Missed flight in DFW due to Skylink skipping D terminal
Jan 8, 2018, 12:35 am
#61
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DFW and JFK are different airports! A few years ago I was on a flt from JFK to LAS, over 70 were on a delayed flt from LHR to JFK--they held my flt over 90 minutes.
Jan 8, 2018, 9:44 am
#62
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Nope. I expect an announcement if a station is closed. They have intercoms! Why should I just assume that my station randomly closed? If a train passes by, my assumption is that the train is out of service (which happens, quite a bit) and is making it's way through to the service station. After another train or two (now, we are in what, minute 5?), yeah, you start to wonder but the decision is either I wait another minute for the next train to come and have plenty of time to make the flight, or I go to plan B and run for it where I will definitely be cutting it close. I and some 100 people in that station were thinking the same thing. Congratulations if you are the wizard that would have known better and run, but you would have been the only one. We only wish we had the skylink-mind reading ability that you endow.
You have an obligation to be at the gate 15 minutes before the scheduled departure. Obviously waiting (i.e. not moving toward the gate) is not going to help... Most people would accept personal responsibility. Your attitude is the reason you missed your flight... Not AA, not DFW, not the GA, not anyone else you want to blame.
Yes, I know Skylink is an airport issue, which is why I blame DFW for the skylink, not AA. But I DO think that airlines operating in Hubs SHOULD know if something is disrupting the ability of their passengers to navigate through the airport. As for the last comment, I think that is rather absurd. The plane didn't leave any earlier because the gate agent closed the door when he did. Flights never leave more than a minute or two earlier than takeoff time even when all passengers are accounted for -- and we are talking about 15 unaccounted passengers, not 1 here. The agent made a bad call, in my opinion, not just for us 15 passengers, but for the gate agents for the later flights that now have long waitlists of angry passengers to sort out.
Jan 8, 2018, 11:31 am
#63
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The OP didn't have a late arriving flight in a connection, so I don't see the connection with your example of having 70 people doing the same connection between a late arrival TATL flight and the same domestic flight.
Jan 8, 2018, 12:19 pm
#64
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Jan 8, 2018, 12:53 pm
#65
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My friends the AA employees tell me right now with AA closing your door on time IS the ONLY real metric and they get judged on it. This poster understands how it works. If a plane leaves late blame is assigned. . .to somebody. They don't let it be them, even if maybe sometimes it might be a good reason. They just are not holding the plane. . .because they can't.
Last edited by HkCaGu; Jan 8, 2018 at 2:15 pm Reason: spelling
Jan 8, 2018, 1:29 pm
#66
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GA's don't make these decisions. They are made by Operations people up the food chain. In this case, AA elected not to hold the flight and that is the end of it. For all we know, there were SB's or the flight was overbooked and at risk of an oversale and OP's seats were given to one of those categories. Or perhaps there was an inbound aircraft waiting for that gate and it had 25 people with a tight connection. The Operations people juggle all of that while OP makes it about himself.
The simple fact is that one cannot count on being at the gate later than T-15. This is true event if AA caused a misconnect (which it did not do here). This is not a fault issue, it is a simple logistics issue about keeping the system moving.
The simple fact is that one cannot count on being at the gate later than T-15. This is true event if AA caused a misconnect (which it did not do here). This is not a fault issue, it is a simple logistics issue about keeping the system moving.
Jan 9, 2018, 6:14 am
#67
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AA permits very tight connections at DFW, which often require the use of the Skylink in order to make it on-time. By that, AA is relying on the train, which some here claim is entirely independent from AA. AA chose to have DFW as a hub, and should have better appreciation for its occasional bad performance. AA should insist on better communication from the airport. The GA should also probably not be a jerk.
While only tangentially related to the OPs issue (but mentioned above a few times), I can't pass up the opportunity to again complain about unannounced T-45 boarding. Not to go all 'up in the air', but if I take 100 flights/year and have to be at the gate 15 minutes earlier for every flight, that's a lot of minutes! The simple solution is to have a giant green button at every gate where the GA can alert passengers 5 minutes before CKs are going to be called that boarding is about to begin. This would be visible on the App and on the screen at the club. I understand that there can be false reporting as things do change, but it would prevent those of us who arrive at T-35 from finding that they are boarding Group 5-9, which is annoying. The countdown number on the gate screen, if ever accurate, is only visible to those who are generally loitering. Of course the opposite of this is at LHR, where they make it seem like the flight door is closing and they make you stand around in a hot room for like 45 minutes before boarding.
