MarTN

BOS-DTW-BNA

Late arrival in Detroit, race to the gate, "oh, you just missed it."

Why would they not hold the last flight out for 10 minutes?

And was the rude gate person correct when she said that they would not provide a hotel? As we've all seen in the last few weeks, not everyone has the cash to fund an unplanned hotel room. Is sleeping in the Detroit airport the best Northwest can do for a situation they created?

In the end, they flew him to TYS (3 hours from BNA) but wouldn't pay for a rental car.

dave_261

I think it sometimes depends on how many people they are waiting for. If you were the lone "late" connecting passenger, it may have been less costly for them to just let the plane go. In essence, an idle plane costs them money.
As to them not providing a hotel room... that sounds odd. Why was the flight delayed from BOS-DTW? I suppose if it was a weather delay, they may not have an obligation to provide you with a room.

fromYXU

What was the reason for your delay?

Also, holding for you may have impact on FA/pilots schedules (timed out). At 15 min before flight your seat might have been given to a standby.

MarTN

I emailed my husband for details and now I'm even more annoyed.


It looked like the plane was late arriving into Boston, and we boarded as soon as we could after it landed.

They also mentioned that they were unable to fly the shortest route to make up time, due to other air traffic (pilot even told us to look out the window and see another plane flying by).

We taxied up to the gate and had to wait there about 15-20 minutes before a ground crew materialized (the pilot was obviously irritated. I don’t know if the crews are Northwest employees or airport employees.)

Just before they opened the door to deplane, they announced 5 or 6 flights that would be held for connections – Nashville was not one of them, and at that point it was really too late to enquire as to why.

We deplaned at gate 40 (I think) and I ran to gate 31 where I arrived at 7:08 for my 7:05 flight and was told it had already left (it was actually still there, but the jetway door was closed).

chococat

Was he booked on a single itinerary? If so, he should have received a hotel voucher. If he was booked on two separate tickets, he might be s.o.l.

asnovici

They could have noted the flight as "ATC" for a reason of delay.

This happened to me on CO recently, flying from PVD to EWR and onto PHX, PVD-EWR flight was delayed due to late inbound aircraft from EWR, weather was the reason, the delayed several times again for a mix of ATC and weather delays. Then we were held at the gate in PVD due to ATC on the way to EWR, and by the time I got to EWR my PHX flight has left, CO refused to provide a hotel room (citing "ATC" as the reason, and they don't provide a hotel room if itc Air Traffic Control), so had to get my own room and wait for the flight next morning...

hnechets

(Bolding is mine) This is one of my pet peeves on tight connections! I have many times been in a situation where I could have actually made my connecting flight if we hadn't been held up waiting for the gate/waiting for someone to 'drive' the jetbridge to the gate.

Of course, no one is gonna take the trouble to figure out that yeah, if ground ops had been on top of things, you wouldn't have missed your connection, so here's a hotel & meal vouchers & a ticket on the next flight out, sir. Heck, why blow a perfect excuse? And could Security escourt out that troublemaker in the back who is ranting about taking care of your customers? Done? Thank you so much.

Not unique to NW by any means, and I'm sorry to hear hubby got shafted.

MarTN

Yep.
It was a single itinerary, booked by a single travel agent all at one time.

wldtrvlr

As your husband stated in his e-mail, there are many factors that control whether an aircraft arrives or departs on time. Alot of them have not been mentioned yet. Crew timing issuses probably is the reason it could not be held. Either 1.) the crew on the flight would time out (not be allowed to fly and no on would go anywhere) or 2.) the mandated "rest time" would not be met if they arrived at the destination late and the first flight of the morning would have to be delayed to meet the mandated rest time, inconviencing all the passengers on that plane the next day (not just the first flight, once the plane starts late it just magnifies delays throughout the day).

Air traffic control, weather, take off slots, number of connecting passengers, and many other factors influence whether a plane can be held or not.

As far as a hotel goes, that is a toss up. If it was late do to maintenance or crew, than NW would provide a hotel. If it was weather, ATC or other situations "beyond their control" than they are off the hook.

That is one of the biggest risks with taking the last flight of the day, especially when it is going to a smaller airport not likely to have other carriers servicing the route later.

travelnutz

I was in the same boat recently. Flight was delayed getting into DTW and made me miss an earlier flight. The earlier flight was still at the gate but the ga said no dice. The result was I had 3 hours to enjoy DTW until my next connection.

Lehava

While it sounds like NWA was wrong in all this, they might not have been ABLE to give him vouchers because they are WORTHLESS at the moment. I know many of the restaurants that used to allow passengers to use NWA vouchers are no longer accepting them, and the same might be for hotels (unsure on this one).

Welcome to Chapter 11 land!

Bikeguy

A hotel voucher for a free room from NW might be worthless. However, my wife and I were given a voucher for a hotel room at NW negotiated rate due to weather in IAD. We were stranded the night before in AMS, and paid the going rate.

We stayed at an Embassy Suite in Washington for approx $70. When we woke up at 5AM to catch our flight, there was a bill under our door for $300+. We got the mix-up ironed out. I was really glad I had the NW negotiated voucher.

Keep this option in mind if you get stranded due to weather.

NOLAnwGOLD

my recent flight from mem waited about 30 minutes for a late arriving flight from AMS, apparently there were 11 passengers connecting onto our flight. A number of them did make it on board but finally the pilot got tired of waiting and we left. I guess some took too long with customs and passport control.

Alpha Golf

Happened to me two weeks ago today. Came in an hour late due to shoddy ground handling at DCA. Wouldn't hold the conx the 5 minutes for us to get it (in fact let it out early). There were three of us trying to make it -- including me (a plat) and a severely handicapped pax (electric wheelchair).

And to make it worse, according to the person who'd gone to meet me, there were only 12 pax on the connecting flight. We took a 12-hour overnight delay. The ydid provide vouchers, though -- for an awful Days Inn.

civicmon

sometimes, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.

imagine all the OT that's paid to hold a connecting flight for 1-2 people, when it's cheaper to give out $50 hotel vouchers..