How an airline handles flights normally is one thing. But how they handle it when problems occur speaks to their character. Read to bottom as we just updated this with additional information from those onboard.
We first heard about this flight to Hawaii last week from a friend of ours Stan. He and his wife Sue had the unfortunate experience of being on this 4-hour flight to nowhere in which a planned 5-hour flight ended up taking 14 hours.
Flight to Hawaii Gone Wrong!
The event took place last Tuesday on United flight 1111 which flight to Hawaii was leaving San Francisco for Lihue when the problem occurred. Shortly after take-off, the pilot notified passengers that they would need to return to San Francisco due to a problem with the plane’s auto pilot which could not be engaged.
In order to return, what often happens next is dumping fuel to reduce the landing weight of the aircraft. Unfortunately, that’s when another problem began to surface. A 757 is not able to dump fuel and thus it had to be burned off prior to landing. In addition, the plane was largely stuck in a storm. For four hours the flight circled and bumped endlessly. Passengers became ill with many vomiting and it was a bad and scary situation. Above photo of crazy flight pattern courtesy of flightaware.com.
As United and our friends all pointed out, when the plane finally landed safely at its starting point in San Francisco, drink and meal vouchers were provided. Stan said they were offered $10 per person! (Read on for update on this).
The company then sourced another aircraft. After some additional delays, the flight that normally arrives at about noon, landed on Kauai at about 9pm.
Were you also on that flight or do you have any similar flight gone wrong stories to share?
Update: We just spoke with Sue (Stan’s wife) who had some important additional information to share.
1. On the flight, no compensation was mentioned.
2. When they returned to SFO, they were told they would take off again at 445 pm.
3. After they scrambled for food and had finished eating, they returned to the gate. There they found free bottles of water and if you went to get water you learned about the $10 vouchers (too little too late we’d say). Communication was not great.
4. The replacement flight was also late, in part because a new crew was required due to the length of time that had already passed in relation to crew rest rules. Then there was no crew for the tug to push the plane back.
5. Lastly, no compensation was offered on the replacement flight in terms of free drinks or anything else. At end of trip they were told to look for an email from United – that was extent of customer service. An email arrived subsequently with a choice of $200 travel certificate or free miles.
6. At Lihue passengers had waited at the airport all day (some 14+ hours).
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Two comments;
1. We had a similar experience on Southwest last year flying Las Vegas to San Jose….they told us the plane had received too much fuel while stopped in Vegas, and due to landing safety concerns we had to burn off some fuel. So we flew all ’round the Bay Area burning up fuel until they felt it was safe to land. You know on the one hand, like you guys (Southwest) couldn’t have figured this out ahead of time, and on the other hand, thanks for putting safety first.
2. Delta turned a Pisa Italy -> JFK -> SFO flight into a several day painful ordeal with little to no communication, and NO compensation or offer of miles. The original issue was a safety issue. We were overloaded and over-heavy to the point Delta was unsure if we could take off and clear the mountain(s) around Pisa. Long hours sitting on the tarmac followed by pandamonium getting off the plane, getting luggage, more long hours standing around, followed by an overnight in Pisa, followed by a next day bus ride to Milan, followed by many more hours sitting in the Milan airport, more delays resulting in getting to JKF so late nothing was taking off for the west coast, so another night in a motel, and more non-communication the next day as we tried to get home. Go back to the original issue, that being over-heavy at Pisa. I’ll ask again, couldn’t you guys (Delta this time) have figured this out ahead of time!
We plan to fly from Hilo to LAX at the end of July and return the beginning of August. Fares are now alittle over $800. Are fares expected to go lower? Thank You.
Hi Donna.
No unfortunately. Details here: https://beatofhawaii.com/the-cheapest-time-to-fly-to-hawaii/.
Aloha.
We flew United last month SFO to NRT. Mechanical difficulty caused us to miss our NRT to BKK connection (on another carrier). United put us up for the night in Tokyo, dinner and breakfast vouchers and rebooked us on Thai the following day. Just wanted to post a story where United stepped up
Hi Peter.
Next time you two are here we’ll introduce you to Stan and Sue and you can share stories.
Aloha.
I’m surprised! I always fly United and I’ve never had a problem with them! They are still the best and often the most reasonable. I have had issues with American Airlines, however. Something similar but they did not compensate us after we ended up missing our flights and waited for hours for the next one. The United crew is always professional and nice… Not so much with American.
My husband and I suffered similar problems with Hawaiian Airlines. Had an 8 am flight that was DELAYED for 11 hours from PDX to HNL. We flew first class because of my health conditions. ELEVEN hours sitting in uncomfortAble chairs, no place to relax for 11 hours. By the time we made it to our Hotel it was midnight Hawaiian time. I was sick the entire 10 days. Spent most days at the hotel unable to do much, in horrible pain. Waited 10 years to get back to Hawaii and saw ver little. Hawaiian gave us lunch and dinner vouchers. Still after 8 months, I am still upset over it.
Similar experience on United 3 years ago. 3 hour delay at Burbank airport then a 4 hour delay at San Francisco. We got $15 food vouchers at SF because I asked for them. Free water. Two weeks later they sent us a $75 flight credit which we never used! I had never been particularly happy with United but this was the straw that broke the camel’s back! Never again.
