readywhenyouare

Yes and as someone who has used CVG-MEM quite frequently it irritates me. The new flight allows for no connections unless you are coming in from a red eye. I find it hard to believe they can fill a CRJ-900 based on OD alone.

injera

Recently flew ewr-rdu-aus and back and it was far better than a connection in atl. Plus the ug cleared on all four legs.

airmotive

This also comes with a caveat.
My home airport (IND) is not a connecting airport for anyone...until one day it was. A short story with a happy ending...

I was flying home from somewhere in Canada and had transferred in DTW for the 37 minute flight to IND. There were a lot of weather-related IROPS, but this flight was on time. Sitting next to me was an obviously exhausted woman about my age. Her name was Dixie. She explained that a lot of the people on this flight were all trying to get to LAX in order to fly on to SYD. With all the flight cancellations and delays, she had flown all over (Toronto, JFK, and now DTW) trying to connect to a flight to LAX. I was kind of surprised...why IND? Then I remembered that IND had just started direct service to LAX. We would land about 45 minutes before the LAX flight departed IND.
I told her not to worry, IND is a small airport and you can connect to any gate in under ten minutes. I also joked with her that I bet the baggage handlers have never transferred a bag at IND from one plane to another.

We land, I go to baggage claim...and sure enough, a bunch of bags with SYD on the tags come rolling onto the carousel. The very first one happened to belong to Dixie. I grabbed it and took it over to the baggage counter and alerted the person there that a bunch of SYD bags need to make the LAX flight...I also took one of my business cards, wrote "You're welcome" on it and slipped it into her bag. The agent looked up to the sky and said,"This always happens!" She then ran to get a cart and started piling bags for LAX.

The bags made the flight. Dixie made it home to Sydney. And about a week later I get an email asking how my card got into her bag. I told her about the baggage snafu (she had no idea it ever happened).
We've good been friends ever since.

pvn

In IROPS, anything goes. If a connection makes logistical sense, it can and will be used even if it's not a "legal" routing for tickets that you would buy.

indufan

How long ago was this? IND has always had occasional connections and more than occasional ones certainly since the merger with NW after they expanded to try to eliminate TZ. They do routinely deal with connecting baggage although on a small scale and I am certain a few slip through.

flyerCO

I remember when I'd fly to EWR from GFK the quickest routing was GFK-MSP-IND-EWR. You were guaranteed to make the IND connection since the same plane flew MSP-IND and IND-EWR despite different flight #s (this was back when NW owned a chunk of CO AND they were partners). Luggage didn't make it most times though since crew just weren't expecting to take luggage off and put back on the same plane. Used it to my advantage to have NW provide most my clothing purchases for nearly a year.

sinoflyer

AA and DL had tried this before. When RDU was an AA hub, it was advertised as a more convenient, less congested hub for eastern seaboard pax than ATL (DL), DCA/BWI (US), PHL (Midway), etc.

And when DL opened CVG's Comair terminal (RIP), it was heavily marketed as the steppingstone for CVG's preeminence vis-a-vis ORD, DTW, MSP.

Both RDU and CVG failed as hubs because the local markets were/are too small, and not because of a lack of advertising. For now, marketing the local O-D traffic probably makes more sense.

jrl767

haven't used RDU as a connection point yet, but I did DCA-CMH/IND-LAX a couple times before DL swapped the DCA slots to US/AA in the LGA buildup ... easy window upgrades, even as GM, and FAR less stress and hassle associated with less congested transfer airport (yes MEM and CVG were busy during banks of 30-40 flights, but nowhere near ATL/MSP/DTW/JFK)

the biggest issue for the passenger, as mentioned before, is that IROPS recovery options at these alternative connection points are far more limited than at true hubs; the biggest issues for the airline, also as mentioned before, are revenue and market share -- balancing the contributions of O/D traffic and connecting traffic

CJKatl

I once connected thru IND, too. I don't remember from or to where, but the NFL combine had just ended in IND and I wound up sitting next to Pete Carroll. His Defensive Coordinator sat across the aisle. I'm not a football fan, but many of my friends were very impressed.

xliioper

This was back in the NW days, but they actually offered DTW-FLL-IND-PHL routing when I was searching from a DTW-PHL roundtip (and the price was less).

HDQDD

Delta already has 70+ flights a day at RDU with more on the horizon (i.e BNA).

The Situation

Really? I haven't experienced anything but the contrary. Last time I flew through DTW, we had a weather delay, and employees were fantastic at keeping us informed and went above and beyond to help me figure out if a reroute was worth the risk.


Routings through focus cities make sense on some connections and they are fantastic if they work, but most aren't worth the risk. A lot of flights are on regional jets (which are first to get delayed or cancelled since delaying those flights impacts fewer customers) and many flights are low frequency, so if you do miss a connection, you are 8-12 hours late instead of 1-2 if you fly through a large hub with 8 flights a day.

Miesque

I really miss CVG being a hub, I really preferred it to ATL

kop84

DL doesn't want you connecting through their focus cites as those flights are O/D focused.
Plus the ground crews there aren't really used to connecting bags so mistakes will be made.

A few years ago around X-Mas I saw LGA/MCO for $300 and JFK/MCO was $800. But something like V or X class was available through JFK to MCO if you were coming in from AMS.

It's much easier for DL to steer people to the big connecting hubs for a reason. More staff, more flights, more lounges, more everything and much easier to re-accommodate people. Plus I'm sure if a mechanical forces an overnight, DL has much more robust options for hotels for people in ATL, MSP, DTW, SLC etc than they do in RDU, IND, CMH etc. They probably have deals with 3-6 hotels in the big hub cities and maybe 1-2 in most other locations.

SJC ORD LDR

CVG is still a hub. Just, a smaller hub.

Back on topic, I remember Delta advertising the ease of using CVG as a connecting point in the late 1990's. I guess strategies change in 20 years.