United Airlines had an absolutely awful week operationally, as the airline canceled thousands of flights, stranding hundreds of thousands of passengers during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. One big question that many people have been asking is ”why?” Why did United have such a bad meltdown when other airlines didn’t?
Continue reading: United Airlines’ Impressive Meltdown Memo To Employees
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
#5 though, EWR best in the country?! Totally lost me at that point tbh
The US airlines are screaming for modernizing ATC, but so long as its biggest users (airlines) don’t have to pay for it. Nothing will change until they open up and pay their large share.
One fact is Kirby is driving employee relations to an all time low-he needs to be accountable.
Also they run a crew scheduling department with same number of schedulers as much smaller Spirit!!
Do better and you will be better
IAD is the best UA international gateway for arriving, assuming you are connecting onward. That's because connecting passengers from international flights at IAD have a "midfield" inspection station which leads to a connecting passenger-only TSA checkpoint which exits directly into the C/D concourse. This is much more efficient than other US airports where, after you clear customs, you're indistinct from a passenger who just entered the airport locally from an Uber.
The main reason why airlines are discouraged from chipping in is that if one chips in and others don't, what return will the one airline get from this investment?
Airlines, including United, simply aren’t designed to have their largest hub have its capacity severely limited for four straight days
Wait, since when is EWR their largest hub??
When did it surpass Chicago, Houston, and Denver in terms of hub traffic?
Only way this makes any sense, is if he meant "largest international gateway," but that still would be odd, as domestic flights take up space and were part of the apron crowding as well.
How would you like it if your surgeon, in the middle of surgery, ripped off his gown and went off to Denver while you were still bleeding? Of course, you wouldn't like it.
Same here. CEO Kirby should have been at EWR, passing out vouchers, maybe even directing passengers to buses going to IAD. When Starlux had a problem in Japan, the CEO personally flew out to help.
CEO Kirby lays out the fact, which does show that some of the fault is not with United but the ones who are solely in charge of recovery is United. When you are bleeding on the operating table, the surgeon tries to save you and fix you and not the FDA or FAA.
@Justin - huh??
No one is suggesting that one or two airlines “chip in” and no others do… the suggestion is that airlines pay user fees or something similar to fund the improvements.
"The current FAA leadership team inherited these challenges"....there it is...blame TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP!!!!!
Trump hasn't been the President in TWO AND A HALF YEARS. After how many years should we expect the current FAA and DOT administration to start taking responsibility for the current operating environment which THEY have presided over for the last 2.5 years.
This is just another crafted half-apology by a dimwit who just can't get Trump out of his head.
Because heaven knows that the Trump sycophants didn't do that to Obama for all four years. This is an entirely new concept that has never before been seen in politics, ain't it?
Have a seat.
How are you as a ceo going to demand another organization to staff up when your own company cannot. Maybe if ual had kept jfk as a route it wouldn't get to this point? I flew jetblue in the middle of all this and while jfk was chaos my evening flight which I thought would be canceled from all the days delay ended up 1.5 hours delayed. So what is the operational issue at ual? We know they're not telling the whole story. Companies never do. And since most ceos are just figure heads waving flags their primary task is optics. Some that's all they know.
There are multiple US international airports including ATL, DTW, and MSP (DL hubs) that have a separate TSA screening site that is just for connecting international passengers.
Why is Stewart international airport so underutilized? It's easier to get to than Newark, short to no wait times at TSA lines, and the airport employees are friendlier.
How is it that Scott Kirby seemed to be able to understand the reason (weather) for the dramatically reduced capacity at EWR multiple days after his first memo to employees which itself trashed the FAA?
Perhaps if he had stayed in New Jersey, called the FAA and asked them to explain the reasons for the reduced flow rates (something apparently no one else at United understood or he didn't ask if someone did understand), he wouldn't have needed a CYA follow-up memo.
And the fact is that UA has overscheduled EWR for years since slot controls there were dropped, specifically because UA did not use its slots to FAA requirements. When slot controls were dropped, other carriers including B6 flooded in and UA added flights the airport could not support.
Keep in mind that EWR has two effective runways, LGA also has 2 - (although intersecting, the FAA does a pretty good job of operating the intersecting runway model unless weather blocks routes to/from one of the runways) and JFK and has 3 effective runways.
