I did manage to get home last night from Providence, despite widespread cancellations and delays caused by the government shutdown de-staffing air traffic control. United was speedy, flexible, and informative under rapidly changing conditions, their employees, while clearly stressed out, stayed professional. I made it onto my 7:35 connecting flight from O’Hare to Madison with about 10 minutes to spare. The plane was only half full, because so many people were coming in late, and United ended up holding the flight for 45 minutes to let as many people get on as were able to get to O’Hare. I’m sure there were still a lot of people who didn’t get home. As I write this, the average delay departing O’Hare is 24 minutes; out of Newark, 53 minutes. There are already 263 announced cancellations for Monday. And there’s apparently a United flight in the air right now from Newark to Savannah that’s flying at 10,000 feet the whole way because of air traffic control shortages, burning much more fuel and keeping the passengers in their seats the whole flight. Good on United for figuring out a way to get people where they were going, but still, what a mess.

I miss the days when you looked to the federal government to protect Americans from big corporations, instead of the other way around.

Tagged shutdown, united airlines