Another DL Computer System Glitch?
 

I came out of MCO to YYZ via ATL with arriving and departing delays due to ATL weather. I asked the agent in the Skyroom if I would make my connection in ATL and she told me the computer showed my flight arriving late but the departing connection was also late, leaving a 45 min. connection time. She wrote the new estimated departure time on the connection on my BP.

Arriving in ATL late, as predicted, I proceeded to the connection gate even though the boards showed the connection departure time within 5 min. Arriving at the gate, new departure time corresponded to the time written on my BP.

The GA said I no longer had a seat because the "computer" had removed me off the flight while I was in transit from MCO and placed me on tomorrow's flight. Apparently, the "computer" did not know the connecting flight was delayed. The GA stated that "this happens all the time...the computer just assumes you can't make the connection..." Luckily, the GA allowed me to standby and got the last seat.

Clearly a bug. There are numerous issues of DL system A not always talking to DL system B not talking to DL system C ...

I recently connected through ORD and my outbound flight wasn't showing up on the displays. Plat line said it was showing as on time departure but didn't show a gate. Seemed nobody knew what gate or terminal our plane was departing from. We finally found a pilot who found out the secret gate info.

About 15% of my (and other family members) itineraries don't show up when I login to my Skymiles account. If I search on the PNR it shows me with correct SM #. Plat line has even reloaded my SM # without any success. Go figure...

dl.com will show that you have a seat assignment on KL/AF flights. Most often this is meaningless (particularly with a DL flight #) and nothing but a placebo. This though does seem to be improving recently.

If you make a change to a PNR for an Int'l flight you stand a very good chance of your e-tick not getting changed and thus problems when you get to airport. It is incumbent upon us to call Int'l reissue desk and have them manually change the e-ticket.

Computer my .... That was the GA who removed you from the flight thinking you weren't going to make it.

If you've got a confirmed reservation and are at the gate less than 10 minutes before departure, you SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN OFFLOADED.

Agreed.

That is correct. The computer will never take you off a flight unless it is cancelled. The computer will "protect" you on a later flight but it will not take you off of a flight!

agreed with the agreed.

The computer won't remove you from a flight. Particularly a flight that hasn't departed yet.

I've come home after switching to another flight to find the original still in the itinerary...

Only the GA can remove you from the flight. Did you check their name tag...Guess it's possible that (s)he could have been Mr(s). Computer.

Dare I say that there were some Gate Agent shenanigans

There was clearly a computer glitch if the boards had one departure time (original) and the gate a different one, apparently a 40 min diff between the two. At some point some system at DL, I assume, does remove pax from flights who show either a negative connection time (or extremely short or illegal or ??). Which set of data does this system use? Does it cease it's operation once control is taken by GA? Would it have removed the pax much earlier before control was turned over to the gate?

-GASP- :eek:

Does that stand for Gate Agent Shenanigans Probable? :D:D

The domestic C of C makes reference to this, at 15 minutes, but your point stands.

From U.S. cities, you must be at the boarding gate at least 15 minutes before your scheduled departure time with the exception of St. Croix (STX) and St. Thomas (STT) which require 45 minutes.

Interesting. I thought T-10 was the point at which you were offloaded these days.

Thanks everyone for the heads up about the GA...she totally denied she had anything to do with removing me off the flight and was adamant the computer did the nasty deed.

YYZ is an international flight.. Don't you have to be on the plane/at the gate earlier than a domestic flight?

It should. Cornerstone (the gate agent software tool) probably showed you as not going to make it but that's probably because ASA (who I'm assuming ran the YYZ flight as they diverted into BUF enough...) and the other DCI carriers are notorious for not updating their ETD's on the ground. You can't kick anybody off the flight until t-9:59 and in a situation of heavy IROP's even longer than that. As soon as your flight goes into an IROP, once one of two things happens (your flight takes off or cancels) the computer will automatically leave your booked segments as planned and then back you up on the next available service. Nothing ever gets deleted.

Only time it's kosher to remove somebody from a flight before T-10 is if they didn't check in within enough time to get to the gate, or if they're coming in on an upline connection that won't arrive until after this flight departs. And as always, discretion is the name of the game. Obviously, this gate agent needs to be retrained in that department.

You have to be at the gate at T-15, to account for any boarding delays, but any good gate agent will kill off unclaimed seats at T-9:59, get any non-revs on if not cleared prior to then, and then send ACARS, close out the flight, and deliver paperwork, shut the door and pull back the jetbridge.

When I worked gate in BUF, we used to have races to see who could get a flight off the ground before it was scheduled to push.