Delta operates 15% more flights (with its regional carriers) over 2 hubs plus EWR while UA runs 90% of its NYC operation from EWR w/ just 10% at LGA.
UA, understandably, is not interested in seeing DL grow its presence in NYC any more but the simple fact is that DL's 2 airport NYC hub system works better from an operational standpoint than UA's EWR-focused system.
Weather is not a new phenomenon. But corporations = profits over people. Bite off more than you can chew, don't be surprised when you start to choke.
This is a lot bigger than missed flights. The rancor Kirby's use of private AC generated illustrates a growing and dangerous rift between haves and have-nots. Had he stayed at EWR to help staff, no change in flight departures would have occurred. It would have been useless window dressing. The anger arises from resentment that the privileged are exactly that - rich, privileged, in control and abandoning America. The Capitalist class don't want to pay for infrastructure renovation that largely benefit the proletariat. As a Private Pilot, I can tell you there has been an FAA shortages (controllers, radar, computers, apps, etc) for 60 years because the Right won't pay. Ray Dalio, in his THE CHANGING WORLD ORDER, shows the have vs have-not conflict always devolves into social disorder.
He didn't send the letter to any of the flight attendants. He is a coward and a liar. The crew scheduling system isn't outdated, it's just that this "Numbers Guy" Kirby has skimmed that workforce down to so few people that there is simply not enough to handle issues. Even when there is no meltdown, wait times to speak to scheduling are exceptionally long. He has cut down on catering staff, ground staff, gate agents, reps, etc. He think's he's making so much money for his stockholders but he is turning his employees against him and quickly sinking the ship. People will go out of their way to avoid flying United because the only thing consistent is delays, cancellations, unhappy employees, and shit food.
Can't wait until you invade Canada.
Then our system will be as screwed as yours.
And then we get Spirit and Frontier airline passengers trying to kill each other.
In-flight. Great.
So then just keep blaming Trump. You fall down a flight of stairs when you're drunk....blame Trump too!
It's just a bs excuse to suck at your job.
IAD is an awful airport to connect from international arrivals during the early afternoon bank of arrivals. Wait times of an hour plus for immigrations, then long wait times at TSA = easy to miss your connection.
Wonder if a Hawker 800 from TEB to Colorado might have taken one of those valuable westbound slots...
United does carry more local market revenue from EWR than from any of their own hubs or of any other US airline from any other hub.
ATL is by far the largest hub for total revenue for DL and any other US airline but UA at EWR carries more local market revenue.
How do I do any of the above, when I've never blamed Trump for anything, don't drink, and am retired?
You really don't think much before writing, do you?
And point 6, United employees and customers do not need a CEO with a good ghostwriter. They need a CEO willing to lead in a crisis. The Board should begin their search today.
Is it because there IT department is using legacy systems and not machine learning or AI to help mitigate situations like this? They should be on the cloud infrastructure to prevent these issues in the first place. They have plenty of choices: Oracle, AWS, M$FT, Google, etc..
AeRo
"EWR is the best international gateway that exists anywhere in the country."
Was that supposed to be a laugh line to break the ice?
How can anyone take this clown seriously when he spouts such bullshit?
They need to fly more wide bodies to reduce the number of slots. I am also reading between the lines that more pre-emptive EWR inbound ground stops are coming.
So that Grandpa Joe can waste the current spending on forgiving student loans?
It’s incredible that you read this article and your takeaway from all of this is that the letter is somehow blaming Trump. Holy crap you need help. Get your lips off his ass and use your brain for 5 minutes. Jeez.
What do I make of Scott Kirby’s comments? Not good enough. Stop defecting blame and do something. And apologize to your employees for your carefree attitude about their work and what they went through. And to United’s Bod, fire Scott Kirby — now.
I read that comment to mean that bringing the FAA into the modern age has been back-burnered by many previous administrations, not simply the last one. Sad that we always jump to extreme politics at any opportunity.
I agree with your points....but WHY do you ALWAYS need to reference DL in everything you post?
You're a smart guy, and therefore should understand you're like a broken record.
Many people believe that CEO pay in general is out of proportion to the value added by their efforts and especially so when considered in the context of hourly and lower level management salaries. This concern is not limited to the airlines.
So, this makes CEO's quick and available lightning rods in times of operational stress and grief for their organization. It's not brilliant, but nevertheless true, that any CEO who forgets about optics is courting disaster in a time of danger.
