How many passengers to operate flight with united

[dontthrowsand]

Hi we are flying united in august. The flight down, the first leg only has 8 passengers on it so far. I don't imagine it is a popular flight as it is 11:50 pm departure from YEG to IAH. Is it likely that it will be cancelled? If so, what should I do for a backup?

 

[Flight]

Flights are not cancelled to to lack of passengers. Aircraft and crews are scheduled to be at the next destination in order to proceed to further destinations.

 

[LaMickey]

I wouldn't worry too much unless it is a flight that has a history of being cancelled. I have often flown on flights with only a handful of prople. As the PP mentioned the airline will still need to get the equipment and crew to the destination for their next flight. It may be more likley that they adjust the time somewhat to attract more passengers. Also, August is still a ways off so it could be a full flight by then.

 

[Lady Lady]

You can check the flight coming to YEG to see how full that one is. The airplanes does have to return to Houston to keep on its schedule.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

In April my and my DH flew Cle to dfw and we were the only ones on the flight. I kid you not it was just us and the flight crew. I ask the flight attendant why they did not cancel this flight since it was just the two of us. She said the aircraft still needed to make the trip because it was needed in DFW for another flight.

 

[dontthrowsand]

Fair enough! It is a new flight. I can't find it on the schedule any other week previous. The flight number is currently a flight from EWR to MCO so I am a bit confused why it will then be YEG to IAH but I guess we will see!

 

[DebbieB]

I was once on a flight from Frankfurt Germany to Pune India with 8 people! It was an all business class A319 with about 48 seats. They did not cancel because the same plane turned around back to Germany. A coworker was on the plane going back, we were trading places on a project. When I returned, it was about half full.

 

[ZehnJahren]

Yes, I concur - I flew in a BIG BIG plane from O'Hare Airport to London's Heathrow and there were maybe 20 people in it, tops. I think my row alone had upwards of 12 seats, and there was no one else in my row or for two or three rows in front or behind me. Everyone on the plane was moving into the center rows and laying down to sleep on the flight over! Flight attendants gave everyone complimentary pillows and blankets, regardless of the class they were in, and it was like a little slumber party in the air.

It was unbelievably nice, because I was moving to Germany to study abroad and had developed a terrible, terrible case of bronchitis right before leaving. I was able to cough and hack without bothering anyone, as well as stretch out completely and get the sleep I needed before arriving in Europe.

 

[macraven]

hate to be a downer but my last year late sept flight with United, was cancelled due to low bookings.
had a 6:25 am flight out of ord and was switched to the 9:00 am flight 2 weeks before leaving.

booked United again for this coming september on the 6:25 am flight and just recently it was cancelled.........

and moved to the 9:00 flight but this time i was given many months out notice.


last year when i called about the change, i was told that the original flight cancellation was due to low bookings.

this year when the flight was changed i was told, when i called, that it was due to scheduling with the united/continental merger.

before this merger in years past, i had many choices of times and dates for my motherland trips.

5:05 is now the last non stop flight United is doing out of mco for ord.

 

[macraven]

OP, i reread your question.
you have a connecting flight.


it is doubtful you will have any issues then.
connecting flights will fly even with a small number on the plane.
those flights usually have another destination to get to once you change planes.


the non stop flights are the ones i have encountered with cancellations.
peeps can be moved more easily to another non stop flight.

 

[NJRRK]

Since it's a connecting flight and it's going through IAH (a MAJOR UA {CO} hub) I wouldn't worry about it. There is always a possibility but I don't think it's enough to get worried about.

 

[Dislvr1020]

hate to be a downer but my last year late sept flight with United, was cancelled due to low bookings.
had a 6:25 am flight out of ord and was switched to the 9:00 am flight 2 weeks before leaving.

booked United again for this coming september on the 6:25 am flight and just recently it was cancelled.........

and moved to the 9:00 flight but this time i was given many months out notice.


last year when i called about the change, i was told that the original flight cancellation was due to low bookings.

this year when the flight was changed i was told, when i called, that it was due to scheduling with the united/continental merger.

before this merger in years past, i had many choices of times and dates for my motherland trips.

5:05 is now the last non stop flight United is doing out of mco for ord.

This just happened to me on a UA flight out of ORD in september also. Myself and 4 girlfriends are flying down for the tower of terror run and they completely moved us to a later flight. I thought it was weird b/c I heard the flight was already half booked. Another friend tried to book the flight and noticed that the flight number was the same but the time was different. And then an hour later AA came out with the same flight at the original early time for around the same rate. Clearly they were trying to jump on the market of people who UA may have lost with canceling the earlier flight.

 

[dontthrowsand]

We can fly the next morning as well if need be but hopefully we won't have to as those flights are much more expensive.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Your flight is not until August. Plenty of time for it to fill up. I would not be worried about it being cancelled.

 

[dis_guy]

Don't worry about it. I've flown United from YEG many, many, times and I have yet to have a cancelled flight or even one with more than a few empty seats.

Late ones, yes, like last December where we took off almost 2 hours late. That one was caused by (1) a computer malfunction at the check in counters (2) fog in Houston so we couldn't leave until cleared to do so by IAH (3) a route change because of storms along the original route and (4) the fact that we need de-icing before takeoff. Yeah we missed our connection, but we were on another flight a couple of hours later. I was amazed by how angry some of the other passengers were.

I've found that United will bend over backwards to help out Canadians because they are really reluctant to give compensation (other than cash, maybe) to non US residents. If they give us a free flight anywhere in the US, who's going to pay for the flight for us to get to the US in the first place? YMMV!

 

[GEB@okw]

Was on a Delta flight recently from DTW-HND with less than 20 people on it. 14 hours and lots of sleep on four seats was fine with me. I am sure Delta lost money on this A330 flight. Flying the same flight in 5 days and it is quite full.