In 2004 we were returning to SFO from Maui on United (our 1st trip to Maui) and sat out on the runway for about 2 hours due to some computer problem. Then they brought the plane back into the terminal, and we were given a small amount of $ voucher per each boarding pass (maybe $10?) to buy food. But with 3 boarding pass credits totalling $30 we only had enough to feed our teenage son..!We then sat in the airport for about 5-6 hours. They tried to bring another plane over from Honolulu, but then the problem was the crew–had to get a new crew since the first crew had been on duty too long. After all that waiting a United representative came and said that they would put us up for the night at the Hyatt (in Ka’anapali), but there were no buses available to take us because they were all being used at the luau, so it was up to us to get ourselves back over to the west side (about a 45 minute drive from the airport.) We rented another car and drove over to the Hyatt.They gave us another hotel voucher for food, but it was only enough for 2 of us to have the breakfast buffet. We were told to report back to the airport at 4 pm the next day. We finally got home a day later. I called United the next day, and gave them the flight number and date and asked for reimbursement of our car rental and food purchases, but they had no record of the incident! The lesson I learned from this was to always get the name and business card of the person in charge–in this case the United representative who told us that we were being put up at the Hyatt hotel. After complaining we each given a $100 voucher, which I’m not sure we ever used. It would have been much better if our expenses had just been reimbursed.
We had a somewhat similar experience last February going to tha Big Island on United. Our flight was meant to arrived at 12:30pm and landed at 9:30pm. We then had a 1:45 minute drive to Hilo. United offered us a $150 flight credit-the second flight in a row whete we received this sop. We didn’t use the credit because we never want ti fly UAL again.
Two years ago, Delta Atlanta to Honolulu on a 747,seated in coach. Full load, waiting for doors to close. We are informed of a mechanical problem. 45 minute wait on board. They tell us to deplane taking our belongings. Bottled water, cokes, sandwiches, cookies in the waiting area. 2 hrs later we are informed that we need to go to international arrivals and wait for the flight from Amsterdam to arrive since that will be our new aircraft. We schlep our stuff over to the new gate. More sandwiches, pizza, Panda Express rice, sweet sour chicken, cookies, cokes, water, bananas, apples available. Since there was a six hr delay I knew people had changed their flights. Asked gate agent if I could pay extra and upgrade to Comfort Plus. He printed out a new boarding pass and told me to enjoy my flight. Delta is my new airline.
Why didn’t they just continue to Hawaii, instead of circling over the Pacific,
United left the 2 of us in Colorado Springs at midnight, no food, no shuttle, no bus, just a locked down terminal with working water fountain and open rest rooms for the night. No comps of any kind as it was a “WEATHER LIGHTING STORM AND RAIN’ mother nature is to blame NOT UNITED. Plane we sat on for 8 hours, a ‘regional jet’ with sling seats, over flow toilet, throw up baby, moncho man who wanted to fight other passengers, full flight NO EMPTY SEATS, and night of HELL. Please do not fly UNITED. I personally would rather walk!
Be nice to United? Why? United is not nice to you unless United is put in a squees. Goodby, United.
wow!! I apologize for you having to go through this ordeal, yes $10 is a kick in the chops quite honestly, it’s amazing how many of us don’t really was the complete “Terms and Conditions” ..not what you receive from your agent but the (actual carrier’s) “T&C” (we/payment, does or does not garrantee the actual arrival at destination) arr or dep, and or can be cancelled at any time without notice, or refund.
LMAO just so you all know,
…and no folks I am not kidding you!
What a horrible start of a trip! I hope you had a really good time after that. I have had delays but nothing like this report on united. Good luck on your next trip which I hope is perfect for you both.
September 2016. American Airlines. Out of Phoenix Az. To Maui. We had to fly for 4 hours in circles to burn off fuel due to a warning light that wouldn’t allow us to fly over water. After we landed back in Phoenix they had sandwiches and soda and water at no charge An hour later we were in the air with no other problems but instead of arriving at 2:00 Hawaii time we got in at 10:00 pm and then had to drive to hotel. Credited us some frequent flyer miles without asking. My biggest question to the Airline is why not get us to LA or San Francisco and have a plane there waiting. It was quite frustrating but a great vacation in the end. Better than total cancellation and then have to go crazy trying to get there. 🌴🍹☀️.
Oh boy! This is the same flight I am booked on for June. Same # and times. Hopefully it’s a one time occurrence. :/
We got delayed last October on a Hawaiian Airline flight for about 12 hours. Initially gave $10 meal tickets,then said they would give $400 vouchers but upped to $800 vouchers.ourvtrip next December is in first class and almost free.a very reasonable settlement.
Back in the early 1960s was on a military MAC flight from Hickham AFB to Moffet Field south of SFO on a Super Constellation. Nonstop, no problems it took eighteen hours!!! One of the longest flights I had ever been on…
Worse, actualy, but it was from Florida to Los Angeles and that flight map looks familiar. Initial flight from Jacksonville to LAX with a stop in Atlanta was cancelled due to weather, we were swithched to a Miami-LA flight and were put on a plane to Miami which flew to Orlando, Tampa, and after a stop in Daytona where I’d originally started, back to Orlando where we were switched to a flight to Houston, terminating there. After spending the remaining three hours of the night on an airport bench, finally left for LAX from Houston at 8 the next morning after starting out 5p the prior day.
Ten dollars a person for that miserable experience? You have to be kidding. And now we know why they have dropped the “Friendly Skies” motto. One more really good reason to always fly Hawaiian.
Hi Sheila.
Who knows, maybe more compensation is coming. We can only hope so. But as of this weekend, that’s all they had received or been offered.
Aloha.
seriously-you wanted to go home cause your autopilot quit and you were too lazy to fly manually.
so instead-you flew manually in circles and complicated zig-zags for over 4 hours to go home…?
and the normal flight time should have been 5 hours?
WUSSS!
and then united only gave $10 vouchers-never gonna fly united!!!!
Hawaiian woulda rowed the plane to HI and given 100$ vouchers…
What a nightmare that must have been for everyone on board!!