My daughter, a DM Gold member, was booked on flight 3083 today from Syracuse-Pittsburgh, scheduled to depart at 1:40 pm. She got through security at 1:00 only to hear her name being urgently paged to come to the gate immediately. She ran down to find that they were just about to close the doors and leave without her!! As soon as she was aboard, the flight pulled back from the gate and departed at 1:15, 25 minutes before schedule.

The explanation: there's "practice" for an air show in Pittsburgh tomorrow so the air space around Pittsburgh was about to become a "no-fly" zone for a couple of hours. If the flight didn't leave then, it would have been delayed for several hours.

My daughter's query: how come US didn't know this yesterday, when she checked in online? How come no one called her to let her know she'd have to arrive at the airport early? Is it legal to move a flight up at the last minute and leave passengers (elites!) behind with no warning? (had she missed this flight, she would also have missed her connection to Denver).

I told her I would poll the collective wisdom of this wonderful group about this, for I've certainly never heard of it before!

Interesting situation ... Apparently there was a miscommunication somewhere, and perhaps the PIT authorities did now relay the true scope of the no-fly zone to US ops in time. Who knows what really happened.

My guess is whether US got the information late or it was their own mistake for not adjusting the schedule early, they had a last minute decision to make regarding whether to cancel the flight or just leave early with whoever had shown up.

For the sake of their overall schedule, I think it was a good decision to leave early. Those who were early for the flight would get there without a problem, and those arriving too late would have to be re-accomodated which would have had to happen anyway were the entire flight cancelled, and the aircraft would arrive in PIT on schedule so any cascading delays could possibly be avoided.

I saw this story from the Post Gazette (http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_460916.html) about the airshow this morning on JustPlaneNews. It doesn't explain why your daughter wasn't notified as according to the story the airlines knew full well about this.

Did she make the flight or have to wait hours for the next one?

My little regional airport (TRI, Bristol, TN) has this sort of thing often and as a CP, I have never gotten a call to get there early for an air show early departure.

I would have panicked myself, I am sure. However, I usually arrive at the airport at least an hour in advance of my flight regardless of whether I use OLCI or not, so that I am through security and at the boarding gate at least 30-45 minutes before departure. I just do this because you never know what is going to happen. I tend towards early in most everything I do.

I do remember many years back when they had an air show here in BLF. I had a return flight for that Sunday, but they cancelled all flights back. US reaccomodated me to fly the ticket out of ROA! (all mainline jets at that time :) instead of J31 :( )

Delays due air shows and the onslaught of private jets and planes arriving/departing for NASCAR races in Bristol happen, but I have not been told to arrive early or change my venue! :) I just leave early and keep my faith in Murphy's Law.

Air shows usually have some down time built in to them to allow commercial flights to use the airport.

The days before the airshows, the performers must practice their routine, and this will close down the airport while they are airborne (not every time, depends on the size of their box and the size of the airport).

If the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels are performing, the whole shebang is going to shut down while they're airborne. The practice time may not have been released in a timely fashion, meaning the airline wouldn't know. The military teams take a pretty long window to practice, so it's good to beat them to the punch. They also use a lot of airspace since the airplanes are hauling a$$ for much of the routine, chewing up a lot of airborne real estate.

I've flown into a small airport where a biplane was practicing. He was kind enough to wait until we were on the ground before he started, but we were delayed taking off because he wasn't done yet.

As far as leaving early, I doubt they would have left her at the airport given that she had checked in for the flight in the alloted time. They would have gotten to PIT late though, so leaving early wasn't a bad thing.

The practice time may not have been released in a timely fashion, meaning the airline wouldn't know.
They knew! At 6:10 a.m. Eastern time yesterday CNN's Headline News Air Travel Advisory segment mentioned the temporary closure due to air show practice. IIRC it was the Blue Angels. If I knew it sitting at my breakfast table US knew about it too.

The OP's story doesn't say whether US would have indeed left the airport without his daughter. It's possible they would've waited until she arrived closer to the true departure time.

The OP's story doesn't say whether US would have indeed left the airport without his daughter. It's possible they would've waited until she arrived closer to the true departure time.
Perhaps we'll never know, but the OP did include this:
"She ran down to find that they were just about to close the doors and leave without her!!"
So, it sounds like they would have left without her.
Bottom line though, if they wait and can't get out, she misses her connection anyway.
A call beforehand WAS warranted though.

A bit OT but this reminds me of the big media lie you hear at each holiday. "Call your airline before heading to the airport to see if your flight is on time." Never do that, or at least never assume the information you get matters. Your flight could be delayed two hours and go on time. Weather or mechanical there are to many changes that can happen and if you are not at the gate you will not know.

Straight from an old drinking buddy o' mine this morning (who happens to be a supervisor for the FAA in the PIT tower):

All the airlines not only knew about the PIT airshow this weekend (and the practice on thursday and friday) but were consulted with and agreed to the times in question.

Which, BTW, is the way they've always done it. Used to be (when I lived there) that they'd jam the Thuderbirds/Blue Angels practices in between the US hub banks. Since those are much smaller (and LUV/B6/Aitran/everyone else don't hub there) it actually impacts more flights now than it used to.

Leaving amost 1/2 hour early, however, is unacceptable.

Leaving amost 1/2 hour early, however, is unacceptable.
Why? They didn't leave without her. The presumably had one passenger remaining, paged her, got her on board, and left. What's unacceptable about that? Leaving without her at 25 minutes prior would have been unacceptable, but that didn't happen.

Why? They didn't leave without her. The presumably had one passenger remaining, paged her, got her on board, and left. What's unacceptable about that? Leaving without her at 25 minutes prior would have been unacceptable, but that didn't happen.

