Originally Posted by
acmys
I'm traveling with a group of 14 others. The 14 others are scheduled to land at 7:18 AM in DEN from EWR. I will be in DEN beforehand on a longer overnight layover on a single UA ticket. All of us are booked on a 8:00 AM DEN-BIL flight. The 42m connection seems problematic here: DEN is a pretty big airport, and this leaves us with only 15-20 minutes to get through the airport (without even considering what time the gate closes) if the inbound lands on time. If it were only me, I'd probably just do it and wait for UA to protect me if it doesn't work, but then throw in the 14 other people and I'm not so sure.
1) The DEN-BIL is on a CRJ and we'd be taking up 30% of its seats...would this plane wait for us? I would think likely, but it looks like UA tries to turn these around with 30-35 mins between arrival and departure time in Billings, so waiting for us would lead to a cascade of delays (and presumably the GAs would know this).
2) Would UA be willing to change our DEN-BIL flight to a later frequency as a preemptive measure now (without charging us)? Is this something I should try to explain and appeal patiently to SLC et al., or just press one of the outsourced call centers over?
3) What would you do in this situation? We do not want to be split up, so that's why I'm so wary on United protecting us post-misconnect.
There is a reason I usually travel alone. This will be like herding cats, particularly if these are not experienced travelers. You don't mention dates or day of the week. Are you a ski club ? March is somewhat insane at DEN because of all the spring breaks. If you are on a CRJ200 where the next flight is a bigger plane and there are enough seats, I will take a wild guess and say they aren't waiting. The flight blocks keep those small jet gates hopping. Also, if you are all taking equipment which is special handled luggage, again don't count on it all making it. If this is a group od adults, you may want to discuss the possibility you won't make it. If not, at that point, keep in mind that rebooking may well depend on each person's status and ticket price.
You will have an idea of the gate distance once you check in but don't count on it since particularly the small jet flights change fairly often.