Mr. Kirby's memo is strong in many ways, but he missed a key point. His memo is not humble or apologetic about the part of his personal behavior where he messed up through his insensitive behavior. He wasn't in the trenches with his team when he was getting on a private jet in the midst of everone else bailing like hell to keep the ship, his ship, from sinking. When the CEO lacks humility, he is definitely going to get in trouble more easily and struggle harder to get out of it.
It wasn't just Newark, it was system wide. People were delayed and on cots and on hold in Denver, San Francisco,and Boston - just to name a few. To single out one base is an insult.
One thing for sure is Ed Bastian wouldn't do what scotty did... Ed walks the talk.
the most impressive thing to do would have been to find out exactly why the arrival and departure rates were as low as they were - which probably would have eliminated needing to say anything to the public or the FAA (which is essentially what an employee letter is) as was said in the first letter.
the second would have been to either stick around in NY/NJ during the meltdown or quietly drive out of town back to Chicago rather than take a private jet to Colorado.
And the third most important thing would have been to never set up EWR to fail so badly as Scott Kirby - who pronounces himself as the greatest airline network guru on the planet - did.
all the spinning he is doing now has to be seen in light of those 3 epic failures.
because in this case, DL is UA's most direct competitor in NYC. Scott Kirby is intensely competitive. He wouldn't be near as interested in trying to run EWR so hard if they were still the only show in NYC.
It is not just in NYC but DL and UA have set themselves up as the two biggest and most competitors to each other. There were many quarters after Scott Kirby came to UA that he specifically said on earnings calls that he intended to match and exceed Delta's financial performance. This meltdown is a significant step back in that quest for UA and a step forward for DL
The letter is missing significantly bigger set of operational issues. I was one of the unfortunate people with diverted flight from EWR to Dulles on 6/26. 1. After 3 hours of captivity in the plane (in Dulles), they opened the doors for passenger to get out (FAA rule). For the next 7 hours at the gate, the only communication was through the TV screen informing passengers that flight is getting delayed by another hour. There was no one to talk to understand options and why some flights started to take off to EWR and our flight did not. it really felt like we were completely abandoned. After 7 hours of waiting, a bus ride offer from Dulles to EWR, was a good option! The only issue was how do I get my carry on bag, that I was forced to checkin at SFO. I was told to go to customer service desk, the only issue was there were only 2-3 people at the desk and the line extended from Gate 20 to beyond gate 14. At this rate, I could talk to an agent around 4 AM for my carry on bag. Then someone told us to go to baggage claim pick up for our bags and for bus rides. Only issue was there was no bag, long line of customers with the buses leaving in 30 minutes. Then someone showed up with a sign to call an 800 number to file a baggage claim form. The 800 number appeared to be for something else and talking to a representative was going to take at least another hour. They told us to go outside and look for UA bus. No Bus to be found. Finally the bus showed up, but perhaps the most heart breaking scene was seeing a handicapped person climbing the bus steps, on their hands and knees to try and board. No one from UA or Airport was there to help this gentleman. After 4 hours the bus arrived at EWR at around 4 AM, Tuesday morning. I went to baggage claim to file a baggage report and provided them the address of my hotel. I was told that it would take about 48 hours for delivery and was given another number to call to track the baggage. Unfortunately I was without my medication. For the next two days, the 800 number had a recording that the said they were still looking to find my luggage. On days 3 and 4, the recording said that my baggage was being delivered. No indication when. The day before my return from EWR to SFO, I still had no luggage and no idea where my bag was. I called the number and this time, I bit the bullet and decided to wait 3 hours to speak to a live agent. The agent couldn't find my bag and couldn't confirm when I will get it, so we both thought it was safest to have it shipped to my home in SF. She took all the information and gave me assurances that it was being handled and I will have my bag at my home in SF. Late Thursday evening, I received a text saying, "Baggage Delivery". I inquired where, and they said "your hotel". Really? And not my home?? At the same time, I received another text from UA saying my return flight on Friday morning from EWR to SFO had been cancelled. I called to try and rebook and found that there was another flight on the same day and same time, only with a different flight number. The agent couldn't explain why a new flight had been created and I was not on it. Perhaps being a "2 million miler", as UA calls me, wasn't big enough to qualify me for the new flight. They put me on an Alaska flight for the next day. This story high lights a significant set of operational issues, perhaps some cultural issues, that UA needs to address. While some people were working hard to try and help out, they are limited by poorly designed systems. No or poor communication and the feeling of being abandoned at EWR with no communication, highlights a cultural issue. I am afraid that the letter doesn't address the core of the issues with systems and culture. The CEO must be aware and that's why he took the private jet.
