anon2k2

I was flying MCI-LAX-SEA this week and my MCI-LAX was delayed inbound to MCI. We left for LAX about 2.5 hours late. There was no way I would make my connection, so the Diamond Line rebooked me on the next LAX-SEA. By the time we were in the air, it became evident that I would have 5-10 minutes between when we landed and the new connection would depart. Given the 15 minute door closure rule and all that, there was pretty much no way that would happen.

I contacted the Twitter team while airborne, and they said they would do two things: protect me on the next available, which was the next morning, and contact ground operations to see if there was anything that could be done. Magically, a few minutes later, the Fly Delta app gave me an update notification that my connecting flight was now 10 minutes delayed.

When we arrived in LAX, there was a ramp agent who met me and walked me to the SEA flight and they immediately closed the door behind me; a FA took my roll-aboard and said "Welcome on board, we saved a spot for your bag" and put my bag in the overhead.

It was so nice sleeping at home instead of at an LAX airport waiting for a 6AM flight. A huge thanks to the folks at Delta who helped out.

AANYC1981

That's awesome! I bet LAX-SEA still arrived early or on-time too. With all of the schedule padding going on, I wish airlines would use more common sense like this.

KevinDTW

​​​​​​​Nice!

puck021

The only way that this is nicer is when they drive you to your held flight in a Porsche. Happened to me in ATL in February. Way to go Delta

fromYXU

Nice!

But... I would be upset if that caused me to miss my connection in SEA.

boatnfish

Nice to hear.

BusTrav8yrs

And i still remember the time they let our intl connection go 10 mins early at DTW even though there were 5 pax on our first flight trying to make the same connection that was delayed because the lav was broken. Got to the gate to watch it pulling away. Ended up stuck for an entire day in Detriot and having to rearrange a bunch of reservations.

apodo77

Never had such luck like this.

rylan

Sounds like this was the last LAX-SEA flight of the night, so wouldn't be anything to connect on to at SEA.
I think they should have some discretion to hold flights for a brief amount of time and not get in trouble especially when its the last one of the evening and leaving pax means they're stuck overnight.

ijgordon

Haha, usually the thread is “DL closed the door 5 minutes early even though they knew we were all coming from a delayed flight and if they stuck to the 10 minute rule we would have made the flight but instead I have to spend the night at a Holiday Inn! ”

Often1

That is one of the factors Operations considers in determining whether to hold a flight. Ops looks at connections on the other end.

The question is not whether the aircraft pushes late, but whether it arrives late. Presuming little ground or air traffic, favorable weather and so on, there is easily 10+ minutes in that schedule and thus holding the flight is a fairly easy decision.

Billy Mumphrey

I've taken the last LAX-SEA to connect to a redeye to ATL. The connection time on those particular flights can be tight and 10 minutes can absolutely make a difference.

indufan

They do this more than you will ever know. I have been pushed late a number of times and magically there is a 10 minute delay on the connection. Delta does what benefits them and if it happens to benefit the customer, then great. If you are late and your connection flight is oversold, forget about getting an operational delay. If it is the last flight of the delay and there are a dozen people they are going to be on the hook for lodging, then there is a pretty good chance. But you won't always know that it happened.

KevinDTW

Same thing happened to me on NWA when they had one daily flight MEM - AMS -- got there just in time to watch it pull out of the gate. Had to spend a night nearby (Mt. Moriah?) in a terrible hotel with food that I think was leftover from the nearest state prison. And then a middle seat on the next day's flight. Good times.