zrs70

I'm sitting on my flight, having landed at LAX. Gate is occupied. It's 1210 am. Guy next to me asks FA if the ORD flight at 1235 will be held.

"yes, we hold flights."

Now, perhaps she is in the know. But I thought that in gerneral airlines don't hold flights. As tired as I am, thinking of going to the ORD gate to see how this pans out. That flight is showing full, and there are standbys.

itsallgood

Depends on a number of factors. Two off the top of my head:

Number of misconnects if the flight's not delayed.
If there's another flight to that city pair.


By the way, your title doesn't match the text. The FA wouldn't know if that particular flight would be delayed for connections, but s/he would know that it's United's policy to delay some flights for connections.

MY-OTHER-BROTHER-"TED"

Looks like they're holdin' her --- @ 12:40 a.m.
EXPECTED TO DEPART IN 7 MINUTES
LAX
LOS ANGELES, CA
ORD
CHICAGO, IL
departing from GATE 73
Los Angeles Intl - LAX
arriving at GATE C15
Chicago O'Hare Intl - ORD
FRIDAY 28-APR-2017
12:45AM PDT

FRIDAY 28-APR-2017
06:34AM

Kacee

FAs say this all the time just to prevent pax from freaking out. Truth is not considered relevant.

itsallgood

I show flight 910, LAX-ORD, scheduled to depart 10 minutes late. 1245 instead of 1235. The plane's been at LAX for a couple of hours so it be held for connecting passengers.

deskover54

So the FA told the truth. I'm surprised lol

garykung

FA in fact got the information for the flight deck. In most of the time, I found the information accurate.

emcampbe

Glad they held it for you.

IME, I would normally take that info. with a grain of salt. Quite a long time ago now, probably 12 years ago or so, was doing. EWR-YYZ-YVR on AC, and the first flight was running 1 hour plus late, jepordizing my 1.5 hour or so connection. 20 or 30 minutes after landing at YYZ, without a single bag off the belt, I went to the AC desk and told them I was worried about my connection, they told me they would call the gate, and to fill out a delayed bag form plus the customs form that's required for this. Did so, bolted through customs (think I had CANPASS at the time), back through domestic security, and to the gate, to see the aircraft pulling back. I asked the agent what happened, and her words were something like 'we don't hold flights to Japan for anyone' - refrencing the fact that the flight continued on to NRT after a 2 hour stop in YVR. Argh. On the other hand, when CS rebooked me for the next day (original was the last flight of he night), I asked them to book me in business and they did - that was my first multi-hour premium cabin flight.

eng3

"yes, we hold flights." Absolutely correct
"Yes, they will hold your flight" Maybe, depends

Usually, I hear the FA say something like "The GA's are aware that you are on this flight and that it is delayed"

gold23

I've found a bunch of very honest FA of late. Several of my recently delayed flights into EWR, the FA were providing information on re-booking and what to do once we arrived into Newark. These were 30 minute to 1:30 delays.

catocony

I think Orville Wright used this same lie on Wilbur back in 1907, and it's been a staple ever since.

milepig

I think that the relatively new electronic devices give them much more real time information about flight status.

If someone at operations decides to hold a flight for a specific late arrival, would that become part of the record, as in "UA123 LAX-ORD, holding for connecting pax from UA456 xxx-LAX"??

In this specific case, they saved themselves lots of hassle by holding that 12:40am red eye for a few minutes (a delay that they likely made up in flight.)

dmurphynj

Bingo! Having the crew equipped with real-time information makes such a tremendous difference. That, frankly, is revolutionary. Having outside-the-cockpit realtime communication with the ground is truly a game-changer... That's nothing but positive for everyone!

mauiUAflyer

"It's only a cold sore"
"The check is in the mail"
"Of course I'll respect you in the morning"
"Yes, they'll hold your flight"

And many others...

Note: I have been on flights that departed late as they were holding them for late-arriving pax, but they have never held one for me. In fact, at EWR, I missed my flight by -5 minutes...

sbm12

I would bet heavily that this is not the case.