Oh, in the spirit of the winter season, FA's should have the right to throw people's Jackets put in the overhead during the boarding process (and not on top of otherwise unusable space above a bag) onto the Tarmac (to be given to charity, of course).
While only tangentially related to the OPs issue (but mentioned above a few times), I can't pass up the opportunity to again complain about unannounced T-45 boarding. Not to go all 'up in the air', but if I take 100 flights/year and have to be at the gate 15 minutes earlier for every flight, that's a lot of minutes! The simple solution is to have a giant green button at every gate where the GA can alert passengers 5 minutes before CKs are going to be called that boarding is about to begin. This would be visible on the App and on the screen at the club. I understand that there can be false reporting as things do change, but it would prevent those of us who arrive at T-35 from finding that they are boarding Group 5-9, which is annoying. The countdown number on the gate screen, if ever accurate, is only visible to those who are generally loitering. Of course the opposite of this is at LHR, where they make it seem like the flight door is closing and they make you stand around in a hot room for like 45 minutes before boarding.
Oh, in the spirit of the winter season, FA's should have the right to throw people's Jackets put in the overhead during the boarding process (and not on top of otherwise unusable space above a bag) onto the Tarmac (to be given to charity, of course).
Last edited by Score8; Jan 9, 2018 at 6:34 am
Jan 9, 2018, 9:35 am
#68
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I actually like the "unannounced T-45 boarding" as long as the aircraft doors do not close until T-10. It increase our chances for an on-time departure and early arrival. I experience this quite often on PHX-SAN flights. Nothing better than getting the rental car facility a few minutes earlier than expected late at night!
Jan 9, 2018, 10:04 am
#69
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I don;t care if they board the aircraft the night before and there are those who want to sit in a seat in the dark for 20 hours. So long as the flight does not close prior to T-30 (international) or T-15 (domestic), that is the end of it. I realize that there are those with steamer trunks to jackhammer into the overheads, but not being one of them, when they board is inconsequential.
Jan 10, 2018, 9:55 am
#70
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Response from AA was just technical garbage about how the GA has to close the door 15 minutes before a flight to ensure an 'ontime' departure. Seemed like standard copy/pasted response to deal with all issues related to missed connections as it ignored my entire inquiry and criticism of why AA and the Skylink system don't have any sort of communications that affect passengers. I understand the technical stuff perfectly fine. But, I find it a bit incredulous that AA operations have no care/communication about the Skylink at a hub where they operate out of 5 terminal buildings at DFW. This communications is something that can, and should change. I would think that operationally, they would/should care if their passengers are delayed within the airport.
As to why ‘would I go to D’ instead of a ‘closer AC’ – well. For one thing, gates change at DFW so much that I have low confidence in any gate until T-60 minutes or so. My flight was assigned to C the night before my flight, then changed to A the morning of, and then to a different gate in A sometime around T-2 hours. The AC in Terminal D is kind of nice because it is easy and quick to get up to Skylink from there and I arrived on that side of the airport to begin with (I arrived in a low B gate, and walked past the AC in B because I would rather walk to the AC in D and be closer to the Skylink when it was time to make my connecting flight no matter where my final gate ended up being). When the Skylink is working, the AC in D is a good ‘neutral’ location in terms of being at the foot of the escalators to the skylink and is where I go whenever I have a long connection to be well-positioned to whatever gate I end up having to go to.
