exerda

I wonder how they'll make holding connecting flights work. You hold that flight, and it delays downstream connections. I suppose they can apply some magic algorithm to see how many people are impacted and by what measure, and take that into account... but that's way more faith in UA IT than I think is warranted.

They'd need to be able to proactively change arriving gates--if there are a lot of pax with close connections, and you can do a gate change so that the arriving flight is closer to the departing one, that helps. Of course, it has to be done early enough that you don't confuse people with the gate change, and if there's already a plane there, moving it isn't easy or cheap. It would be nice if mainline-to-mainline connections could at least analyze and prioritize connecting pax in choosing gates well ahead of time.

They'd have to also be able to forecast average speeds for pax walking between gates and distances. Arriving at G100 at SFO and connecting to gate 68? Probably you aren't making that 10 minute connection, so why hold the flight.

The most ridiculous I experienced was IAD-DEN-ABQ, where IAD-DEN arrived late... but parked at a gate immediately opposite the DEN-ABQ flight. It was literally about 10 yards away. I was in F and had a clear shot off the plane to the connecting flight. Clearly, the DEN-ABQ GA should have seen that on the manifest...

... yet even though my bag made the flight, and I met a closed door for DEN-ABQ.