Thanks for your report...and I'm glad things went well!

Increasingly I'm hearing F/A announcing information helpful for tight connections, including asking (in some cases) that passengers connecting to XXX and YYY be allowed to exit first, while asking everyone else to remain seated for a few moments. That's really encouraging because:

--It shows that there's someone in a service operations area who's keeping abreast of jeopardized connections.

--It means that information is being successfully transmitted to the aircraft.

--It means the F/A are engaged and proactive enough to use that information successfully.

We've probably all been on flights where F/A either gave blind reassurances about connections with no basis, or who seemed disinterested or not (reasonably) able to get information for customers nervous about missing a connection. It's not always the F/A's fault, because if at-risk connection information isn't identified and passed along to the plane, the F/A has no way of knowing. But in this case...and on a couple of recent flights I've been on...the cabin crew new what connections were in danger and had accurate information to help those passengers make their flight with as little delay as possible.

I've also noticed a notable amount of flights holding in the past few weeks in MKE and MCI. Now holding isn't always the best answer in every situation...I'm not saying it is. But it's good to know that someone is watching and making decisions, versus just letting things happen. In the past year or two I've personally seen at least three occasions where someone missed a connection because their departing flight pushed back early and the gate agent wasn't aware or asked to hold. At least lately...someone is on the ball.

Every airline has the ability to succeed or screw up in this area from episode to episode. It's good to see successful execution here.