On my return journey, btw, out of Orlando, at check-in, my gate was #55 , right across from the AC. At T-50 minutes (20 minutes from boarding), I stepped into the AC across from Gate 55 and saw across the hall at my gate a large group of people get up and start walking away. I asked the lounge dragon if I got re-assigned, he looked it up in the system, said no my gate is just outside the AC, I pointed across the way and said everyone just left there and now it says “philadelphia’ instead of DFW, he made a couple calls, and found out it just got re-assigned to Gate #22 . Funny enough, there I was, in the wrong terminal at a AC at T-45 minutes purely because of AA’s gate change. The tram system in Orlando was working though, so I made it to Gate #22 on the tail-end of the group from gate 55 right as they started boarding. If the tram was broken, should AA have just left half-empty for their on-time departure?? AA, afterall, doesn’t ‘control’ the trams at the airport. (and, after we got on, we waited while they fixed some mechanical issue and left 30 minutes late)
In DFW, for the connecting flight, I arrived in the high A gates, with originally a gate at B3 to head to. I had a 60 minute connection and was going to hop over the bridge to the low B gates (if it was going to be open – a lot of times in the last year I’v found that A/B bridge closed). Once we were off the plane and I turned that direction, I got the app alert that my gate was now a low D gate (D7). So, we took the train to D and stopped in the AC there to grab a coffee (it was now T-50 minutes). Once I grabbed the coffee and started to walk out (T-40 minutes), the gate changed back to a low B gate (B2), so we headed that direction (on foot, as those gates are nearly as close by foot from the high D gates as they are to the B skylink station). Once there (T-30 minutes), the app and gate said Boarding in 0 minutes, but there wasn’t a plane. We waited until T-10 minutes, and the plane showed up, and they changed it T-30 minutes. Once we hit the new T-5 minutes (without boarding), the departure reset to T-30 more minutes. And once we hit T-10 minutes (without boarding), they hit a reset to T-30 minutes and started boarding at T-20 minutes. Then, we sat on the plane for 40 minutes for a mechanical fix. My point?? I don’t really know. But we, the passengers, do all sort of maneuvering around AA’s operational changes. We go terminal to terminal with short times to make our flights as directed. We even at times sit for hours as they delay depatures in small enough increments to not let you leave the gate. But, AA has no care/ communication about Skylink problems at DFW?? Seems rather dumb to me.
As to why ‘would I go to D’ instead of a ‘closer AC’ – well. For one thing, gates change at DFW so much that I have low confidence in any gate until T-60 minutes or so. My flight was assigned to C the night before my flight, then changed to A the morning of, and then to a different gate in A sometime around T-2 hours. The AC in Terminal D is kind of nice because it is easy and quick to get up to Skylink from there and I arrived on that side of the airport to begin with (I arrived in a low B gate, and walked past the AC in B because I would rather walk to the AC in D and be closer to the Skylink when it was time to make my connecting flight no matter where my final gate ended up being). When the Skylink is working, the AC in D is a good ‘neutral’ location in terms of being at the foot of the escalators to the skylink and is where I go whenever I have a long connection to be well-positioned to whatever gate I end up having to go to.
On my return journey, btw, out of Orlando, at check-in, my gate was #55 , right across from the AC. At T-50 minutes (20 minutes from boarding), I stepped into the AC across from Gate 55 and saw across the hall at my gate a large group of people get up and start walking away. I asked the lounge dragon if I got re-assigned, he looked it up in the system, said no my gate is just outside the AC, I pointed across the way and said everyone just left there and now it says “philadelphia’ instead of DFW, he made a couple calls, and found out it just got re-assigned to Gate #22 . Funny enough, there I was, in the wrong terminal at a AC at T-45 minutes purely because of AA’s gate change. The tram system in Orlando was working though, so I made it to Gate #22 on the tail-end of the group from gate 55 right as they started boarding. If the tram was broken, should AA have just left half-empty for their on-time departure?? AA, afterall, doesn’t ‘control’ the trams at the airport. (and, after we got on, we waited while they fixed some mechanical issue and left 30 minutes late)
In DFW, for the connecting flight, I arrived in the high A gates, with originally a gate at B3 to head to. I had a 60 minute connection and was going to hop over the bridge to the low B gates (if it was going to be open – a lot of times in the last year I’v found that A/B bridge closed). Once we were off the plane and I turned that direction, I got the app alert that my gate was now a low D gate (D7). So, we took the train to D and stopped in the AC there to grab a coffee (it was now T-50 minutes). Once I grabbed the coffee and started to walk out (T-40 minutes), the gate changed back to a low B gate (B2), so we headed that direction (on foot, as those gates are nearly as close by foot from the high D gates as they are to the B skylink station). Once there (T-30 minutes), the app and gate said Boarding in 0 minutes, but there wasn’t a plane. We waited until T-10 minutes, and the plane showed up, and they changed it T-30 minutes. Once we hit the new T-5 minutes (without boarding), the departure reset to T-30 more minutes. And once we hit T-10 minutes (without boarding), they hit a reset to T-30 minutes and started boarding at T-20 minutes. Then, we sat on the plane for 40 minutes for a mechanical fix. My point?? I don’t really know. But we, the passengers, do all sort of maneuvering around AA’s operational changes. We go terminal to terminal with short times to make our flights as directed. We even at times sit for hours as they delay depatures in small enough increments to not let you leave the gate. But, AA has no care/ communication about Skylink problems at DFW?? Seems rather dumb to me.
