Rock72

a couple of weeks ago i was flying to mexico. the nonstop was booked solid so i got a SEA-LAX-PVR ticket. this was an early morning flight.

the connection was only 40 minutes in LAX but unfortunately as we were about to leave the gate, there was an issue on the plane and we were delayed for about an hour.

the pilot explained that luggage had shifted and slammed into a hatch causing the hatch to break. the baggage handlers forced the hatch to open to remove the bags last night but didn't fix it so now the hatch wasn't closing properly. the technicians weren't in yet so we had to wait.

an hour later, the techs came and fixed it in a few minutes and we were on our way.

there were a lot of people on the flight really nervous about connecting flights to cabo, puerto vallarta, etc. and i was definitely one of them. i thought i would miss our flight but the pilot said that he would make up time in the air and his estimated time of arrival was 15 minutes before our flight was to take off.

the flight attendant told people not to worry too much because alaska knows about this flight and since we're all booked on various alaska flights, they won't just leave us stranded. alaska only has 1 flight per day to mexico.

in the end, we arrived at 10 minutes before the departure time, barely got out of that plane (they told ppl who didn't have connections to stay on the plane and let those of us pass through but not everyone complied). i made it to the gate with about 2 minutes to spare and my wife made it right on the dot (she was getting the baby stroller that was gate checked). we were the only 2 on the plane so as soon as we got on, it took off.

so what would have happened if we were delayed for a longer time? e.g. 1 hour? would they have actually held the plane for us? would they book us on another airline? would we have to wait 1 day for the only flight on the next day? if so, would they cover hotel and anything else?

i was impressed that our checked in luggage also made it.

SamuelS

"It depends".

Typically carriers do not hold connecting flights, but there are always exceptions - notably last flights of the night, or where there's a significant number of people connecting in and due to the larger number of folks it would be difficult for airline to re-accommodate them.

If it's a case of holding a flight for 10, maybe 20 mins, I have seen that happen on occasion.

Otherwise, if you miss your flight, you simply get rebooked on the next available flight with seats.

Whether you get meal vouchers and hotel accommodations (if overnight stay required) depends on reason for delay. Weather delays the airline will rebook you onto next available flight but in major weather situations, that could be a number of days hence and you're own your own for expenses or costs (buying a good travel insurance policy would take care of you in this instance).

If it's a mechanical delay or some other kind of delay within the control of the airline such as crew dispatch issues, staffing issues etc. then the airline will rebook you on next available flight, and usually give you meal vouchers and hotel accommodations, and depending on the situation, compensation in form of credits or miles (you may have to write in and request the latter).

Richard1148

You were the only 2 on the plane?

ANC

The plane wouldnt have been held up an hour. Ive seen planes held up for a few minutes before, usually if the other plane is already on the ground and taxiing to a gate or already at their arrival gate. AS can rebook you on any airline they have interline agreements with, which is different than codeshares or partners and includes most major airlines. A lot of times airlines are reluctant to interline you because it costs them a LOT of money. AA agents at ORD will particularly play dumb if you are IRROPed there and act as if theres nothing but AA/MQ flights in the system. Sometimes if you dont ask to fly on the next available airline they wont even offer it to you. November I had AA cancel a flight on me 5 mnutes before boarding was to begin. Was automatically rebooked instantly to a next day flight. Was flying ORD to CWA. I said what about UA, she said I dont see that in the system. So I went to another gate and asked an agent.....She said sorry thats full too. Went to a 3rd agent. She was nice friendly and said sure there are seats, she took a few minutes and VOILA a 016 ticket was created and I received a 6 code confirmation code from her for UA. She couldnt print the BP but I was able to print it easy enough at a UA kiosk. What was sad was that the flight left with about 6 empty seats that some other fellow pax on the original AA flight couldve sat in.

Like Samuel said if its an airline controllable delay they give you the vouchers. If delays are deemed weather related then you get nothing. Airlines do everything they can to twist themselves into pretzels to create "weather" or out of their control delays. Partiularly larger airlines at their large hubs. Their automated computers go into damage control mode and will "swap" a/c and gates to make sure that irregular operations caused by them, cost them the least. IE cancel your flight X if it has 50 people on it even though your a/c is fine and sitting at the gate already and use it for another flight that has 130 seats sold on it, even though the original assigned a/c for route Z is the one delayed at airport XYZ due to weather. I cant ever recall or havent ever seen AS do this but then again Ive hardly ever had problems with AS on time reliability. Had a few times where I was on AS flights seated or about to board and the a/c was deemed not flyable but so far all those times were during off peak season and red eyes in ANC where there were another 3 or 4 spare a/c sitting around RON Some airlines its an everytime occurence of delays

Often1

Whether an aircraft is held for connecting pax is a decision made by Operations and takes into account many factors. The presumption is that the aircraft is not held. Anything from weather to crew timing out, ATC issues and the possibility that there are pax with connections (or other obligations) on the other end is yet another factor. Bottom line is to never count on a flight being held for any period of time.

