I have to admit that it stings less after a few days, and I totally get the possibility of crew rest requirements and risk of existing crew running out of time. There were 17 of us on the SFO flight connecting to the AUS flight, and we were waiting for a gate in the same terminal the AUS flight was leaving from, so it seemed reasonable that it could be held for a few more minutes.

I appreciate that earlier misconnects were likely grateful for the opportunity to make it home.

Bottom line is that living in the DFW area, I realize how spoiled I really am so rarely having to make ANY connections. I may miss out on the increased segment count that someone in a non-hub city would get, but I also have fewer headaches. My family had already driven to AUS for the weekend, so I had built my travel schedule to return to AUS and leave from there again on Sunday. My Friday work schedule did not afford a departure from SFO any earlier than the 5:15 flight I was on, necessitating the 1 hour connection time.

It was interesting that the flight crew on our SFO flight kept giving us reassurance on the AUS flight being held up and our chances of making it, until my phone showed that it had "departed", at which point the updates evaporated. As we were exiting the plane, they mentioned that the gate agent had "no information on the AUS flight".

Boarding my (delayed) flight home to DFW later this morning, no connection required.