Jan 10, 2018, 1:54 pm
#72
Join Date: Apr 2017
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Posts: 1,852
Response from AA was just technical garbage about how the GA has to close the door 15 minutes before a flight to ensure an 'ontime' departure. Seemed like standard copy/pasted response to deal with all issues related to missed connections as it ignored my entire inquiry and criticism of why AA and the Skylink system don't have any sort of communications that affect passengers. I understand the technical stuff perfectly fine. But, I find it a bit incredulous that AA operations have no care/communication about the Skylink at a hub where they operate out of 5 terminal buildings at DFW. This communications is something that can, and should change. I would think that operationally, they would/should care if their passengers are delayed within the airport.
As to why ‘would I go to D’ instead of a ‘closer AC’ – well. For one thing, gates change at DFW so much that I have low confidence in any gate until T-60 minutes or so. My flight was assigned to C the night before my flight, then changed to A the morning of, and then to a different gate in A sometime around T-2 hours. The AC in Terminal D is kind of nice because it is easy and quick to get up to Skylink from there and I arrived on that side of the airport to begin with (I arrived in a low B gate, and walked past the AC in B because I would rather walk to the AC in D and be closer to the Skylink when it was time to make my connecting flight no matter where my final gate ended up being). When the Skylink is working, the AC in D is a good ‘neutral’ location in terms of being at the foot of the escalators to the skylink and is where I go whenever I have a long connection to be well-positioned to whatever gate I end up having to go to.
On my return journey, btw, out of Orlando, at check-in, my gate was #55 , right across from the AC. At T-50 minutes (20 minutes from boarding), I stepped into the AC across from Gate 55 and saw across the hall at my gate a large group of people get up and start walking away. I asked the lounge dragon if I got re-assigned, he looked it up in the system, said no my gate is just outside the AC, I pointed across the way and said everyone just left there and now it says “philadelphia’ instead of DFW, he made a couple calls, and found out it just got re-assigned to Gate #22 . Funny enough, there I was, in the wrong terminal at a AC at T-45 minutes purely because of AA’s gate change. The tram system in Orlando was working though, so I made it to Gate #22 on the tail-end of the group from gate 55 right as they started boarding. If the tram was broken, should AA have just left half-empty for their on-time departure?? AA, afterall, doesn’t ‘control’ the trams at the airport. (and, after we got on, we waited while they fixed some mechanical issue and left 30 minutes late)
In DFW, for the connecting flight, I arrived in the high A gates, with originally a gate at B3 to head to. I had a 60 minute connection and was going to hop over the bridge to the low B gates (if it was going to be open – a lot of times in the last year I’v found that A/B bridge closed). Once we were off the plane and I turned that direction, I got the app alert that my gate was now a low D gate (D7). So, we took the train to D and stopped in the AC there to grab a coffee (it was now T-50 minutes). Once I grabbed the coffee and started to walk out (T-40 minutes), the gate changed back to a low B gate (B2), so we headed that direction (on foot, as those gates are nearly as close by foot from the high D gates as they are to the B skylink station). Once there (T-30 minutes), the app and gate said Boarding in 0 minutes, but there wasn’t a plane. We waited until T-10 minutes, and the plane showed up, and they changed it T-30 minutes. Once we hit the new T-5 minutes (without boarding), the departure reset to T-30 more minutes. And once we hit T-10 minutes (without boarding), they hit a reset to T-30 minutes and started boarding at T-20 minutes. Then, we sat on the plane for 40 minutes for a mechanical fix. My point?? I don’t really know. But we, the passengers, do all sort of maneuvering around AA’s operational changes. We go terminal to terminal with short times to make our flights as directed. We even at times sit for hours as they delay depatures in small enough increments to not let you leave the gate. But, AA has no care/ communication about Skylink problems at DFW?? Seems rather dumb to me.
As to why ‘would I go to D’ instead of a ‘closer AC’ – well. For one thing, gates change at DFW so much that I have low confidence in any gate until T-60 minutes or so. My flight was assigned to C the night before my flight, then changed to A the morning of, and then to a different gate in A sometime around T-2 hours. The AC in Terminal D is kind of nice because it is easy and quick to get up to Skylink from there and I arrived on that side of the airport to begin with (I arrived in a low B gate, and walked past the AC in B because I would rather walk to the AC in D and be closer to the Skylink when it was time to make my connecting flight no matter where my final gate ended up being). When the Skylink is working, the AC in D is a good ‘neutral’ location in terms of being at the foot of the escalators to the skylink and is where I go whenever I have a long connection to be well-positioned to whatever gate I end up having to go to.
