mersk862

Yup - there have been several times where I thought I was going to misconnect only to be saved by a delayed outbound.

Of course, there have been those times where I do misconnect - and the CRC angels find me a confirmed seat in F on the next flight out 60 minutes later instead of waiting 10 hours for a Y seat.

CopperSteve

Greetings from Santiago. More to follow. :-)

CopperSteve

OK, here's the story. The EWR flight didn't get to the gate until about 10:00. Lots of traffic in the alley leading to our gate. I assumed I was done, but I hightailed it to T-4. Got there about 10:08. No one was there. A maintenance worker said the agents just left, and directed me to customer service near T-8. I saw the plane was still there and waved to the pilots, and walked to the service desk.

I was waiting in line for about 10 minutes when the same maintenance worker appeared. He said they just let 4 more people onto the flight and I should run over there. I got there and the door was closed, but a GA was still there. She checked me in and told me to run down the ramp. I also asked her to cancel my flight tomorrow night and she said she would.

As I was running to the plane door, I heard the dreaded warning signal that the ramp was detaching form the plane. Even as I was registering this, the GA started running toward the plane, yelling "Oh no you don't! He gets on the plane!" The ramp worker said no, but she insisted. She said "Get on the phone to the pilot and get clearance to open the door. HE GETS ON THIS PLANE!" The ramp had only detached a few inches, so she went up to the door, put her face in the window, knocked on the door, and said something like "I can see you. I am not going anywhere. Open the door." The door did open. I said a profuse thank you to the GA and got on board. My seat had been poached and I didn't even mind.

The senior FA brought me to 1B and was the nicest, most professional FA I'd ever encountered, and probably ever will.

My bags didn't make it - no surprise there. I do have a change of clothes in my carryon, so I'm OK until the bags arrive tomorrow.

I will write a letter of thanks to the CEO of Delta, to acknowledge the efforts of the GA. I didn't print her name here because I wasn't sure if that would be appropriate. I do need some help in getting the correct spelling of her name: how can I go about doing that?

God Bless Delta! They really showed their true colors for me! ^

ZapperO

Wow! That is quite the story. Glad you made it. Definitely sounds like the GA went WAY above and beyond....

To get her proper name, the only thing I can think of is to call the Delta Corporate switchboard and explain the situation. They might be nice enough to help you...although they may not have access to that info. Worth a try: 404-715-2600

davetravels

Wow! I'm also surprised at all of that effort! One time I was flying MEX/ATL/PIT and got to the gate in ATL - door closed - plane still there - TOO BAD. I asked the GA if they can tell that some pax are in the terminal, but running late. She just said that nobody told her to hold the plane. I was stuck there more than 3 hours.

Anyway, in this situation, since it's a through flight - #147 connecting to #147 - but changing aircraft, I would figure that quite a few people would've been trying to make the same connection, flying all the way from EWR to SCL! Would DL give ANY priority to holding a flight a short amount of time on a THRU flight like this when the originating segment is late? Is that what happened to the OP? Did the GA do her utmost because he was in BE?

Sorry to hear about your bags! - Expected, I guess. That's why I try VERY hard to carry-on everything on my outbounds and don't worry about checking bags on my returns. Also, I'm a tad jealous - - wishing I was in Chile, too! Buen viaje!!

CopperSteve

I am not sure if Delta held the flight becauseit was a continuation with the same flight number. When I boarded the EWR flight, I asked the FA if a lot of people were continuing on to SCL. She said, "There's 24 people in total on this flight. I doubt there's a great many people connecting anywhere." If the maintenance worker was correct, 4 other people got on. I assume they were from the same flight as me. I think I was the only one from BE connecting. Since I was the first off the plane, I probably got to T-4 a few minutes before the others.

I can't say for sure that the GA went the extra mile because I was flying BE - she never did say. Regardless, I had already resigned myself to spending the night in ATL and it would have been well within her job description to deny my boarding (and I wouldn't have protested too hard, if at all).

By the way, it's about 80 degrees and sunny here.

RobertS975

In general, there is no connection advantage to being on a so-called through flight where there is an actual change of aircraft at the connection point.

And what I do find interesting is that even when some higher power decides to hold a flight, often the rank and file GAs do not get the message somehow. A specific case in point: I was on a CO flight from BOS-IAH-PHX just prior to the previous Super Bowl in Glendale AZ. The outbound from BOS was delayed over an hour by late inbound equipment. We were assured by CO ground staff in BOS that the connection would be held in IAH since there were 50+ passengers on the BOS-IAH flight continuing on to PHX including the ENTIRE FC cabin. We all did indeed make the flight, but just as they were buttoning it up! Nobody had told the GAs in IAH to hold anything, and the cabin/flight crew were also not in the loop.

Once the horde showed up, they did indeed hold for an extra 20 minutes for luggage to make the connection as well.

Dovster

I am going to give this the ultimate test in June. I arrive at ATL at 5:50 am on a flight from TLV. My girlfriend, who is travelling on an Italian passport, will have to go through the non-US citizens line at Immigration.

We will then wait for our luggage, go through Security, and try to get to our FLL flight which takes off at 7:25 am.

I know this is very tight, but if we don't make the connection it will be Delta's responsibility to get us on a flight to FLL, not ours.

RobertS975

Dovster, it is DL's responsibility to get you to FLL, but unfortunately, one has no assurance that they will get you on the next flight, simply the next available flight. There are certain times of the year where that can present a real problem!

When I am traveling during real busy high load factor periods, I pad my connection times accordingly.

Dovster

True enough, but there are 10 flights ATL-FLL after mine and I suspect that June is not a high load period to FLL.

In fact, I flew there in late November, which has got to be a much busier period on buddy pass stand-by and was one of about 12 people who boarded from the waiting list. This time, as paid customers, we will have a higher priority than non-revs.

RobertS975

True enough for your case, but my larger point was simply that it would be wise to try to make your connections as foolproof as possible during holiday periods, school vacation weeks etc. As an example, I know people who had a Saturday AM start of Feb school vacation BOS-FLL flight get canceled for snow, and it was the following Tuesday before DL could guarantee them the 4 seats they needed... and that is nonstop, via ATL, via CVG etc. Everything out of BOS was zeroed out for several days even before the weather issues.

avkillick

On June 4 we are travelling PHX-ATL-DUB.

Will we have to fight through security lines when transferring from the incoming flight from Phoenix to the outgoing flight to Dublin?

1792 shows terminal S arrival and 176 shows terminal T departure.

AndyTLe

There is no S terminal in ATL. I don't know why DL lists it as such. All flights at ATL are behind security so you'll just go to your DUB gate from your PHX flight.

avkillick

Thank you Andy for clarification. Actually, Expedia shows 1792 as Terminal South arrival. From reading the different threads, I'm beginning to understand that transfer from INT to DOM needs more time because of immigration/customs etc whereas DOM to INT should take no longer than DOM to DOM

Either way - we have 3hrs 20min so I'm probably fussing over nothing.

Thanks again.

fgirard

I'm in the process of booking another flight to Madrid and I was wondering if I should transit via IAD or ATL. I'm being presented with the option of PVD-DTW-IAD-CDG-MAD or PVD-DTW-ATL-CDG-MAD (for some reason or another, the PVD-ATL flight is not an option). I've done the IAD transfer before, but would it be easier to transit in ATL? I'm more nervous about the connection in ATL because there tends to be inbound delays.