When a flight is delayed several hours

Hi.

I have a friend who is flying out to California from Maine as I type.
The problem is, I can't be certain if he is on the flight he was
scheduled to be on or another that was departing at the time that his
was supposed to have departed. Both flights were delayed by a couple
of hours, but the delay put the departure time for the other flight to
just about that time his flight was supposed to leave The problem is
that he has a connecting flight from San Francisco to my town that he
will miss if he is on the flight he was scheduled to be on. I'd like
to assume that somehow he got changed to that other flight or another
that would allow him to catch the commuter plane out of S.F. since I
didn't receive a phone call from him. I'm just wondering, since I
don't fly, what the options are when this sort of thing occurs. Would
the airline (in this case UA) try and place as many travellers as they
have room for from the later flight onto the earlier one on a first
come, first serve basis? Or would they base it on necessity (like
folks that have connecting flights to make)? Will they generally see
who wants to be bumped from the flight leaving earlier to accomodate
some people from the later flight? And finally, can I call United and,
considering the circumstances, find out for certain which flight he is
on? Thanks for any input you might be able to give.

reenboe@ wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I have a friend who is flying out to California from Maine as I type.
> The problem is, I can't be certain if he is on the flight he was
> scheduled to be on or another that was departing at the time that his
> was supposed to have departed. Both flights were delayed by a couple
> of hours, but the delay put the departure time for the other flight to
> just about that time his flight was supposed to leave The problem is
> that he has a connecting flight from San Francisco to my town that he
> will miss if he is on the flight he was scheduled to be on. I'd like
> to assume that somehow he got changed to that other flight or another
> that would allow him to catch the commuter plane out of S.F. since I
> didn't receive a phone call from him. I'm just wondering, since I
> don't fly, what the options are when this sort of thing occurs. Would
> the airline (in this case UA) try and place as many travellers as they
> have room for from the later flight onto the earlier one on a first
> come, first serve basis? Or would they base it on necessity (like
> folks that have connecting flights to make)? Will they generally see
> who wants to be bumped from the flight leaving earlier to accomodate
> some people from the later flight? And finally, can I call United and,
> considering the circumstances, find out for certain which flight he is
> on? Thanks for any input you might be able to give.

What will happen will depend on a lot of variables. For example, are
the 2 flights on a single itinerary/ticket? What caused the delay? If
it was the airline's fault they will do a lot to help him. If it
wasn't, they might not.

What city is he going to from SFO?

United will not release passenger information to you.