A couple of days ago, I flew United Airlines from Honolulu to Denver and Denver to cincinnati. On the first leg after about 30 minutes of flying, the jet was turned around and returned to Honolulu for maintenance. We ended up on the ground for about two and a half hours. Next, after I got to Denver, we boarded the plane and after we were on the plane we were told there was maintenance issues again and we had to wait another 45 minutes to fly out. On my end, I am suspicious that two issues on one trip are purely coincidence and are not the result of systematic problems. I will say that the actual flights were quite smooth once we got going. On the other hand, I have safety concerns about United arising out of this trip and I'm wondering what other people have experienced and what their thoughts are.
Off Topic -- United Airlines Maintenance
- Thread starter dailybuck777
- Start date
Rest easy. Airline safety procedures are the best of m any form of transportation in the world. By a very wide margin.
And it all starts with the quality of the product…second to none.
And in the US, airlines are regulated the same - so in the USA, safety will not vary from airline to airline.
Same with Europe.
Well, I can tell you that this past week I came back from Frankfurt on United UA075, a 767, and those planes are over 30 years old. Didn't realize United was flying planes that old? United wants to replace them with the 787 as they are more efficient. And those are currently being built. I wasn't happy about the 767 being so old, but it was my only option. Being that old does make you wonder though if it's just a matter of time before something happens? But like MACNit2.0 says, they are pretty well maintained. My favorite to fly is the 747-8 but only a few airlines are flying them today. Most of those planes are around 10 yrs old I believe?
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Yep. United order hundreds of 787s They are much more efficient. When I book I avoid the 757 and 767. The best USA planes are the 777 and 787
It could be worse... You could have been on Alaska airlines where the window fell out yesterday... And they had to do an emergency landing!
I am a 1k on United but also fly several other airlines. They are all about the same. United has improved, a lot. But all are recovering from COVID and other govt mandated initiatives. By covid I mean a lot of their updating and replacing got in hold. They also lost a ton of pilots due to early retirement and shot mandates. A good friend retired at age 48, she was a gate agent. They gave her half income until 65 and lifetime employee benefits for free flights! She would have been crazy to not retire.
And, on the other hand Southwest has a meltdown last year and this happened on Alaska last night
My sister has been a flight attendant with United for about 30 years. Some travel issues with United can be caused by them having so many different models of planes in their fleet. If you are on a smaller plane that has a mechanical problem and they don’t have a similar-sized replacement, you may be stuck for awhile.
Personally, I fly about 20 times per year and I avoid United unless I’m flying to Europe.
Personally, I fly about 20 times per year and I avoid United unless I’m flying to Europe.
Guy was posting about it on Reddit from the plane.
It doesn't sound like coincidence - in fact there is one commonality that I can think of off the top of my head. Please
Good point about Southwest Airlines. Will also add that the food on United was horrendous. On my way out they had a chicken meal where the chicken was so tough I couldn't cut it with their plastic knife. Also, they give you awful tasting minute cookies where they don't give you meals. I will say several years ago on international flight to China, Delta had very good food.
United has acknowledged their crap good but haven’t fixed it yet. First class is almost worthless ImHO
ADS-B data shows it was a B-757-200. Sounds like emergency crews did a walk around prior to the plane taxiing back to the gate in HNL. Perhaps looking for signs of a hydraulic or fuel leak.
B-52 Bombers are flying safely (almost entirely without issue) and they are over twice that old.
Aircraft in USA and Europe are not pretty well maintained, they are incredibly well maintained.
Aviations safe yet record over past 40 years are many orders of magnitude better than any other industry.
Head of FAA once showed me records that if flight safety today was equal to 1970s, we would have a loss of life accident weekly.
Nothing is 100% safe. But suggest there are many, many things to worry about before aviation.
Whatever it was they took a long time fixing it. Something like two and a half or three hours. Of course, didn't tell the passengers what it was.
The lack of transparency is maddening. If you are persistent, you can find out. But most would have no idea once they did find out.
Fantastic, as I try to only fly United so maybe I'll have a bit more room on my flights. United has such a large network that they can almost always get you where you need to go.
I fly United all the time…they are like most airlines…sub-par on service but acceptable.
10-15 years ago a bus went over a cliff in S America kill all but one survivor. Guy spent two weeks in hospital and then got on a bus to go to crash site to look the body of his son….. everybody including driver got off the bus!
