Originally Posted by
Athena53
I appreciate your honesty. I figure any gate agent who says that really has no way of knowing what will happen when the flight lands at the connecting airport so It's useless prattle. Right up there with "Our dreadfully expensive credit card has a sign-on bonus of XX,000 points- enough for a Business Class round trip to Europe!" and "If there's anything we can do to make your flight more enjoyable..."
Bingo.
Fact is, we can't predict the future, and just as what happened with the OP - they got screwed by the ground delay time in SFO. Any agent working isn't going to have time to read thru the comments in the reservation, see what was promised, etc. That human being (who is probably being yelled at, and called EVERY name in the book) is either going to follow company policy & handle you, or do *whatever it takes* to get you to Point C. Sadly, the tone of the downline station causes the first part to happen more than most, which then swings the agent helping you mood to the crapper.
Sometimes stations WILL hold planes, but its not a guarantee. Airlines will honestly hold planes for a certain amount of travelers (or even a cerrtain ONE) - but its not always at the discretion of the folks working in the 1st station.