Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
While I am firmly in the more information the better camp, it may not be as straightforward as we would like.
The GA many times don't know any more than the passengers.
Depending on the situation things may be dynamic. DEN was under a weather waiver at that time and UA Operations were likely under slot limitations and as a smaller aircraft, the flight was lower on the priority list. To be honest, in this situation Operations probably had no clear idea when a 50 seater would get a chance. The one advantage of a small plane is perhaps if a slot did become suddenly available, you could get it boarded and out the quickest.
So, if UA had announced it was going to be an hour wait, many would have left the gate area and any hope responding to an opportunity disappears.
But doing 5-10 minute slips just irritates passenger.
In a bad weather situation, there is no fixed game plan and the plan is constantly changing.
The GA has a crowd in front of them and if they start saying we have a 50% going out in 15 minutes, come 15 minutes the crowd will rush the podium and exclaiming "you said 15 minutes" ignore the fact of the 50% -- so saying nothing is safer, not great customer service but after a couple of days in a row of bad weather it may feel like the better choice.It days like Saturday and Sunday at DEN and elsewhere I'm glad I don't have their job.
(bolding mine)
I don't think that matters, though.
There's a way to let passengers know "something", anything. Even if it's nondescript. This can be done quite effectively, and many GA/FA and pilots do this quite well.
Just saying nothing and leaving everyone in the dark is NOT the answer.
One of the most basic rules of torture is to withhold information and to stop communication.