Originally Posted by
IAH-OIL-TRASH
There’s a couple of things that go into holding/ not holding a plane for connections.
One is the number of passengers connecting to the flight. Another is the number of connections that might be messed up on the other end. Another is gate space (is that gate needed?). Still another is FAA-mandated crew limits on duty hours. The gate attendant does not make the call to hold/no hold. There’s a team at UA that does. I did not believe UA callously “stranded” you there - there is significant cost to UA in doing so (hotel vouchers, reaccomodation on OAL, etc).
My guess is the latter (crew hours) forced UA to go, rather than wait for 15.
Very informative post! While you may be correct that a lot of deliberate and rational decision-making by UA went on the background, per the OP's account they were in fact treated quite callously by the first UA rep with whom they had direct contact on the ground at SFO, namely the gate agent for the onward flight. If the reason was crew time-out, for example, why didn't the GA just say so? Or if the real issue was that "no instructions were received" why wasn't that news delivered along with an apology for the miscommunication on behalf of UA? Neither of these gestures would have changed the outcome in this situation but I submit that they would have likely changed the subjective passenger experience of the missed connection ....