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Hey Psqueeb

eric strt6

eric strt6

Resident Curmudgeon
Sep 8, 2001
24,209
14,854
directly above the center of the earth
What could break on a British airways 747 in SFO that would require a part getting flown in from NY that was not available at SFO and delay a 2pm departure to now 11pm... yes my wife is stuck in the Terminal trying to get to Heathrow

First notification of delay was given at 9am original push back was to 4pm then 6 then 9 now 11:think:

something tells me there are some pissed off mechanics at SFO right now
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
55,805
21,816
Sleazattle
There are 6,000,000 parts in a 747. If you expect every part to be stored at every airport, tickets would cost a few orders of magnitude more.

I am guessing the mechanics don't give a flying **** about your problems.
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
41,450
18,713
Riding the baggage carousel.
Westy said:
There are 6,000,000 parts in a 747. If you expect every part to be stored at every airport, tickets would cost a few orders of magnitude more.

I am guessing the mechanics don't give a flying **** about your problems.
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^^^^^
Pretty succinct.

On the shelf inventory is expensive. Where this gets really strange is cities like SFO and DEN and FSM only knows where else, have special taxes/fees/what have you that airlines pay monthly for what ever multi thousand dollar parts is sitting on the shelf. In DEN for example where these kind of shenanigans are particularly weird, we actually have a warehouse out in Aurora to store parts, and some minimum wage parts monkey shuttles the more expensive parts back and forth when needed. This of course becomes a cost/benefit wager on the airlines part. The airline cant forecast everything of course, but they have a pretty good idea what common issues will arise and try to prepare for that, while at the same time not stocking a $600,000 computer that never breaks except once a year on a shelf in every city they fly to.

That said, SFO is a huge United mainline MX facility. One would think BA would just try to buy a part from United if they had one. Without knowing more I'd hesitate to speculate any further on what might be going on there. It's possible your wifes airplane might actually have a fairly significant mechanical issue and for cost/legal issues, it's easier for BA just to take a days worth of delays/cancels and fly their own people and parts from EWR and just do the job themselves. Or they just don't trust United. Anecdotaly, I took a trip last (two?) month(s) ago to IAD to fix some crap that another airline effed up for us after being contracted out to avoid these exact kind of delays.
 
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MMike

MMike

A fowl peckerwood.
Sep 5, 2001
18,207
105
just sittin' here drinkin' scotch
And taking a page from Louis CK......everyone should be freaking happy about it.

To have one of the most complex and gigantic machines man has ever built, breakdown and then be able to turn it around in a handful of hours, and have it back flying SAFELY is a testament to just how good the designers, regulators and mechanics are.
 
stevew

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
41,059
10,010
eric strt6 said:
well they took off at 11:19 pm. "If" the flight time is correct she will have 40 minutes to make her connection to Delhi which is only 2 gates away at Heathrow
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maybe she can teleport next time.
 
stevew

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
41,059
10,010
MMike said:
And taking a page from Louis CK......everyone should be freaking happy about it.

To have one of the most complex and gigantic machines man has ever built, breakdown and then be able to turn it around in a handful of hours, and have it back flying SAFELY is a testament to just how good the designers, regulators and mechanics are.
Click to expand...
muricans demand convenience!
 
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