UA 351 LIH - SFO was supposed to fly yesterday at 2:12pm.
We sat in the boarding area for 1 hour while the GA apologized to us every 15 minutes to tell us the pilots were not communicating with her, and she had no idea what the problem was with our flight.
After 1 hour of these repetitive apologies, she said a part was broken and they were "trying" to locate it in HNL. They continued "trying" to locate the part in HNL for another hour.
Next update, they found the part, and it would be here in 1 hour. Sounded too good to be true. It was.
Next update, a flight was arriving from LAX at 7pm, and they'd put us on that flight and turn it right away to get us back to SFO later that night. Also sounded too good to be true. It was.
Next update, flight would be cancelled, and we'd be put on a 9am departure the next day.
As soon as this announcement was made, they brought in a security guard to stand by the agents who were staffing the re-booking line. I've never before seen a case where UA required a security guard to be brought in to stand and protect the re-booking agents in a sterile area of the airport.
Instructions: Go to line at south end of gate to get hotel vouchers. Go to separate line at north end of gate for re-booking. I jumped on those instructions and was second in line for the voucher line. At position number 2, I waited in line for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, my companion had already been waiting in the rebooking line for more than 1 hour. She took over the place that I'd vacated after holding it for 20 minutes.
While waiting in these lines, I'd been in constant contact with the 1K desk, trying to sort options out by phone. Spoke with three agents during this time, and none of them could help me. The information available to them in SHARES was apparently completely inconsistent with what we were being told in the gate. In fact, they said that the flight allocated to us (1751) the next day, was leaving at 2pm, not 9pm, and they said it looked to them like a regular flight that already had a fairly full load of PAX.
After 45 minutes in the "hotel voucher lane", I got to the GA, and she told me that I could not get a voucher because I'd been automatically rebooked on to a red-eye flight from LIH to LAX with further connection to SFO in the morning. Since my companion was on a separate PNR due to a bunch of SHARES-related issues at time of booking, she of course, was left to fend for herself, as a GM. I told the GA that I wanted a voucher and I wanted to be on the next day's flight together with my companion. The GA said that SHARES would not allow her to give me a hotel voucher because I had already been re-booked to LAX and "the system" prevented her from making any changes at this point. After waiting in the "voucher line" for 1 hour, I was told that I'd have to wait 3 hours in the "re-booking line" and then go back to the "voucher line" after the people in the "re-booking line" had changed the automatic rebooking that was done while I was waiting in the "voucher line."
I decided that enough was enough at that point and I demanded she get a supervisor to sort this out without requiring me to go to the back of a 2-3 hour long line. The supervisor came, and did about 20 minutes of work to override the SHARES restrictions on giving me a voucher.
It then printed hotel and meal vouchers on ticket stock. I thought this was interesting because I've read many messages here from other FT'ers being told that "we ran out of vouchers" and so they were forced to fend for themselves during IRROPS. In my experience, here, the vouchers were simply created by printing them on standard ticket stock. So, I don't understand how a GA could "run out" of these vouchers unless the number of allowable vouchers on a given flight is controlled by policies in SHARES or the GA was lying or different processes are used at other airports.
Upon arriving at the hotel, we get a call to tell us that the 9am departure was moved to 1pm. We'll see how that goes. I'm writing this from the hotel room.
Overall - the GAs and FAs were extremely friendly and did everything they could possibly do to keep us informed, even if that meant continually apologizing for the fact they could not keep us informed because nobody would tell them anything. It was clear that they were not getting any support from the rest of the organization and they, effectively, were left to fend for themselves in what seemed like near isolation. It was also clear that they had to struggle valiantly against SHARES to get anything at all done, and trying to deal with a plane full of PAX when SHARES throws up obstacles at every single keystroke is a loosing proposition. And, furthermore, it was clear that the "system" for evaluating options and making a decision was completely broken. There was no leadership. There were no apparent procedures being followed. It seemed very random.
They put us up at a nice hotel and provided $20 for dinner and $20 for breakfast.
