Originally Posted by
Hawkeyefan
First leg was TPA to IAH, then had an hour and fifteen layover for the IAH to DSM connection.
OK, so far, so good.
Originally Posted by
Hawkeyefan
Ended up leaving about an hour and fifteen mins late....which ate up their entire layover in IAH. First flight made good time and landed at IAH JUST as the IAH DSM flight was kicking out of the gate and taxi-ing.
That doesn't sound like good time to me. That sounds like they actually
lost time in the air, since the original arrival time (a) would already have been padded and (b) would have included the taxi time to the gate.
Originally Posted by
Hawkeyefan
So.....they missed their connection to DSM, and there were 13 total passengers that needed that connection. The big kicker...no more IAH to DSM UA flights the same day (as it was already early evening), and NONE the next day either (Sunday) SO they got re-booked on AA for a Sunday return, with LONG layover in DFW. And they were lucky....the other 8 passengers that needed to get to DSM had to wait an additional day to get home because there were literally no seats available to DSM for 2 days after the missed connection.
Wow, that's
fantastic customer service by UA. They paid AA for something that wasn't their fault in the slightest. They had absolutely no obligation to do so.
Originally Posted by
Hawkeyefan
why did that IAH to DSM connection NOT HOLD AT THE GATE for the incoming flight??
UA actually has a program for this, called Connection Saver. For 13 passengers, it definitely would have kicked in.
Originally Posted by
Hawkeyefan
It would have been the last one of the day, and in fact the last one for the next two days.
Yep, definitely Connection Saver material.
Originally Posted by
Hawkeyefan
A 15 min hold would have been all it took
No, a 15-minute hold would not have been all it took.
If they were landing as the DSM flight was pushing back, then the TPA-IAH flight still needed to get to the gate, get the ground crew in place, attach the jetway, and allow passengers to deplane. The 13 passengers could have been anywhere on the aircraft, so you have to account for at least 10 minutes for them to get off of the aircraft, and that's assuming that there aren't any wheelchair passengers, that everyone goes directly to the next gate, nobody stops to use the restroom, etc. Oh, and they'd better hurry up and move those checked bags!
And then, you still have to close the boarding door, recalculate weight and balance based upon the passengers who actually did arrive, and get the plane off the ground.
If everything goes perfectly, it's probably a 20 minute delay. In a more usual case, it's more like 30. ETA: Thanks,
txaggiemiles. Based upon those timings, I agree -- it'd be a 30-35 minute delay. (Note that the flight was scheduled for 7:55 PM; they actually pushed two minutes early).
Then, you have to hope that you can still get a takeoff slot, that your crew hasn't timed out, etc.
Originally Posted by
Hawkeyefan
Seems to me UA just cost themselves a bunch of money by needing to rebook 13 passengers on other airlines INSTEAD of simply holding for 15 mins at the IAH gate.
Well, there are two realistic possibilities:
1 - UA operations is run by a bunch of incompetents who can't be bothered to try to save the company money by doing something very simple.
2 - It wasn't nearly as simple as you're suggesting.