Last week was pretty surreal.
Last Wednesday, United flight 85 from Tel Aviv to Newark diverted to Cleveland due to thunderstorms. It was the first ever 787-10 in Cleveland.
I found out some 50 kosher keeping passengers, including kids, were on the flight and figured they would be stuck in Cleveland for a while. I only did what I’d love if it was done for me in that situation, I bought a few cases of food from Trader Joe’s as they were closing and drove to the airport with Dr. Shmulie Margolin, who had also gathered together food thanks to Ohio Kosher. We hit some turbulence from a United agent, but eventually got the food through to the passengers, who eventually got home at 4am, some 11 hours after their scheduled arrival time.
It was a nice story, but my jaw hit the ground when I saw the story on the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
United flight 85’s bad luck didn’t end there.
Yesterday there were also thunderstorms in Newark, but this time United flight 85 from Tel Aviv to Newark diverted to a much closer airport, Boston:
Their return flight from Boston to Newark was cancelled though. Hopefully they were able to make it to Brookline for some kosher food 🙂
Their plane didn’t return from Boston to Newark until today at 1:18pm:
Meanwhile, United flight 84 from Newark to Tel Aviv yesterday was also cancelled:
United flight 90 from Newark to Tel Aviv yesterday took off today after a 14 hour delay:
Yesterday’s diversion caused today’s United flight 85 from Tel Aviv to Newark to be cancelled:
And yesterday’s delayed flight 90 means that United flight 91 from Tel Aviv to Newark today is currently showing a 9.5 hour delay and will instead depart tomorrow:
So, who’s on first again?
Oh the joys of air travel through NYC. Maybe American is onto something with their Dallas service to Tel Aviv after all? Though I would love to see United fight back with Chicago or Houston service to Tel Aviv.
Were you on any of these United flights?
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31 Comments On "Another Week, Another Diverted United Dreamliner From Israel"
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My In laws and son on are on UA90. They finally canceled the flight at 3:00 AM last night after making them wait for hours and sent everyone home and told them the flight was leaving at 1:00 PM. Then they moved it back 11:30 AM. Flight finally took of at 12:37. Long day for everyone involved
Milk St Cafe is closer to BOS than Brookline. But they are only one 7am-3pm
Should we expect issues going forward ? Newark weather didn’t justify cancellations
We have a winter united direct
Should we be concerned ? any Comp for a day delay ? (Time off from work for annual vacation?)
No comp for weather delays
I was out driving yestersay through those storms and pulled over multiple times because I couldn’t see in front of me at all. Those storms absolutely justified cancellations!
Yesterday was a mess. Flights out of LAX on planes inbound from the NY area were severely delayed. LAX to FLL on JetBlue was delayed because the incoming metal was delayed out of JFK. Airlines really need to coordinate better. An LAX to FLL flight (in both places weather was wonderful) shouldn’t be affected by weather at JFK. Just coordinate planes better. Enough planes go back and forth from FLL to LAX and San Diego. And I’m sure there was a perfectly good plane sitting idle at SFO just when we needed it.
Dfw has the worst weather planning system
My Daughter is on the Thursday night flight 91 from TLV to EWR after her 8 week Internship Program. I ended up putting her up in a hotel, she said it would probably be the best night’s sleep she had in 8 weeks… flight should take off 9am, land 2pm in EWR.
Tell me again how people in IAH are clamoring to connect through EWR instead of DFW 🙂
Just kidding, but seriously this is getting absurd. At least yesterday’s diversion was logical – both in the “need” to divert and where they diverted to.
I still don’t think there was ever a clear explanation on last week’s diversion – why did they need to divert (weather wasn’t terrible), and where they diverted to
P.S. I’d have to imagine they’ll trot out Chicago service soon (before IAH imo)
I am ticketed to fly UA/85 next month on a Thursday.
I am concerned.
We’ll take care of you in CLE 😉
Make sure to pick him up in your Tesla, not in your Altima…
Dan, you would’ve loved for it to be diverted to CLE, then would be able to claim that United has a weekly flight TLV-CLE
Lol, I would have flown to TLV just to fly back on next Wednesday’s UA85 😀
Central New Jersey had an actual tornado yesterday. Are you complaining because the storm didn’t hit close enough to the airport?
I was on that flight Ua84. Completely dysfunctional how they are dealing with luggage. I’ve been in the airport all day just trying to retrieve it. Noone seems to know where it is. Many many other people from the flight there too just waiting for it to pop out . United told us hours after the storm that they got a full crew, and were just waiting for new first class meals to arrive was a lie. Ten minutes later they canceled. Cancellation was 7 hours and 40 min after original time, and they blamed it on crew. I am certain they were trying to beat the 8 hour delay where they would have to compensate as per Israeli aviation law 3100 shekel. (Was told that straight out 6 hours into the delay, that until 8 hours they wont compensate) First 3 hours was weather the next four- utter incompetence and aloofness toward customers. Any way I can get fair compensation from this arrogant airline who rule Newark like a monarchy?
Was also on the flight. Also don’t have my luggage yet. Did anyone get their luggage?
Some random luggage was on carousel 9 late in the afternoon. I literally had to pay an employee to personally go and look for mine. 2 hours of searching she finally found it. Outrageous. A flight gets cancelled why not just put all the luggage right in the carousel???
we got our luggage last night 10pm after sifting through thousands of pieces of luggage which were sitting against the back wall of the baggage claim area
Call and HUCA until u get some form of compensation.
Don’t know of any numbers to call United, they seem to only have an online form.
Hello Sam, I am still following up on this awful flight in which my kids and I had to sleep in luggage containers for lack of any sort of care for us from United. Could I contact you?
Speaking of NY airports, I heard on the radio today that LGA was so crowded that they limited car access. The result was major backups on the Grand Central Parkway. People were bailing out of their taxis and ride-shares and walking along the highway to their terminals with their bags in tow.
LY27 landed without diversion.
Risks of flying during the Nine Days. Don’t fly unless it’s a Dvar Mitzvah, or you asked your LOR.
DUH
Parents were on ua90. Thankfully they are now in Israel. I think the delaying the flight to 100 pm and then moving it up to 1136 only for them to actually take off at 117 was really frustrating. They said when they landed here theyre were a few heimish people with clipboards notifying everyone of their compensation rights and were taking down phone numbers to be in contact with passengers to help facilitate this.
AA819 from Phl-San was a full flight and delayed about 2 hrs late yesterday evening. Captain came on and stated they “cancelled our route” or it was “closed.” It took about an hour to coordinate a “new route” then we were allowed to take off.
It’s tough when flying w babies so I feel for all the families and even solo travelers on those severely altered flights. Trains in Europe compensate for even small inconveniences and delays.
We still don’t have our luggage for the flight Wednesday A84 at 4:50 which we were kicked off the flight at first because my toddler was overtired and had lots of candy….they told us “mam we can’t have you on our flight since he threw up!!” he was not sick and there was nothing wrong with him, they refused to bring someone to check him and they told us to exit or they cannot fly. They told us that their medical advisor told us to leave and when we told them that we wanted to speak to him they said he’s unavailable!! In the meantime, when we left the aircraft, the flight was canceled due to the absence of a pilot!!!We still don’t have our baggage and they will not compensate for anything!!!!United is not quite the best airline and they are not making they’re costumers happy!
Dan, AA must have read your post. They just announced nonstop from DFW to Israel thrice weekly starting Same day connections possible from the west coast.
The new 5G towers are ionizing the clouds… Anyone else notice that weather is never like this this time of year?