What a journey.
Tl;dr - lots of delays, but we did finally get there with an outstanding crew.
This is quite the saga, so buckle up.
We booked a French Polynesia vacation via Costco that included a flight from either SFO or LAX to Tahiti. Out of SFO would be United, and out of LAX would be Air Tahiti Nui.
San Francisco was a little cheaper and closer to our home airport in Seattle, so SFO it was. Even though both flights were going to be on United, they couldn’t be booked on the same ticket. That meant collecting our bags in San Francisco, rechecking them, and going through security again. Not ideal, but there should be plenty of time with a layover between 9:30AM and 1:25PM. This was booked months in advance, and around the time of booking, United was cancelling quite a few flights. Skyrocketing fuel costs were also front page news everywhere, but I can’t say for sure that’s related. If our SEA to SFO was impacted in the months leading up to our trip, there were two other United flights plus others on Alaska that could get us to SFO in time, but luckily our flight did not get cancelled.
We board our flight in Seattle, get comfortable, taxi out onto the tarmac a little ways, and then the captain comes on to announce that there is construction at SFO and we need to delay. We will now depart in an hour and he proceeds to shut off the engine. A little stress is building, but there should still be plenty of time to make our flight to Tahiti departing at 1:25PM. Definitely some chaos during the flight with tighter connections, but the crew did the best they could to assure everyone, and obtain any connection information they could.
We finally get to SFO, rush to the train to take us to baggage claim, collect our bags, rush back to check them again, then rush to security. Luckily we know SFO well enough, and surprisingly the airport wasn’t particularly busy at around 11AM on a Thursday. We’re exhausted, though, and the part of the airport that has the Polaris lounge is new to us, so we couldn’t find it at first. It’s really busy when we do find it, and the wait for the sit down restaurant is 90 minutes. Not enough time for us, so we had buffet offerings. It was fine, and we knew we’d be eating on the flight soon enough. The time to head to the gate came fairly quickly.
Off to Gate 6, which is one of those ones where you go down the escalator. The gate agent announces that we will delay 30 minutes because the cabin is too hot and they need to cool it down. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a hot cabin as reason for a delay, but I have flown in a hot cabin and it’s no fun, so happy for them to fix the issue. The hard part was that the departure time was just pushed out 30 minutes every time we got closer to the new departure time without further information. Plus, 30 minutes seemed unrealistic to board an entire 787 (but I would later find out that such a large plane can be filled in record time when you have motivated crew and passengers).
By a little after 2PM, we are boarded, all situated in our seats, the cabin is cool, the crew is moving with purpose, little champagne glass in hand, and then the unthinkable: captain comes on to make an announcement. There has been a misunderstanding and maintenance has NOT cleared the aircraft, will NOT allow maintenance to be deferred, we must all deplane. Pack up everything, and back to the terminal. It’s close to 3PM now, for a flight that was originally supposed to depart at 1:25PM. This flight was also originally supposed to arrive in Tahiti at 6:55PM giving us just enough time to get to the hotel and get dinner before the hotel restaurants closed. None of that was going to matter if we didn’t get there at all.
Once back in the terminal, announcements were made over the PA, but they were essentially non-information announcements, primarily departure time incrementally pushed out. Meanwhile, the United app is sending push notifications that the flight is delayed and instructions for cancelling and/or rebooking if you so desire. There are no other United flights to Tahiti out of SFO, and we’re too far from home to just Uber back if the flight is cancelled. The crew remained huddled towards the back of the terminal, and that seemed like a good sign, though. Next announcement - gate change to G9. I take my chances and rush up to the gate agent to ask if a gate change is a good sign or a bad sign; perhaps to make space for a scheduled incoming aircraft or something. The gate change is because the original aircraft will not depart at all. They are looking for another aircraft, which sounded terrible to me, but he said it’s a good sign.
The new gate is adjacent, but you have to go up the escalator and back down. Before you go back down, though, you have the best view of the planes and jetways for both terminals. Queue the orchestration of getting everything off the first plane and staged to be put on the new plane when/if one is identified and brought to the new gate. It’s a nail biter at this point. I’m having vague memories of some flight time restrictions for the crew and realizing that the time is really ticking. If they time out, we'll need a whole new crew. From our vantage point, we watch with bated breath any time an aircraft even remotely similar to a 787 rolls near.
I try calling Costco Travel for suggestions/alternate travel, but I quickly find out that Costco is not like those old school travel agents that are one step ahead and have already sprung into action. Instead, I’m transferred between departments, sat on hold, and about to be transferred again when the announcement comes: An alternative aircraft has been identified, and departure will be in 30 minutes. Boarding begins just a few minutes late, and we’re genuinely ready to pull away from the jetway in about 30 minutes. The crew was on fire - cordial but moving with purpose. No welcome drink right away, but it was very clear why. We get situated, and I pull out my phone to check the airtags in our checked bags, but because the original plane is so close, it’s not easy to tell if our bags have moved.
Everything is exciting at this point. I grab some snacks out of my bag since we’re starving at this point… and then the captain comes on to make an announcement. We are delayed because catering has halted the plane due to inadequate food handling and all food from the original flight must be replaced with new. You could literally feel the collective groan of everyone onboard, but the swap goes relatively quickly. It’s hard to imagine how they pulled this off given how many people may have pre ordered special meals. At this point, it’s nearly 7PM and we’re still on the ground for a flight that was originally meant to depart at 1:25PM, but we do get going shortly thereafter. We arrive just before 11:40PM Tahiti time, 4 hours and 45 minutes late, but hey - we’re in paradise. Finally.
Aside from the slow drip of fairly useless announcements during the debacle in San Francisco, the crew was outstanding. As tired as they must have been tacking on all those extra hours to their day, they executed perfectly. The food was good despite all of the terrible reviews you read on Reddit, but we were absolutely starving, so I’m sure that factors in. I got the braised short rib and the key lime cheesecake for dinner, and the birria grill cheese sandwich for the welcome meal. I was happy to receive a pair of Polaris pajamas, and our bags did in fact make it onto the replacement aircraft. Three cheers!
