Key Points

• Landed in Ezeiza, Argentina 2.5 days after scheduled arrival time.
• No warnings were given to customers despite known facts of delays and crew timeouts.
• People were told they were getting hotels and shuttles but no one followed up.

Saturday June 6th

• 5 hour delay from Houston, Texas announced. Sure, this shit happens.
• Everyone boards the plane and we are getting ready for push off. It is announced that one of the flight crew will hit their maximum duty times if we leave, and we all must deboard the plane.
  • Known fact, no warning.
• 2AM we are told we will get hotel vouchers (located 3-5 miles away) and meal vouchers ($20).
• Next flight will depart 1PM Sunday.

Sunday June 7th

• Flight leaves Houston, TX around 1:30PM heading to BA.
• We make the entire 10-hour journey to South America to circle above the Ezeiza airport at 35,000 feet only to turn around.
  
• Apparently there is a lot of fog in Buenos Aires and it is not safe to land. We must backtrack to Cordoba (COR) in order to refuel.
  • Other planes seem to be landing just fine.
  • Fog is very common at this time of year in BA, why not just land in Cordoba originally?
• Land in Cordoba, Argentina around 3AM.

Monday June 8th

• 5AM (2 hours after landing) we are still on the plane and on the ground. An announcement: we will be deboarding here and going through customs.
• 6:30AM the doors finally open and we are able to take shuttles to the customs officers.
• We are told to head upstairs for direction on hotel arrangements. I don’t have a checked bag so I’m 2nd on the list to provide my name and phone number.
• Told to stand at the side for “a few minutes” and to wait for the shuttle, I stand and piddle on my phone patiently. About 90 minutes later I see no progress and order an Uber to the closest hotel. I have to work today and it’s 8AM!
  • Later I’m told that no shuttles or help ever arrived.
• Next flight will depart 11:30PM.

Monday June 8th Continued…

• Pay another taxi fee to head back to the airport for the late-night 23:30 departure.
• Right around boarding time it is announced that there is too much fog in BA to fly safely.
  • Other planes seem to be flying into BA just fine, we checked.
  • The crew was cleared of their legal rest period earlier in the day when fog was not an issue, why the late departure time?
  • No warning was given before everyone went back to the airport despite the pilot saying “I’ve been seeing the fog for 10 hours now”.
• I head back to the same hotel since I’ve already paid for an overnight room on the same day.
  • I hear again later from others that no help from United Airlines ever arrived for them.

Tuesday June 9th

• Flight scheduled for a much more reasonable 1PM no-fog departure.
• There have been so many mishaps at this point I get this boarding pass.
  
• ~85% of the plane passengers are gone because they (wisely) found other airlines to take, rented cars, or took busses to BA. I wish I had the foresight.
• A passenger boarding asks the crew “where do I sit?” and she answers: “I don’t care, just sit down”.
  
• We land in Buenos Aires at 2:15 PM. The empty plane erupts in applause. ¡Estoy aquí!

Key Takeaways

• It was not all bad. I met some new friends and had some great conversations. I knocked out two days of work while traveling.
• I am done with United Airlines. I will be selling my stock. Who wants my loyalty points?
• I am not entirely sure the cause of everything but I *feel* like something political/economic was going on. A lot of decisions didn’t make sense and not a lot of respect or warning was given to passengers or even the crew.