Let's get trump permanently out of everyone's head. The snake oil conman needs to be convicted and banned from ever holding office again.
My son's flight out of Indianapolis was cancelled because of the EWR chaos. He had to get a hotel and the airline was not helpful and very dismissive.
Kirby should not have left town - indisputable. An apology added to the thanks/I am proud even if UA had no culpability should have been there. Who actually wrote the letter totally irrelevant - a real cheap shot especially given the extent of the explanation. Share us the cheap shots
Grandpa Joe has passed significantly more legislation then Mango Mussolini did. Guess Grandpa Joe actually works instead of sitting on his hind portion eating McDonald's hamburgers and watching fox ???news???.
well said and accurate.
UAL has the most competitive domestic route system of the big 4. AAL and UAL have both said they want to improve their operational reliability in order to improve their revenue performance.
Having your operation melt down in highly competitive markets does the opposite of helping you build your revenue premium.
And UAL's labor relations improved under Munoz from their historic very caustic levels but are quickly swinging back to the summer of 2000 and worse.
Kirby is no Herb Kelleher. That said, the airlines SNAFU situations will get worse in the name of climate change. TPTB would love to ground the whole industry -- except for themselves -- but it needs to look like the industry was unfairly backed into a corner with no way out. It's coming...
1st, how is it that Buttigieg has had 3 years at the helm but still the FAA problems have been "inherited"? I realize it is a governmental bureaucracy but c'mon, man. Kirby seems bent to protect the FAA, either to stay in their good graces, or because he is politically left-leaning, or both.
2nd, I'm a crew scheduler for a United Express company and I can tell you that crew scheduling software is atrocious from top to bottom. To say that it works 99.99% like it is supposed to work is wrong. The best analogy is the duck on water. It looks peaceful and relaxed from above, but below those little legs are kicking like crazy.
3rd, EWR is probably one of the worst airports in the USA and maybe it's time to rethink the largest United hub there.
Perhaps the CSs at UA would prefer a monetary bonus for their good work those days rather than an ineffectual letter from an ineffectual CEO?
This does nothing to address core problems of an industry trying to operate on the cheap. More airline meltdowns will continue. And our Transportation Secretary? The average poster on Flyertalk knows more.
Does anyone else find it odd that these only occur on National Holiday weekends; while the rest of the time regular people like myself have to work. Our bosses such as the CEO at United have no such limitation; I consider his apology pretty lame and offer points for a future fight insulting. If you care so much then pay the $5000 dollars guaranteed to each personnel that thru no fault of their own there vacation was ruined or had to be canceled by you who was jetting off in a private aircraft while thousands of hard working american were stranded
Trump is on your mind like a cancer.
You trump haters sound like those losers who are still pining for the ex... 2.5 years later.
Untied is a poorly ran business that has overspent (billions on new aircraft) yet has been bailed out by the United States government (tax payers) but then blames that same government for its failure to plan??!! I can think of another major airline that is huge in nyc (just look around yankee stadium for a guess), they seemed to recover just fine. It’s not us Scott, it’s you.
You missed one tech buzzword in your solution, blockchain. But that might be out of favor due to the crypto meltdown.
How can a hub be both the best international gateway and be operationally difficult at the same time? It isn’t the best unless the stars align. Typical CEO CYA deflect blame to others memo. The network and system has weak points and he has a lot of work to do to fix it. I would be outraged if I had been left in Newark Airport for days like many are reporting on mainstream media.
Easier? Maybe if you live in Westchester County. From Midtown Manahattan, you're talking 1:30 with minimal traffic as opposed to 40-45 to EWR. My SIL lives across the bridge in NJ. 25 min to EWR, an hour to Stewart.
Thats why people don't use it.
