"intentionally" missing connection (last flight of day)
Hi all,
bit of a conundrum here...
I am flying CLT-DFW-DEN this evening. I land at dfw at 920, and take off for denver at 1030.
i'm originally from dfw - moved to denver about a month ago - my mom is sick and i thought it might be a nice surprise to bring her some soup / help cheer her up tonight and catch the 6:50AM flight from DFW-DEN tomorrow morning (80% empty last i checked)
as a lowly AA Plat, am I able to standby for a flight 12 hours later (i.e. next morning) or, what happens if i miss my connection? obviously it would be no issue for a flight delay or mechanical issue, but what if i claimed "oversleeping" in the airport.
not an ideal situation, but wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience, and what the risks might be.
You could try the "flat tire" rule but given that you're a connecting passenger, AA knows you weren't stuck in traffic and your car didn't break down.
Right now, this very second, you can buy a Southwest one-way ticket from DAL to DEN for Friday morning travel at prices ranging from $114 to $121 (or a lot more if you're choosy). Not a whole lot more than the $75 CFC (that unfortunately isn't an option). Why not just do that?
IIRC if you present yourself at the gate after the flight closes, they can put you on standby for the first flight out the next day. But, if you want to be safe, you best be is to just go with the cheap ticket on southwest and abandon the leg.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by norf9
IIRC if you present yourself at the gate after the flight closes, they can put you on standby for the first flight out the next day. But, if you want to be safe, you best be is to just go with the cheap ticket on southwest and abandon the leg.
Bingo...
Even if at the airport in time, it's not that rare for people to miss flights.
Look at all the people stuck in a bar in that "reality" show with Southwest.
I kind of got the impression that every WN flight had at least one "stuck in the bar" passenger.
Is there a timing restriction on when you can request a refund on a southwest ticket (i.e. within an hour of the flight)? If not, why not buy a southwest ticket for a flight after the american flight you want to standby for. If they let you standby and you get on the flight then cancel the southwest ticket. If they don't (or you don't get on the flight) then fly on southwest.
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Hope for a delay.
Or get your boarding pass early and hope they change the gate. If so, you can make the argument that you got off the CLT flight, got "close to the gate", had a conference call to do with Asia and went to the gate 15 minutes before to board only to find that the gate had moved. Hopefully, the original gate is in a different terminal, you got on the train to realize you're going the wrong direction... (basically the equivalent of a flat tire inside the airport)
Yup. There are many possible lies that one can concoct to avoid paying the fees for changing a fare that was purchased cheaply because it had change restrictions. "I got on the train in the wrong direction" is a good a fee-avoiding lie as any.
Programs: AA EXP (> 1MM BIS), SPG-G, Marriott-S, Hilton-S, Hertz 5*G, AMX-P, Global Entry
Posts: 977
Quote:
Originally Posted by brp
Yup. There are many possible lies that one can concoct to avoid paying the fees for changing a fare that was purchased cheaply because it had change restrictions. "I got on the train in the wrong direction" is a good a fee-avoiding lie as any.
Cheers.
With the # of times they change a gate at DFW, it has to happen often.
Once, I was connecting in DFW. When I left my origination airport, departure was gate A20ish and I was coming in A, when I landed, the app said gate CXX. So, I took the train to C, went to the AC to take a shower. Before I took the shower and change, it moved to gate CYY. After I took the shower, I strolled over to CYY to then find out that it had moved back to terminal A. My connection was 90 minutes (and I did make the flight - just illustrating that AA will sometimes jerk you all around DFW).
That said, I've never (and wouldn't) do this intentionally.