On my return journey, btw, out of Orlando, at check-in, my gate was #55 , right across from the AC. At T-50 minutes (20 minutes from boarding), I stepped into the AC across from Gate 55 and saw across the hall at my gate a large group of people get up and start walking away. I asked the lounge dragon if I got re-assigned, he looked it up in the system, said no my gate is just outside the AC, I pointed across the way and said everyone just left there and now it says “philadelphia’ instead of DFW, he made a couple calls, and found out it just got re-assigned to Gate #22 . Funny enough, there I was, in the wrong terminal at a AC at T-45 minutes purely because of AA’s gate change. The tram system in Orlando was working though, so I made it to Gate #22 on the tail-end of the group from gate 55 right as they started boarding. If the tram was broken, should AA have just left half-empty for their on-time departure?? AA, afterall, doesn’t ‘control’ the trams at the airport. (and, after we got on, we waited while they fixed some mechanical issue and left 30 minutes late)
In DFW, for the connecting flight, I arrived in the high A gates, with originally a gate at B3 to head to. I had a 60 minute connection and was going to hop over the bridge to the low B gates (if it was going to be open – a lot of times in the last year I’v found that A/B bridge closed). Once we were off the plane and I turned that direction, I got the app alert that my gate was now a low D gate (D7). So, we took the train to D and stopped in the AC there to grab a coffee (it was now T-50 minutes). Once I grabbed the coffee and started to walk out (T-40 minutes), the gate changed back to a low B gate (B2), so we headed that direction (on foot, as those gates are nearly as close by foot from the high D gates as they are to the B skylink station). Once there (T-30 minutes), the app and gate said Boarding in 0 minutes, but there wasn’t a plane. We waited until T-10 minutes, and the plane showed up, and they changed it T-30 minutes. Once we hit the new T-5 minutes (without boarding), the departure reset to T-30 more minutes. And once we hit T-10 minutes (without boarding), they hit a reset to T-30 minutes and started boarding at T-20 minutes. Then, we sat on the plane for 40 minutes for a mechanical fix. My point?? I don’t really know. But we, the passengers, do all sort of maneuvering around AA’s operational changes. We go terminal to terminal with short times to make our flights as directed. We even at times sit for hours as they delay depatures in small enough increments to not let you leave the gate. But, AA has no care/ communication about Skylink problems at DFW?? Seems rather dumb to me.
Jan 10, 2018, 2:07 pm
#73
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Northeast USA
Programs: AA Kryptonite
Posts: 93
What about #3 , closing the door before T-10? That is a failure on AA if that happened.
I wouldn't be surprised if it did close early with so many passengers not making it they were probably done quickly and after waiting for 5-10 minutes and nobody there I could see them closing the door at T-15. I've made it to flights after a late inbound connection with the doors fully closed at T-15, so they closed at T-20 saying, "oh we didn't think you would make it." The doors should never close before T-10 if there are outstanding passengers.
I wouldn't be surprised if it did close early with so many passengers not making it they were probably done quickly and after waiting for 5-10 minutes and nobody there I could see them closing the door at T-15. I've made it to flights after a late inbound connection with the doors fully closed at T-15, so they closed at T-20 saying, "oh we didn't think you would make it." The doors should never close before T-10 if there are outstanding passengers.
Jan 10, 2018, 2:40 pm
#74
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Stilllwater OK (SWO)
Programs: AAdvantage ExecPlat, World of Hyatt Globalist, plain "member" of Marriott, IHG, enterprise, etc.
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Nope. American Eagle operates the only service from my local airport, saving me many times from what would be 2AM wake-up calls to get to TUL or OKC in time for absurd 5AM flights, of which I am quite grateful for. So, I am here to stay, and complain, and complain loudly at times, when I have something to complain about. If you don't like that, you can always get off Flyertalk. Don't let the door hit you on the way out!
Jan 10, 2018, 2:53 pm
#75
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP - Marriott LT Platinum - National Exec Elite
Posts: 1,112
You know - sometimes you just have crap luck.
There's no reason to feel so strongly about it - it happens.
In this case, it's really everyone's fault, and no one's fault at the same time.
There's no reason to feel so strongly about it - it happens.
In this case, it's really everyone's fault, and no one's fault at the same time.