In the end, I can't think of any place in the world better to be stranded than LIH.
We sat in the boarding area for 1 hour while the GA apologized to us every 15 minutes to tell us the pilots were not communicating with her, and she had no idea what the problem was with our flight.
After 1 hour of these repetitive apologies, she said a part was broken and they were "trying" to locate it in HNL. They continued "trying" to locate the part in HNL for another hour.
Next update, they found the part, and it would be here in 1 hour. Sounded too good to be true. It was.
Next update, a flight was arriving from LAX at 7pm, and they'd put us on that flight and turn it right away to get us back to SFO later that night. Also sounded too good to be true. It was.
Next update, flight would be cancelled, and we'd be put on a 9am departure the next day.
As soon as this announcement was made, they brought in a security guard to stand by the agents who were staffing the re-booking line. I've never before seen a case where UA required a security guard to be brought in to stand and protect the re-booking agents in a sterile area of the airport.
Instructions: Go to line at south end of gate to get hotel vouchers. Go to separate line at north end of gate for re-booking. I jumped on those instructions and was second in line for the voucher line. At position number 2, I waited in line for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, my companion had already been waiting in the rebooking line for more than 1 hour. She took over the place that I'd vacated after holding it for 20 minutes.
While waiting in these lines, I'd been in constant contact with the 1K desk, trying to sort options out by phone. Spoke with three agents during this time, and none of them could help me. The information available to them in SHARES was apparently completely inconsistent with what we were being told in the gate. In fact, they said that the flight allocated to us (1751) the next day, was leaving at 2pm, not 9pm, and they said it looked to them like a regular flight that already had a fairly full load of PAX.
After 45 minutes in the "hotel voucher lane", I got to the GA, and she told me that I could not get a voucher because I'd been automatically rebooked on to a red-eye flight from LIH to LAX with further connection to SFO in the morning. Since my companion was on a separate PNR due to a bunch of SHARES-related issues at time of booking, she of course, was left to fend for herself, as a GM. I told the GA that I wanted a voucher and I wanted to be on the next day's flight together with my companion. The GA said that SHARES would not allow her to give me a hotel voucher because I had already been re-booked to LAX and "the system" prevented her from making any changes at this point. After waiting in the "voucher line" for 1 hour, I was told that I'd have to wait 3 hours in the "re-booking line" and then go back to the "voucher line" after the people in the "re-booking line" had changed the automatic rebooking that was done while I was waiting in the "voucher line."
I decided that enough was enough at that point and I demanded she get a supervisor to sort this out without requiring me to go to the back of a 2-3 hour long line. The supervisor came, and did about 20 minutes of work to override the SHARES restrictions on giving me a voucher.
It then printed hotel and meal vouchers on ticket stock. I thought this was interesting because I've read many messages here from other FT'ers being told that "we ran out of vouchers" and so they were forced to fend for themselves during IRROPS. In my experience, here, the vouchers were simply created by printing them on standard ticket stock. So, I don't understand how a GA could "run out" of these vouchers unless the number of allowable vouchers on a given flight is controlled by policies in SHARES or the GA was lying or different processes are used at other airports.
Upon arriving at the hotel, we get a call to tell us that the 9am departure was moved to 1pm. We'll see how that goes. I'm writing this from the hotel room.
Overall - the GAs and FAs were extremely friendly and did everything they could possibly do to keep us informed, even if that meant continually apologizing for the fact they could not keep us informed because nobody would tell them anything. It was clear that they were not getting any support from the rest of the organization and they, effectively, were left to fend for themselves in what seemed like near isolation. It was also clear that they had to struggle valiantly against SHARES to get anything at all done, and trying to deal with a plane full of PAX when SHARES throws up obstacles at every single keystroke is a loosing proposition. And, furthermore, it was clear that the "system" for evaluating options and making a decision was completely broken. There was no leadership. There were no apparent procedures being followed. It seemed very random.
They put us up at a nice hotel and provided $20 for dinner and $20 for breakfast.
In the end, I can't think of any place in the world better to be stranded than LIH.