American Airlines seems to have a reputation for setting up flights that it never intends on taking. I was in Dallas flying to New Orleans. Our flight was delayed due to no flight crew. At 11pm we were told we had a pilot coming from Miami. An hour later the pilot was coming from Boston. When the flight arrived from Boston at 1:30AM, the pilots were unaware of what we were being told and had no intentions of taking on another flight. Around 2AM (+) we were finally informed there was no pilot. Vouchers were being issued for a hotel but of course didn't include transfers and we were expected to be back at the airport by 6-7AM. The employees were extremely rude and when paying customers were expressing their discontent they threatened to walk away. I guess they fail to understand we pay their salaries. We didn't wait in the 30ft long line but left with other guests to find a hotel and book a guaranteed flight on another airline the next day..... Southwest came through where American lacked, flight and great customer service.
Of course United's decesion not to use JFK for any operations meant the loss of any alternate possibilities of easing the situation. Thats it, "put all you eggs in one basket" use EWR as your only access to the NYC area and then end up as you did,
He should add a bullet point to their employees:
"A Note: When you have a group reservation of 40 teenagers in route to Japan... you put those kids in a plane no matter what, You do not leave them stranded for 6 days in Newark... I repeat You do not leave them sleeping on the floor with no food and then stranded in the airport hotel for 6 days."
Those Kids saved for 2 years to go on a school trip and lost their opportunity because United placed them on a 7-hour waiting queue.
Zero acknowledgment or apology from the CEO of his personal actions - how is that "impressive?" Also this is laughable: "EWR is the best international gateway that exists anywhere in the country. But it’s also the most operationally difficult airport in the country." Sure, Scott.
There have been very few ATC delays today and UA started the day with dozens of cancellations and still leads the industry at this hour even if all they have is 1% of flights cxld-just as was the case before their meltdown of the last week of June.
UA's schedule was beyond the airline's capability to deliver and the thunderstorms just exposed their vulnerability.
The next bad ATC situation in the NE or anywhere else could end up with the same result until UA staffs sufficiently to staff the schedule they publish.
From a longtime but still "just a customer" of UA's point of view, what you wrote, Shayla, pretty well describes how UA looks to me. Cost-cutting, for whatever good or not-so-good reason, is making UA unattractive as a travel provider. I paid over $5000 for a business class trip to AMS...I am not a picky eater, but I simply could not eat the food because of its appearance, its temperature, the mismatched foods that made the other foods unpleasant options, the flight attendants' obvious lack of interest in the customer. Absolute waste of money for a very unpleasant travel experience. Which...I do not plan to repeat. Next trip to Europe will be in coach (I'm sure I will survive and sleep well anywhere in Europe!) without the diminished goods offered by UA currently. Used to be okay or even good, depending on which flight attendants happened to be assigned to me flight...but it has gone downhill in the last 2-3 years.
I will have to say in Ewr many employees at the airport are under extreme fatigue with been call to stay 4 hours everyday making them leave home at 4am or 5am and to come back to more cancellations. Agents are fatigue trying to find protections but no extra sections for cancel flights. I feel bad for united employees who are in airport constantly rebooking and above all customers yelling and using extreme foul language. Remember that are humans and mentally exhausted and draining to them.
And that is why Continental Airlines kept Cleveland as a hub as it was Plan B when hit the fan in Newark.
Given the current state of raging fires in Canada and the impact on their neighbor, and perhaps the increasing number of cancelled Canadian flights, might it have been prudent of United’s CEO to engage Secretary Buttigieg to quickly open a dialog with Canada to temporarily free up more airspace???
Not excusing Kirby by any means but do we officially know he was going on vacation / to a vacation home? Haven’t actually seen that reported any where but here.
JFK had cancellations too, just not concentrated on one carrier. Our flight was cancelled while we waited to takeoff at end of runway at JFK
From what I understand, however, the flight attendants union previously pushed back AGAINST United's desires to modernize and automate the crew scheduling systems.
I like how there is no mention of the over worked and over scheduled aircrews with minimal rest each day with no room to flex. This fuels the butterfly effect throughout the system when you have an event like this. Don't blame it all on the FAA.
EWR is the best international gateway in the country lol what a joke. More like the best gateway out of New Jersey;) He’s monitoring the situation from his chartered corporate jet. While people sleep on the floor due to his dismal management.
Don’t think the general public fully understands how fragile the aviation ecosystem is at the best of times. Post Covid pfffftttt.
All sectors of the system ; ATC, Airports, and Airlines. Bent and oh so close to breaking and staffing is to me at least the leading factor by far.
