and, the exact opposite of this situation on Sunday night :
LAS-SLC-AMS, delay out of Vegas changed to LAS-MSP-AMS hours prior to departure, giving me the afternoon in Vegas. (no issues confirming me in first and DeltaOne on both flights)
LAS-MSP pushes back on time. Due to air traffic/runway/flow etc. delays, we sit on the runway behind 24 (yes 24) aircraft waiting to take off. When we are #6 for take-off pilot announces there is another delay, no disclosure of issue. We finally take off approximately 1 hour after pushing back. Connection at MSP is 42 minutes +/-.
Once airborne, check delta.com and our arrival is now after the departure of the MSP-AMS flight. (the last one), by the book I will miss the flight by around 15 minutes.
I tweet @DeltaAssist to request they make sure MSP is aware of my arrival. They tweet back within 10 minutes that MSP has been advised.
Upon arrival at G18 at MSP, arrival time 21:43 in MSP for a 21:42 departure of MSP-AMS..... as soon as the door opens, gate agent boards flight and makes a loud announcement that they are HOLDING Amsterdam at Gate G6.
Rush over to G6 along with a few other passengers from the inbound LAS flight. Get settled in 1C, and am immediately offered a pre-departure sparkling wine or other beverage even though they are about to close the door and push back.
Plane pushes back approximately 25 minutes late. Arrival in Amsterdam is on-time. International wifi configured A330-300. Once airborne, I pull up my checked bag bar code and verify that it has indeed been transferred to the flight and I will have my bag upon arrival in Amsterdam. My bag is the 4th bag off in Amsterdam.
Yep, that's my story, and I am sticking with it.
BTW, my SAN-SEA-AMS with a 37 minute connection in March was flawless. I have yet to miss an international flight (on Delta to Delta) with a sub 1 hour connection. So, if I fly two dozen of them, and miss one, I probably have saved myself a week of time in airports. I'll stick with Delta; and my short connections. I like to gamble, but in this case, I TRULY believe the odds are in my favour. Bravo Delta.
