<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by AllanJ:
It may have been an inconsiderate family holding up the plane but sometimes the airline has to wait anyway because:
They may have had checked baggage and the only way the plane could leave without them is hunting in the baggage hold to take out their baggage.
Another reason why a plane is late is that it was delayed in the first place and some passengers, expecting several 20 minute segments tacked onto the delay one at a time, go out to get something to eat and don't get back when the airline does not tack on another twenty minutes to the delay. The airline is much to blame here.
Other travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm</font>
Good point about the luggage.
We had pulled back from the gate - the family boarded from the tarmac via stairs.
The family seemed to ake it in their stride -no evidence that they were concerned about how close they'd come.
The kicker came at LHR. BA @ ATH was "unable" to issue our connecting boarding passes. We assumed we were being bumped. Arriving breathless at the JFK gate, we were asked, "So ... where are your boarding passes?" They printed a set for us, but seemed rather unsympathetic about doing so.