If you misconnect, you will be rebooked on the next available flight. I stress "available". When the delay was avoidable within the carrier's control, the COC provide for a hotel and meals as applicable. Here, I would think that a misconnect would have been avoidable because technicians could have fixed the hold overnight, but AS chose to let the problem linger.

It always pays to look at the implications of a misconnect. Are there more flights, is it a heavy travel time and so on. I would be wary of a 40-minute connect unless I had a Plan B. On that point, I would also have done the research on alternatives in advance and have those with me. If you ask for something reasonable, you are more likely to get what you want.

ANC

THIS! ^

one would be amazed how much this can help in delays and cancel events. Gate agents and phone agents cant hardly know every option. Make yourself an expert of your own routing particularly if connections are tight or you arent very flexible with options. Seconds and minutes count in rebookings especially when its a cancellation with 130 people standing around. If you can talk to the GA or phone CSA and "assist" them or inform them of available options you may let them know or help them find a flight they didnt even know existed or at the least help them speed up rebooking you before the seat is snagged by another person. Depending on what the connection is, having other options at your quick access could be alternative modes of transit, IE bus, rental car, or rail. Obviously not useful for LAX to Mexico but it is on a connections of a few hundred miles and you cant sit around over night waiting

WhIteSidE

Knowing, and politely asking for your preferred option is the #1 way of making sure you get what you want. My typical calculus for domestic connections is that if we're on the ground before the scheduled departure, they will often, but not always hold it for a few minutes, otherwise, assume you're out of luck.

If you have a tight connection, always have a plan "B" at the time that you book it. Remember, also, that most agents have their systems primarily oriented towards the things they do on their own airline, so pulling inventory and issuing tickets on another airline are often not easy. On the other hand, if you can tell them the carrier, the flight number and that it's got at least 5 coach seats left, then you have a good chance of getting what you want.

sltlyamusd

FWIW, I have seen AS hold connecting flights to Mexico before when one of the inbounds is late. I'm guessing there were no alternative booking options that day, so Operations made the decision to hold the flight for connecting passengers.

That said, I would think twice before booking a 40 min connection without any other alternatives that day.

Rock72

a few quick comments:

1) we were the only 2 people that were on our late flight from SEA-LAX that was going LAX-PVR. as soon as the 2 of us got onboard, the plane to PVR took off. i.e., it wasn't a situation where there were 50 of us in a big group going to PVR and we were all delayed.

2) there is only one flight per day from LAX-PVR on alaska. if we would have missed it, alaska would have had to book us on the next flight to PVR on another airline if they would send us that day or if they only would book us on alaska, we would have had to wait until the next day. of course there's no guarantee that there are empty seats on the next day's flight.

3) we were nervous because our vacation was pretty short (only 3 nights) so eating 1 night would be a big chunk of our vacation.

4) i guess it makes sense for alaska to hold the plane a little bit (maybe 5-20 minutes?) but not hours. if it's hours, i'd hope they would book us on another airline's flight but wasn't sure if they'd do that. i did do some research while waiting during the delay and saw a few other airlines with flights later that day but of course the price was really high.

i'm glad i didn't have to find out but i asked mainly because i'm planning another trip to mexico next winter and knowing what happens would give me some peace of mind.

BrianCUnited

Apologies if there is a newer thread than this one to ask this on, but my GF and I are booked BWI-SAN-LIH on Friday, with only a 36 min connection time at SAN. This was the best routing we could find but I'd like to have a backup option in case the BWI-SAN flight is late. Does anyone know if Alaska would rebook us on AA or another airline, esp given that the SAN-LIH flight is only once a day?

jsguyrus

This single statement shows the difference between most everyone on this site and the general traveling public. I like to think we are a more take charge group instead of just letting whatever happens, happen.

The smallest state

The baby stroller had a baby in it I presume? You went running to the gate and left Mrs. Rock72, pushing the stroller and child? You are a brave man.

jsguyrus

In the last week flight 784 (BWI-SAN) has been +15 min late twice, one of which would have caused you to miss your connection. On the good side the SAN terminal is very compact and you can get to any gate in two minutes. They are able to book you on AA (if there is space) IF your delay was caused by AS and not the weather, but you may have to push them pretty hard to get them to do it.

You also have the option of having them book you on the SAN-HNL flight that departs about two hours later, then flying Hawaiian to LIH.

PV_Premier

36 mins in SAN isn't a big deal...unless the inbound is more than 30 minutes late, which should be pretty obvious when you are still in BWI.

BWI-LAX on AS and LAX-LIH on AA is probably your next best bet...BWI-LAX leaves at 8:10am...

BrianCUnited

Thanks! Would Alaska rebook on a leg that includes Hawaiian?

Thanks, good to know. I don't have a lot of experience at SAN but it looks AS operates out of a pretty small terminal. I'm hoping if we do see the delay at BWI it's early enough to make the 7am on AA to PHX, which will get us to LIH a few hours earlier than going to LAX and taking the evening flight.