Only because she was there 25 minutes before.

If she was checked in and had gotten there 15 minutes prior, they would have left already. The policy is 10 minutes. How is it that the airline gets the benefit of kicking one's butt off the plane if you show up with less than 10 minutes to go and leaving without you if you show up with more than 10 minutes to go?

Thanks for the great replies, everyone! I'll pass them along to my daughter.

In response to your queries/comments:

Did she make the flight or have to wait hours for the next one?

Yes, she made it--but only barely! They literally closed the doors as soon as she entered and backed off from the gate two minutes later.

I usually arrive at the airport at least an hour in advance of my flight regardless of whether I use OLCI or not, so that I am through security and at the boarding gate at least 30-45 minutes before departure.

And so was she. She arrived at the airport an hour in advance, and cleared security at the 40-minute mark. So your "cushion" may not protect you from such an event.

I do remember many years back when they had an air show here in BLF.

This was not the air show itself, but the PRACTICE for the air show the next day.

I doubt they would have left her at the airport given that she had checked in for the flight in the alloted time.

She checked in online the day before. And indeed, they would have left her at the airport--as the GA made very clear. He told her that they were sorry (as they were about to close the door) that they would be leaving her behind, as she was a DM Gold. But there was nothing they could do, for otherwise the flight would have been delayed for hours.

We have no argument with that reasoning--only with why US didn't know this in advance, so they could advise the passengers of the revised schedule.

They knew! At 6:10 a.m. Eastern time yesterday CNN's Headline News Air Travel Advisory segment mentioned the temporary closure due to air show practice. IIRC it was the Blue Angels. If I knew it sitting at my breakfast table US knew about it too.

My point exactly! Thanks for confirming this.

The OP's story doesn't say whether US would have indeed left the airport without his daughter. It's possible they would've waited until she arrived closer to the true departure time.

Nope. See below.

Leaving without her at 25 minutes prior would have been unacceptable, but that didn't happen.

An accident of fate. They were just closing the doors as she raced up (and as she's young and fit, she was really able to book it!!). So they clearly intended to leave without her.

As nothing bad happened from this incident, we have no complaints. But US inefficiency in getting the word out to passengers does give one pause...

Only because she was there 25 minutes before.

If she was checked in and had gotten there 15 minutes prior, they would have left already. The policy is 10 minutes. How is it that the airline gets the benefit of kicking one's butt off the plane if you show up with less than 10 minutes to go and leaving without you if you show up with more than 10 minutes to go?
The policy is 15 minutes according to the COC (pdf) (http://www.usairways.com/common/resources/_downloads/aboutus/US_contract_of_carriage.pdf). And they didn't leave her. You claim if she'd been there 15 minutes prior the flight would have been gone. How do you know? Calling their behavior unacceptable over something that didn't happen is pretty lame. If they'd left, I'd be leading the charge. But they didn't. I think we should save our ire for the times they really do screw up - there's plenty of those.

The policy is 15 minutes according to the COC (pdf) (http://www.usairways.com/common/resources/_downloads/aboutus/US_contract_of_carriage.pdf). And they didn't leave her. You claim if she'd been there 15 minutes prior the flight would have been gone. How do you know? Calling their behavior unacceptable over something that didn't happen is pretty lame. If they'd left, I'd be leading the charge. But they didn't. I think we should save our ire for the times they really do screw up - there's plenty of those.

Agreed.

Thank you.

This is getting silly, they obviously new everyone had checked in and decided lets get them all on board and go before the hold a good customer service decesion.

If she was checked in and had gotten there 15 minutes prior, they would have left already.

There's no way to know this.

I've been at the gate for flights on many RJ's, waiting until the last minute to board, when they "urgently" page passengers - "flight is ready to depart, etc.". I've seen them repeat that page every 5 minutes for 15-20 minutes until the passenger shows up.

I have no problem getting out and to my destination early if everyone is ready to go. Yes, "if they left without her" it would have been very bad.

But they didn't. And my experience shows that they wouldn't have.

Yes, "if they left without her" it would have been very bad.

But they didn't. And my experience shows that they wouldn't have.


I trust your greater experience, CPRich. But if this is true, then it was bad PR, to say the least, for the GA to tell my daughter that they were, in fact, about to leave without her ("we felt bad leaving without you because you are a gold", etc). And the fact that the door was in the process of being closed as she ran up is also suspicious.

However, I agree with the general consensus that as this is a "near-miss" and not a genuine travel misery, there's no need to dwell on it. Just thought you might all want to have a "heads up" in case--heaven forbid--you run into the same kind of thing yourselves one day. Even MORE reason to get to the airport REAL early!!

To try to steer this in a more useful direction, what would have happened had the plane left without her? Would they have offered compensation a la IDB? Or just rebooked her on a later flight?

Does anyone know? For sure?

thanks,
jon

To try to steer this in a more useful direction, what would have happened had the plane left without her? Would they have offered compensation a la IDB? Or just rebooked her on a later flight?

Does anyone know? For sure?

thanks,
jon

Here's what I know: if the flight hadn't left THEN, it would have been delayed for 2/12 hours. Presumably no re-booking, for nothing was flying into PIT during that time period anyway. She would have left on that flight, whenever it was finally permitted to depart. But the delay would have made my daughter miss her connecting flight to Denver and probably had to overnight in PHL.

Again--NO problem with this. Obviously US has to act for the greater good of the greatest number of passengers. All that puzzles us is why US didn't know this sooner--not even on the morning of the event, when it was (according to a previous post) being broadcast on TV news. For a simple phone call to advise of the earlier flight time would have been all my daughter needed.