For AJ Palzer, the flight home from a trip to Houston to visit his girlfriend’s family quickly became a travel nightmare.
Palzer, a New Jersey-based attorney, was scheduled to fly back from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in New Jersey on Monday. Instead, he is faced with time and again cancellations with United Airlines caused by weekend thunderstorms in the Northeast.
“It has to do with the weather, and I’m talking to people in Jersey, and they say, ‘It’s raining,'” Palzer said. “It wasn’t a storm.”
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Palzer eventually made it back to Newark, but only after waiting three days for a return flight. When he landed in Newark on Wednesday night, he feared that the bags he first checked in on Monday had gone missing.
Fortunately, an agent was able to show Palzer and his girlfriend their bags, which were found in a sea of unclaimed baggage at the baggage claim area. Palzer said the baggage claim area was packed with passengers, many of whom waited for hours to find their luggage.
“It was a chaotic row,” Palzer said.
Palzer’s story is just one of many travelers have shared while flying with the Chicago-based airline over the past week. Airlines on a large scale facing disruption due to severe thunderstorms last weekend. However, United have experienced a bumpier road than others when it comes to returning to normal operations.
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United, the leader in cancellations and delays this week, recorded 528 canceled flights and 1,414 delays on Thursday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware. In addition, the airports across the country with the most travel disruption were mainly United’s hubs in Newark, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco.
By Friday morning, United’s operations had stabilized – despite worse weather at some of its hubs – although it was still causing US airlines to delay and cancel flights. according to FlightAware. As of 2:07 p.m. EDT, United had canceled about 229 flights (about 8% of all major flights for the day) and delayed an additional 534. Both numbers are little changed since the early hours of this morning.
The carrier has blame about the shortcomings of the Federal Aviation Administration, which has addressed staffing shortages during the pandemic. The agency issued ground-breaking stops in the New York City and Washington, DC areas this week due to weather and equipment issues, setting the stage for cascade delays as the weather sets in. Repeated rainstorms are added to the mix.
In a memo sent to employees, United CEO Scott Kirby said: “The weather we saw during the EWR was something the FAA could previously manage without severely impacting operations. our activities and customers.”
JetBlue, another airline with a series of flight cancellations and delays this week, sang a similar tune, blaming the FAA’s air traffic control shortages for the disruption before July 4. according to a report from Bloomberg.
However, in an interview with CNN on Wednesday night, Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg dismissed claims that the FAA was responsible for the travel disruption during the week.
“Look, United Airlines has some internal issues that they need to deal with,” Buttigieg said on CNN. “They’ve been really struggling this week, even compared to other US airlines.”
Wherever the blame ended up, visitors caught up in the week-long mess became exasperated by the experience.
TPG spoke to several United passengers who said they waited hours to contact customer service, lost their luggage or got stuck at the airport, missed work or vacation together. family.
As the thunderstorms that rocked the Northeast last weekend eased midweek, many passengers were told they weren’t eligible for refunds or accommodation because the disruption was due to the weather.
Some questioned whether weather would continue to be a major cause of flight cancellations and delays as the week dragged on, wondering instead what role it played? staff shortage and misplaced crew already in their travel plans.
And to make matters worse, Kirby was flown on a private jet from Teterboro Airport to Denver, amid widespread travel disruptions United passengers have faced during the week. This. Kirby apologized to staff and tourists for flying on a private jet.
Kirby said in a statement to TPG: “Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers waiting to go home. “I sincerely apologize to our customers and team members, who have been working around the clock – often due to inclement weather – to take care of our customers.”
For its part, United said it expected cancellations and delays to decrease ahead of the busy travel weekend on July 4 but said it would continue to monitor possible weather. storms in Denver and Chicago.
United did not specifically address the staffing shortages affecting the airline or provide additional reimbursements for affected travelers.
“We are grateful to our customers who have endured numerous disruptions over the past few days and our team has worked around the clock to take care of them,” United said in a statement.
The Chicago-based carrier also said most of the flights canceled on Friday were made in advance to give passengers time to readjust their schedules.
Calvin Guerrero, a student at the University of Chicago, said he was traveling from Chicago to Costa Rica with his father Wednesday when they got caught up in a disturbance. Their connection to Costa Rica from Houston was delayed several times before finally being cancelled.
Guerrero felt that the airline seemed overwhelmed by the scale of the disruption.
“It looks like United don’t have a mass cancellation process,” Guerrero said.
Guerrero and his father remained stranded at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Friday, booking hotels and buying new clothes from Walmart because United checked their luggage before they received the cancellation notice. They expect the rescheduled flight from Houston to Costa Rica to take off on Saturday without a problem.
It’s not just passengers venting about the tough travel week.
Several United employees took to online forums to express their disappointment.
The Flight Attendants Association-CWA, which represents United’s more than 25,000 flight attendants, released a sharper statement on Thursday criticizing United’s slow recovery from weekend thunderstorms. .
The union said earlier this week that United was already grappling with staffing shortages exacerbated by cabin crew scheduling calls lasting more than three hours – leaving many crew members waiting to be released. assigned. United is currently paying three times more for flight attendants taking additional trips through July 6.
“Every minute wasted in their decision-making is one minute too late to recover and bring to the public reliable, efficient air travel,” said Ken Diaz, branch president. United’s AFA, said in a statement.
The chapter of the United Airline Pilots Association took aim at CEO Scott Kirby’s message about the disruption.
Garth Thompson, chairman of United’s ALPA Overall Executive Board, said: “While Scott Kirby tries to blame the FAA and the weather and everything involved, further flight delays are the end. The direct result of poor planning by United Airlines executives.
United’s bumpy recovery also caught the attention of lawmakers in Washington, where aviation-related issues have become a popular topic for members of Congress. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who sponsored the airline’s passenger rights bill in Congress, said the airline seemed willing to blame everyone else for the woes in its activities.
“It is not partisan to insist that United and all other airlines treat passengers with courtesy and respect, and that they also treat flight attendants and pilots fairly,” Blumenthal said. .
As United deal with the aftermath of the disruption, thousands of passengers remain stranded at airports or have canceled travel plans on July 4 to avoid any further potential disruption.
Jenny Thomas, who works in marketing and communications in Washington, DC, says she’s currently missing her niece’s 10th birthday after facing the stress of trying to find a flight to San Francisco . Her initial flight to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) experienced several delays before United canceled it.
“It seems like a great time to see the family,” says Thomas. “It keeps getting eaten.”
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