Originally Posted by IAH-OIL-TRASH
I find it unbelievable that Continental chose to strand 3 passengers, Including one BusinessFirst (me) passenger that were two minutes late because of a Continental mechanical problem on a connecting flight. I missed an extremely important meeting in Lima the next day because of Continental's decision. I know for a fact that the gate agents have flexibility in this regard. We had unfortunate timing to run into someone who couldn't be bothered because he wanted to go home. CO has only one flight a day to Lima from Newark so I had no other options but get screwed.
The gate agents have abosolutely NO flexibility in deciding whether or not to hold a flight. It's all decided by someone in the ops department. They send the plane when their told to send the plane. If someone comes running up and the jetway is still attached, they could probably take a delay (though they would have to explain the delay to a rather unsympathetic manager) and allow that person to board. If it means going back down the jetway, pulling it back up to the plane, opening the door, etc. then you can usually pretty much count on it not happening. While the agents could have, and should have, been a little more sympathetic, it's not their call to take a delay to wait for inbound connecting passengers. They will if they are told to but if they are told to send the plane then they send the plane.