I flew CVG-DET-SEA on Sunday night and woke up to three dozen calls and texts from my wife, parents and inlaws recalling me back to CVG. Apparently baby #2 wanted to try to come out 8 weeks early and there were some serious complications going on. Because of the weather in Seattle Monday morning it was a bit of a chore getting home so to speak.

I bought the last (F) ticket available on the first flight out. Weather delays meant original plane was 2 hours late. That meant missed connection. Rebooked on another. That too was delayed since original crew was on one of the delayed flights. We started to overlap the boarding process of connection... You know. One of those days that tests your mettle.

So I've been telling this story to my coworkers and the nurses and every time I get to this next part they ask me "can they do that?"

As I mentioned, the original crew for SEA-MSP was delayed and they reassigned an inbound crew for us. We started boarding about 40 minutes behind schedule and then it took quite a while to eventually close the door. I'm in 1B and doing an amazing job keeping my s**t together if I may say so myself. The next flight boards at 7:45 and mathematically were starting to look at a 7:52 arrival. The door closes, the jet bridge is fully pulled back, and then an FA comes up from the back whispering that a passenger in the back wants to get off because they're going to miss their connection. They talk for about a minute between themselves and the pilot and then the pilot calls the gate and has them come back down and allow the passenger off.

Okay, no big deal, we're looking at an 8:00 arrival. I can deal with that. Welp... No sooner than the door closes and the bridge is almost fully retracted, another passenger comes up and asks to get off because of their missed connection. At this point my expletives are very audible, and I'm trying to make sure I don't get escorted off. The pilot this time opens the window and yells out to ground crew to bring the bridge back, and sure enough, they do. They make an announcement if anyone else wants off and nobody does.

I eventually do make my flight with a few minutes to spare, so no harm no foul, BUT, how common is it for this to happen - let alone twice? I thought things like that were reserved for physically escorting a passenger off.