, I stood in a long line for UA905 back to LAX. An employee walking up the line, looking at DM's and BP's looked at my DM for UA905 and said, "It's full. You are not going to make it."

I got to the counter and the nice woman looked at her screen and said, "Eh, it's full." I am not the DYKWIA type and I have never used my 1K card to get what I want, but I discreetly flashed my UA916 stub that showed 7A and "PremierExecutive100K." Another woman gave me a seat in C but the first woman said something in German, and took it away, looked at my stub from UA916, then they conversed in German, moving the ticket back and forth, pointing at a few things on the computer, then looked like she was going to tear it, then put it back on the counter, mumbled something. And the whole time my eyes remained fixed on the ticket and I was salivating.

And there I am, in C back to LAX. Slept like a baby all the way, great flight.

Pat89339

Wiggums, were you on 905 tonight? So was I (in 8D) and another FTer hsxagent who I met waiting for our connecting flights to SFO.

hsxagent

Hey Pat! Nice to have met you. I thought clearing customs in TBIT wasn't that bad? Obviously, you beat me to the gate, even with me stopping at the premium check-in to get re-booked on the flight. Since somehow they off loaded me off of both of my flights tonight (LAX-SFO and SFO-SEA).