enzian

Would BA ever hold a long-haul flight at the gate to allow passengers from a late connecting flight to board? I assumed it was against policy, but on another travel forum someone is complaining about this. They booked flights FCO-LHR- SEA with a 60-minute connection time at T5. The plane from Rome arrived 15 minutes late, and they experienced further delays at security and with the intra-terminal train, arriving at the plane 5 minutes before scheduled departure. They were allowed to board. Nevertheless, she was upset that no one "told" them the plane would wait, and she and her travel partner had to rush and stress to make the connection, arriving "breathless". She was also upset that mobility assistance was not offered (her partner uses a walking cane but they never requested assistance).

The whole story seems much much ado about nothing. How could anyone from BA assure them the plane would wait for them? I thought the policy was to put them on a later flight, not hold a large plane at the gate to wait for stragglers coming from a late-arriving connecting flight. If the plane was still at the gate and boarding, they should count themselves lucky they were allowed to board, not complain about having to rush.

Or is she correct that the plane actually was held for them? One person responding to her complaint said that is how airlines handle flights to conform with the "minimum connect time". In other words, if the MCT is 60 minutes and the incoming flight arrives 15 minutes late, the airline will delay departure time on the outbound flight by 15 minutes so passengers have the full 60 minutes to transfer. I don't see how that can possibly work: too many flights would be affected and schedules rendered meaningless.

fransknorge

Depending on many factors, they might decide to wait for late connecting passengers. This is not something that is reliable as too many parameters are present.

madfish

Without the details, who knows if the plane did actually wait for them or if there were other issues necessitating a delay. Also, if they had bags and these were already loaded it could be easier to wait than offload them, or they may have been in the process of doing so when they arrived.

As for the MCT and connecting to the flight, I suggest that they see this as minimum. If they have any need of assistance they should take this into account themselves when booking and go for something that gives more time. Although this is no guarantee to make for an easier connection.

simons1

Who knows from what the OP says. Maybe the plane was expected to make up time en route - LH flights often leave late and arrive on time.

In any case if the passengers arrived 5 mins before pushback I'm not sure what the issue is here?

golfmad

People complain unreasonably all the time. This is one of the reasons I generally prefer dogs to people

AC*SE

It is up to dispatchers to make the decision about whether or not to wait for late connecting passengers. There are a ton of considerations that have to be weighed: what's the aircraft's scheduled time on the ground before it's next segments? What are maximum hours for the crew? What is the availability of crews on reserve? How many potentially misconnecting passengers are there? What are the available rebooking options? How many passengers have downstream connections?

The short answer to your first questions is, "sometimes." But only in cases where giving up a departure slot, and paying for extra time on the stand is outweighed by other costs for not holding--and those are rare.

Often1

The decision to hold a flight is made by Operations (Dispatch) with the Captain's final approval. Many factors come into play and the presumption is not to delay the flight. But, there is no policy against holding a flight. The most common reason passengers are permitted to board late is that the flight has not been held for them, but is delayed in any event. Other reasons might include favorable winds which will permit a shorter flight, unavailability of other options (less likely to hold an hourly flight than one running 2x per week and other bits and pieces.

MCT is simply an air carrier's willingness to accept the risk of a misconnect, e.g. rebooking, EC 261/2004 and the administrative burden. Passengers ought to consider SCT (Sensible Connection Time). That is personal to the passenger. Some people have tough schedules, are happy to race if need be, and usually come out fine. Others have time on their hands, may walk slowly, or simply want a less stressful travel experience. There is nothing "better" about one approach or the other.

T8191

Only encountered this once, s/h JER-LGW. There was a 'missing oassenger', and I guess holding the aircraft for a few minutes in case the pax turned up was better than having to search all the loose-loaded bags on the A319.

After about 5 minutes or so, they found the old dear somewhere in the Terminal, and tottered her up the steps

Waterhorse

It would not be BA policy to delay the flight for connecting passengers. BA do not employ Disoatchers anymore, merely Turn Round
Coordinators to manage the various factors in play. These days BA worships at the altar of on time performance, with many staff facing the possibility of the loss of their bonus should the on time percentages drop.

The lady was lucky she made the connection and that at STD-5 her bags and she had not already been offloaded. I suspect in this case she arrived before the bags were located and it was easier to let her board than continue the offload process. If she hadn't rushed she would definitely been offloaded.

dylanks

In my experience a flight will often be held for a bit in the scenario where the luggage makes the connection and the passengers are not through yet. This is fairly common sense as it takes a while to offload hold luggage.

Pilot37

This mornings LHR>TLV BA flight was held 30mins to enable 40 pax transferring from a delayed inbound ORD flight to connect with us. In that instance delaying us 30mins made a lot more sense then trying to rebook 40pax!

Pilot37

enzian

Thanks for your insight.

here is the discussion I am asking about:

https://community.ricksteves.com/tra...layover#bottom

it starts about bout halfway down.

i did not participate, but was interested because we almost missed our CW flight to SEA from LHR due to a delay in the train. We left the lounge in 5B as soon as the gate was posted, but then waited for the train many minutes, like 10. We were still waiting when they made the "gate closing" announcement for our flight. ( Seeems like that was a bit early, timewise). When we did board the train, we sprinted from there to the gate ( fortunately fit enough for that) and arrived hot and sweaty. They were still boarding the Economy passengers and we had no trouble.

I asked about the experience here, and the consensus was that if we truly were late, they would not have held the plane for us, even though we had checked luggage already aboard. Maybe because we were just two people, and not connecting from another flight?

Waterhorse

There will always be exceptions, but the general policy is not to wait. When these exceptions are made it is usually a decision made by network ops.

UKtravelbear

On the first point they should have asked for help if the needed. BA aren't mind readers. In most instances waiting for the wheelchair / golf buggy would have definitely made them miss the connection!

If people are told the plane would be held then there is no incentive for them to make rapid progress to catch it! They could decide to stop off for a coffee or what not because well 'we were told it would wait'

It is possible the plane was held but not just for them. If there were lots of other people on delayed connecting flights then it is possible the plane would be delayed but it is highly unlikely it would be delayed for just one or two random people but they would for the 40 people as in Pilot37's example.

And you are right that's not how MCT works it's to do with selling tickets not plane dispatch.

Knickam

Many years ago when there were BA flights from ABZ to LGW, We were travelling via LGW to MCO on the first Saturday of the October holidays.
Boarded on time at ABZ but delayed due to plane going tech.

After an hour or so the pilot makes an announcement that it will be another 30 minutes before we can go. (Ended up nearly 2 hours late)
He also said that passengers connecting to the MCO flight not to worry as it would be waiting for our flight to arrive.
This was because over 100 ABZ passengers were on it!
We were all rounded up at gatwick and escorted to the MCO plane, Waited until bags were loaded and off we went 50 minutes behind schedule