What does this mean?

[Ghery]

The plane for my flight from SFO to SEA arrived about 1/2 hour early. UA says that departure for my flight is delayed about 1/2 hour for "flight preparation". ?? Can someone with Part 121 experience tell me what this means? Just curious, it won't make any difference, but this is a new, to me, excuse for a delay.

 

[Ghery]

The gate agents were confused, too. They found out that the real story is that we're waiting for 33 passengers on a connecting flight that is running late. "Flight preparations" didn't work for them, either.

 

[frfly172]

That explains it.

 

[Hank S]

Anything to obscure the real reason. A late connecting flight makes the airline look bad. I've seen flights delayed for "weather" when the national radar is pretty clear along the route.

 

[paflyer]

Anything to obscure the real reason. A late connecting flight makes the airline look bad. I've seen flights delayed for "weather" when the national radar is pretty clear along the route.

Sometimes they are delayed for incoming crew and/or AC from somewhere else with bad weather.

That, or they're full of crap.

 

[Warlock]

My other half is UAL crew member and she just gave me a call...I asked what that was used for and she had never seen the term used for a delay...she would be confused as well...

 

[mkosmo]

Sometimes they are delayed for incoming crew and/or AC from somewhere else with bad weather.

That, or they're full of crap.

Well, that reserve pilot they're having to deadhead in from BFE to crew it will encounter weather, so we'll just code it all weather

 

[mscard88]

Could be a number of things. Flight crew and/or flight attendants on another flight that hasn't arrived yet so your flight is waiting on them. Or the crew is there and they're waiting on an aircraft. I've seen last departure of the night flights wait for large numbers of late connecting flights. Company doesn't want the expense of putting them putting up at a hotel overnight. Or they're just BS'g ya!

 

[BigBadLou]

I once flew into SLC from San Jose. The gate "agent" for my connecting flight announced over the PA to about 200 people that our flight will be delayed several hours due to bad stormy weather in San Francisco from where our plane was supposed to come.
"That is incorrect", I exclaimed loudly toward the lying lady, "I just flew in, sunny skies and gorgeous weather in Frisco today". Many people pulled out their smart phones and started checking.
She was NOT happy, she confessed that our plane had mechanical problems after which the agents handed out meal vouchers and delay compensation vouchers. I am on their DNF list now.

Lesson learned: do not call airline employees on their BS, no matter how much they lie. You might have to find a hotel and a rental car to get home.

 

[Ghery]

Anything to obscure the real reason. A late connecting flight makes the airline look bad. I've seen flights delayed for "weather" when the national radar is pretty clear along the route.

In this case it was weather. The folks who got on the plane from the delayed flight were almost all wearing Seahawks clothing items and had just come from Minneapolis. Snow delayed their departure. I agree, however. Oftentimes the claim of "weather" is BS, but not in this case.

In any case, we got into SEA about 20 minutes late. Not bad with the delay in departure being longer than that. The winds favored us.