Alaska was fine. Seemed organized, flew on time and landed a bit early. Carry on Luggage, that I ended up checking at the gate (because the flight was full), showed up quickly upon arrival at SFO.
UA made an announcement that the CEO himself paid for the private plane and not the company. This makes it sound like a personal/vacation trip. Times of crisis are also opportunities to build customer trust and show role model leadership. I would have expected to see all hands on deck attitude but unfortunately, it was a huge missed opportunity.
Infrastructure beyond its prime, lack of investment in the state of the art technologies, poor services to deal with even light inclement weather and a monopolistic industry not interested in improving mean that Americans should get used to spending more time at airports.
No mention of improving crew scheduling to better & longer training & pay increase. THEY are the CRUX of the operation! The crew desk of the past knew our contract & never violated it, knowingly. They NEVER had a meltdown! They dealt with weather, strikes & personal lives & traumas of "their" flight attendants. And they always got the job done! They became not important to the company & disrespected & disappeared from our view. They became an invisible voice & an 800 number. So sad! I'm happy that I had this visible, supportive team throughout my junior years on reserve.
2.5 years into the Biden presidency and they still cannot figure out staffing issues for controllers? Incompetence and not inherited. Also Newark sucks as an airport!
My wife & I experienced the same 4-day Tue-Sat stranded in Dulles last week. Total horror story. Exhausted standing in United's long rebooking lines (4 hrs Tue, 3 hrs Wed). The 1st rebooked flight was cancelled 2 hrs prior to takeoff. The 2nd rebooking was botched by the poor admittedly-exhausted gate agent who never could confirm the flight for us. She and all other gate agents within earshot were grumbling about having t use United's two reservation systems to rebook, and both are outdated and in bad need of replacement. The error on the 2nd rebooking showed we were not booked on the flight she told us, which would have cost us another 4 days to be stranded in IAD a total of 8 days until we got home. They were handing out lodging & food vouchers right & left, which were largely worthless after they expire in 24 hours, unless you come back to the airport to stand several more hours just to get a $15 food voucher. Since the vouchers were worthless, we self paid hotel & meals for days 2-4 of our stranding and yesterday filed a reimbursement claim. We will see how long this takes to collect. But after being a Mileage Plus member for 20 years, my wife and I have decided no more United ever again. I'm shopping other airlines & mileage plans this morning.
As an actual flight crew member that email was absolutely infuriating. It might sound good released to the public and it might even address some contributors factors. It does miss it by a mile for morale. The company leaders go takes zero accountability and they do not ever apologize for the company leaving crews not only displaced, but uninformed. We have had irregular operations in the past but last summer and this summer has been the first time ever we can recall that no matter how hard we tried we couldn’t reach the company, we weren’t contacted or schedules updated even after extended delays and cancellations. We are expected to jump through hoops to stay out of trouble but the airline has no loyalty or apparent care for what they are putting us through. Most of us are over it and are tired of making excuses. I could write a lot of great memo’s - what I’m done with is apologizing for things out of my control and doing so daily.
I have only one expectation from United at this point. Complete reimbursement of all monies spent on the 2 days/ nights I was stranded in a city in which I did not live.
And how dare you “Scott”.
The same issue happened again for UA804 out of tokyo. Kirby’s operations team was amazingly ineffective again. we were diverted to baltimore, the next location in the path of the storm. The flight managed to park instead of in Dulles in baltimore’s tarmac. The fuel was out, food was out and the pilots timed out a few hours later. only good thing was passengers were calm. The incoming new pilots could not take off as there was no one to push the plane, mind you an operations team that can foresee a problem is a big issue. Calm passengers were rewarded by the plane taking off back to dulles to a non existent gate that took another 45 minutes to materialize. Later learnt the united flight from munich just ended in baltimore after 3 hour wait on tarmac and UA could have done the same. At 12 pm the passengers were summarily dismissed knowing no food or water would be available. The luggage instead of being transferred as is normal for international flights had to be taken out of security due to lack of willing manpower. 12 hours after landing united has still to say why no food vouchers or hotel vouchers issued for passengers who will get next connecting flight at 10pm. My colleague will be taking a flight nearly 26 hours after landing while for me it will be after 8 hours.The passengers whether in wheelchair or with kids or in premier access just were all lumped in one queue and ofcourse the staff disappeared behind closed doors in response to any issue. I have had many flights with united that were far better.