By the way, when I'm #1 to board I am pretty fast down the jetbridge. I do wonder about the occasional passenger who gets to the gate even earlier than me, to be #1 on board, only to saunter (or waddle) slowly down the jetbridge, with me behind thinking "if I'd been #1, I'd be all done by now rather than halfway down the jetbridge."
These must be the same people who, while driving and approaching a red light with an empty lane to their left, dive into that lane so as to be first at the light. When the light turns green, inevitably they slow-poke it. (Must also be the ones to take every opportunity to use the car-pool lane even though they drive slower than traffic in the regular lanes, holding up everyone behind them.)
Originally Posted by
smithk
This afternoon I was connecting in Miami going to LGA, on flight 1898. I almost missed the fight. I got to the gate 10 minutes before the flight was to leave and the gate was already closed and there were no reps at the counter.
I always thought flights were closed ten minutes before departure?
Originally Posted by
BA0197
A revised departure (per your example above) holds true for AA as well. One we post a new departure time, we cannot change it to an earlier one. However, that does not mean that we will not leave earlier than the posted time. We always tell our passengers to listen for a terminal page, in case something allows us to leave earlier than expected. This rarely happens, but when it does, we give passengers enough time to get back to the gate, and usually we do a walkabout in the terminal. I imagine that this would be impossible at DFW, so this is what we do only in IAH.
Once, flying AA 137 LHR-LAX, I got to the gate well before departure time. After a very long wait (past departure time) the GA announced that there was a mechanical problem, that there would be an update in xx minutes, and we were free to go have a drink or snack or whatever elsewhere in the airport. I headed to the BA lounge, relaxed there for a bit, then headed back to the gate just before the xx minutes. The gate was deserted and they were paging me! Apparently the mechanical had been fixed much earlier then expected, they'd trying paging me in the AA lounge. (Of course, since I was the only passenger there, LHR security decided to do the full treatment on me, while I they continued to page me.)