blazin

Last night I was flying NRT-BKK and the flight was delayed for nearly 2 hours waiting for the JFK-NRT flight to arrive. The plane appeared pretty full as we waited and I counted no more than 15-20 pax boarding late. To top if off there was a 100mph plus headwind otw to BKK. So who makes the decision to inconvenience hundreds of pax to wait for less than 20 people? I understand that since it was a late night arrival, the chances of people connecting in BKK were lower, but I still don't appreciate waiting around in NRT for 2 hours after already flying traveling for 17+ hours.....

TheMoose

JFK-NRT was on-time, but it looks like it diverted to HND instead of landing at NRT as scheduled.

Was there poor weather (thunderstorms, strong winds, foggy conditions, etc?) around the time it was due to land causing it to divert?

Perhaps a passenger had a medical emergency and the diversion to HND was life-or-death given the relative closeness of HND to downtown Tokyo and perhaps a medical center?

For whatever reason it was diverted, it didn't spend long at HND before making the short flight to NRT to complete its intended mission.

I know you only saw 15-20 connecting passengers, but are you sure saw them all? Maybe some turned left and went into business class while you were in coach? Or if you were in business class, maybe most of them turned right and never walked past you. Also, sometimes international cargo can be quite valuable (especially given that Delta shuttered its dedicated cargo fleet inherited with the merger), and some cargo is even more valuable, in terms of Delta's bottom line, than even "high-value customers". Maybe JFK-NRT had valuable cargo that needed to make its way to BKK that evening no matter what.

The relatively minor 2 hour inconvenience for you pales in comparison to the minimum overnight convenience for those connecting passengers, and hoping there are enough seats on other carriers the next morning out, otherwise it'd be a 24 hour delay for those passengers to save you two hours.

Finally, shoe on the other foot time. If you had just gone through a 13+ hour flight from JFK, diverted to HND, then finally made it to NRT, all only two hours late, how would your initial post look differently if Delta stranded you in NRT for 24 hours? And imagine all those other inbound passengers from JFK whose connecting flights were not held? Those 747s hold 350+ passengers, and assuming it was nearly full (as most flights are these days), that means a lot of people didn't make their connections that evening.

I know you were inconvenienced -- write Delta and they'll throw some miles or money at you -- but I think it's times like these where it's better to look at the big picture.

davetravels

Yes, I've been on that flight probably at least 25 times dating back to the NW days, and, as it is, arriving at midnight, it's sometimes a chore, between the line for immigration, and the taxi cue, to get into the city, check into your hotel, shower, shave, and still manage to make it out for drinks before the bars close!

Your flight arrived at 1:21 AM - an hour and 36 minutes late. I'd be a little peeved.

HongKonger

DL ops people make these decisions based on several complex factors. It sucks for people who are inconvenienced but the decisions are made to ensure as little disruption as possible to the system as a whole. Complain and get miles if you like but IMO 1.5 hours is not a tragedy. My last TPAC was delayed 3 hours, I just went to the SC and relaxed. Nobody intentionally screwed with you. Life happens people.

blazin

Ya, I understand. I'm not too pissed off. Just a little perturbed last night. davetravels pretty much hit the nail on the head..hahaha... I was just wondering if anyone had any more insight into how these decisions get made. And as it turns out TheMoose gave an excellent explanation into the operational thought process. Even more annoying was that the first taxi I got in at BKK refused to turn the meter on, and ended up taking me back to the airport after I refused to pay his absurd request for a 600baht fare to go to Sukumhvit..

bj27

This is a great big picture scenario. Thumbs up.

I once was flying TPE-NRT-PDX and our TPE-NRT leg was delayed ~4 hours due to MX, and thus we could miss our connecting NRT-PDX.

We were rebooked in TPE onto UA852, with connecting segments on DL NRT-SEA-PDX.

Here's the bad part: we actually landed in NRT on the UA flight with plenty of time to spare for the original NRT-PDX flight because it had been held to accommodate the original DL TPE-NRT flight that had been delayed out of TPE. But now we didn't have tickets on that flight!

(Sidebar: At the time, my whole family and I were GMs, and were some of the first people to be rebooked. We left TPE feeling content until we realized they had decided to make the decision to hold NRT-PDX AFTER we had been rebooked because so many were delayed on DL TPE-NRT. The one time being an Elite doesn't come in handy!)

Here's the worse part: Our new NRT-SEA flight was delayed causing us to miss our SEA-PDX flight. Thankfully Alaska runs SEA-PDX very frequently and there was one last flight that we would catch in time, so that was not a huge issue.

Here's the worst part: Our SEA-PDX flight was delayed due to MX (what is wrong with all these planes?!)...

Three delays, two rebookings/reroutings (proactive, but didn't turn out to be necessary)... 7 hours late into PDX.

We only received 5,000 miles and $100 eTCV each (fair enough..)

sushi lover

There are these really cool things called Private Jets. They wait for you and leave when you are ready. If you get to the airport an hour early they are ready to go. You never have to wait for connecting pax. Of course...they cost just a little more.

bj27

If you do Delta Private Jets, don't you get "complimentary" DM status too?

rylan

I've been delayed in NRT a couple times before to wait for late incoming aircraft. Yeah its annoying but crappy for a 747 full of pax to miss their flights.

Worst one was a 3.5hr delay for NRT-SIN, waiting for MSP-NRT to arrive due to MX, and some fo the crew on that flight. The SIN flight already arrives around 1am, so wasn't very happy about getting in at 4.

HongKonger

Fairly often the plane you are waiting for at NRT is the one that you fly on when you finally do leave. I. e. the same 77L that flies MSP-NRT then does NRT-HKG so a lot of people were once held up waiting for my plane. On the other hand people on that plane didn't misconnect. Sometimes you're the pigeon, sometimes you're the statue.

waltinsocal

Very well put, and oftentimes people in their moment of frustration, totally forget your pigeon/statue analogy which is of course totally correct not only here, but in many areas of our lives.

BigMoneyGrip

Did you catch the cab at arrivals rather than down at the official cab stand?

hockeystl

Agree. Gotta love these entitled-type posts this time of year.

Many of the JFK pax would've ended up with a 24 hour delay in NRT had DL not held the flight. I'm sure they were very thankful that they arrived at their destination only 90 minutes late instead of 1400 minutes later.

HongKonger

Nice alias. I hope there's (half) a hockey season!

MSPeconomist

Not just the 24 hour delay, but there might not have been sufficient space for everyone on the next day's flight, so that some could have been stuck at NRT for several days depending on how full the flights were.