Flew SLC-ORD-PHL on Tuesday. SLC-ORD takeoff was delayed over an hour due to a delayed crew, an inop APU, and deicing. My 1 hour 25 minute connection at ORD was starting to look bad. We touched down at ORD about 20 minutes prior to my PHL departure time. I figured my connection was doomed, especially given the FT discussions about the “door closed 15 minutes prior to departure” problem.

As soon as we cleared the runway at ORD I turned on my cell and got an Easy Update message that I’d been rebooked on the 6:00 p.m. flight to PHL. Ugh! I really didn’t want to spend 5 hours sitting in the RCC at ORD. I figured that by the time I got off the plane I’d have about 12 minutes to try to make it to the PHL flight and see if they could still squeeze me in. However, I knew that ORD-PHL is a Business 1 route and usually goes out of the B gates while we were slated to go into a C gate. The trip through the tunnel was probably going to kill this connection.

As we were taxiing around ORD, the F/A announced on the PA that since there were some pax with close connections our gate had been changed to a B gate! I got off the plane and hustled over to the PHL flight at gate B2. The G/A asked “are you from the Salt Lake flight?” A quick affirmative and my BP was read and I was on my way onboard. They had kept my seat open for me on the earlier flight!

There were two other small miracles - I popped open the overhead bin by seat 3C expecting the worst and found it only had one small carryon in it . Also, my checked bag arrived with me at PHL in spite of the tight connection. I wish all my connections could work out this well!