He says that now every time he gets on a bus all the passengers get off.
Its usually a Fetzer Valve - they just use gauze pads and pack it with grease and good to go.
USAF and USN fly jets waaaaay older. It’s all about the quality of maintenance and parts. B-52, tankers, AWACS, E-2,…
Thanks very much for your inside knowledge. I knew when I posted on this board that very knowledgeable air traffic people would be on this football board and would probably comment.
Agreed, but also really like the Boeing 747-8. Gets you there quicker as they fly around 600 mph to Europe. Shortens the trip. I try and avoid them as well, but sometimes hard to .....
Agree. As I understand it, the 747 was the last of the 4 engine planes from Boing (the A380 from Airbus). I am told that the airlines can fly two 787s to a destination for less than a single 747.
Maintenance might be good but Boeing still has issues that they need to work out. The culture of QA/QC and safety still aren't where they need to be.
CNBC just had an r tended interview with a former Boeing employee and head of some airline safety nonprofit. He went into detail about multiple issues with Boeing production lines. Described specific mechanical and control issues with different airframes,
Hope they post it online today ….
This baffling. One would think that since these are plugs to never be used agsin they would be so secure it would be impossible to remove them.
And what is interesting is that the fuselage including these plugs are made by a subcontractor and then delivered to Boeing.
yeah...my first question is why are these doors there? the second question is "Who's guidance is being used to secure these things: United or Boeing?" My third question is asking about other airlines. As I understand it, United is the largest investor in the MAX with over 100 of them in the air. But what about the others? CBS says only SW and United fly them in the USA.
I know that they've canceled a lot of flights. I am not flying this week but my daughter is in Orlando and there was at least one flight to Orlando canceled today.
I am willing to bet this is an easy fix but the certification of the "fix" may take some time. As I understand it, the door was put in there in case they want to expand the plane to accommodate more passengers. Governments, worldwide, have guidelines that you have to have so many exits for x number of passengers. But at this point, I can't imagine a few spot welds and some gorilla glue would do the trick.
I just lost my 1k United status this year, but have been flying with them exclusively for the last 10 years for my job since I fly out of EWR and they are the only airline that has direct to everywhere I need to go for work.
I've experienced many issues over the years, but it's bound to happen when you fly a lot. I think on average, I've had very little major issues though so my guess is just pure bad luck to get two maintenance issues on one trip.
I'm pretty sure Delta is a better airline overall, but not sure anyone else is better than United after that in the US.
I've experienced many issues over the years, but it's bound to happen when you fly a lot. I think on average, I've had very little major issues though so my guess is just pure bad luck to get two maintenance issues on one trip.
I'm pretty sure Delta is a better airline overall, but not sure anyone else is better than United after that in the US.
Fuselages made by Spirit Aerospace.
https://apnews.com/article/spirit-aerosystems-boeing-737-fuselage-28bceec61cef878005b965a016fa8787
https://apnews.com/article/spirit-aerosystems-boeing-737-fuselage-28bceec61cef878005b965a016fa8787
I agree 100%. And I also lost my 1k in 2024. I don't like SW boarding and they are no longer cheaper anyway. American is a mess. Alaska doesn't fly my routes. The cheap airlines are awful. That leaves United and Delta.
I honestly think United is on par. i get great service as a million miler. I have lots of friends that fly Delta and complain just as much. ATL is a horrible airport in the summer for delays. My biggest beef is that the previous CEO, Smisek, thought they were going to have to compete with the cheap airlines. So he negotiated lower airport fees and got the worst terminals in just about every airport. its always seems to be the longest walk or the last terminal to have been remodeled. But the employees and flight product have been fine. I should add I don't fly internationally very much and that is the only time I would depend on an airline meal. United's food stinks.
They are plugged because they could be turned into an emergency door if need be. If a plane is over 200 souls, that door would be needed so they make it with the opening and either plug it or put an emergency door on it.
And I apologize for knowing this. Air Disasters on the Smithsonian channel is a guilty pleasure.
Thanks. But "plugged" is a relative term. I have to believe that process of making it accommodate more than 200 passengers isn't a trivial matter. As such, "unplugging" these doors would seem to be the least of the concerns. As such, why was the plugging of these doors even the least bit half-assed? In other words, PLUG the damn things and worry about unplugging them later.
Oh, I agree and I’m sure Boeing now agrees. But I assume they wanted to make them removable for easy switches. Just not that easy I would guess
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