Funny thing happened on the way home from the office today. In short, I got to spend two segments of a flight from BOS to SFO with the same UAL pilot. And both segments were delayed at the departure and arrival of each, in similar fashions, causing many missed connections.
First I should point out I should be in Portland, OR, having dinner with friends right now, but I'm home writing this while my luggage sits at PDX until I pick it up at 9am tomorrow.
To the interesting bits. Note that all of this seems perfectly normal as the captain explained it, but I have never experienced these kinds of delays before (at least knowingly). So I thought I would share.
For the segment BOS or ORD, at departure, the captain relays to us there is a minor delay since the co-pilot found a piece of metal in the grooves of one of the tires. No biggy, just have to wait on the maintenance report to print out. Next, he relays he has to restart the computer that controls the A/C, but when it's rebooted he remembered that this happened once before and without the necessary adjustment and reboot, the cockpit will heat up to 110F. So he makes the adjustment, and reboots a second time. After 20 minutes he relays he's waiting on the 10 page maintenance report to print out for the log book, as required by the FAA, before continuing our taxi.
On arrival to ORD, he stops the plane right before the gate to announce there is a plastic bag in front of us, and he's waiting on it to be removed before we continue so that we don't harm the engines. Fortunately no report necessary.
I miss my flight by 10 minutes.
After some wrangling, it's clear I won't be departing for PDX from Chicago. So I put myself back on the plane I just got off of as it's continuing to SFO and is conveniently at the gate I just arrived at.
For the segment ORD to SFO, at departure, we are delayed because a refrigeration unit is down. We can fly with it down, but we must wait for dry ice to arrive. It arrives and the maintenance report starts printing again. We depart.
During the flight, it turns out, I'm seated next to a UAL off duty flight attendant, attempting to get to Washington. This is her second try in two days, she keeps missing her connections, and has subsequently circumnavigated the US at least once the last 36 hours in an attempt to get near the state.
I give her some Mac tips for her MacBook, per her request after she sees my MacBookPro, and she pulls out a DVD copy of Ron White's standup for us to watch (using the new headphone jack splitter I got for a $1 at the $1 Store in Lebanon, NH, two days ago).
Afterwards I mention the state of disrepair of the UAL fleet and suggested they buy new planes as I've missed more that 30% of my connections this year due to minor maintenance issues. She replied the CEO just received a $40 Million bonus (haven't found any references to this). And she thinks the delays are due to the pilots. Nothing further was offered on the subject.
So, we arrive at SFO, and the plane stops with an announcement there is a piece of cardboard in front of the plane that must be removed to preserve our engines before continuing.
My friend missed her connection.
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