Took the last flight to Philadelphia on Friday night -- the 8:58. We sat at the gate until 9:40(!) waiting for straggling connecting flyers and then spent another half hour (!) after we taxied waiting for permission to take off (a bit of tarmac gridlock).

Basically, we got off the ground five minutes before we were supposed to arrive in Philadelphia, making for a very long night. Got a few words of apology but, uh, that's all. Ridiculous.

reeeeeeeediculous indeed

I bet you'd feel differently if your connecting flight was the one that came in 30 minutes late. Would you have rather gotten home an hour late, or 9am the next day?

I think its pretty fantastic that they hold the last flight of the night a few minutes - 40 is a bit much, but if they had tarmac gridlock anyways and you still would have been waiting there, why not wait for a few pax anyways?

I consider a 2 hour delay a GIVEN and don't care about it until it hits 3, then I get antsy.

SOP for the last flight of the day to most destinations.....it happens, it is a pain the *ss for sure, but I have been on flights that had to connect and have been relieved to to find the last flights have been held (within the the 1-1.5 hour time-frame). I agree with the second post in this exchange.

Got ya beat. Monday, 20 minutes late pushing back from gate because of broken plane. Now 2 hour ground hold into EWR. Missed flight to Costa Rica by 30 min nutes. Got there Tuesday night. Yesterday on way home Inbound from MSP 2 hours late because of mechanical problem. 2.5 hours to get into the air because we had to return to gate for more fuel because taxi line was 1+ hours long in IAH. Missed flight home, but got last MSP-DTW flight. Arr DTW 11:35 rented car drove home arrived 1:30... Still no luggage.

I will see if I get an "Im sorry" note but I doubt it...\

BTW still no luggage.

I'll trade my week with anyone out there.

PHL is always in a ground delay. I can not remeber the last time it was on time. I do it several times a month.

Flying back PHL-DTW last Thursday on the 4:03... plane arrived just a little late... we boarded and then sat on the runway for ATC westbound traffic delays... updates from the cockpit were pretty frequent... I was figuring I was in the middle of the last possible "10 more minutes" to make my connection to FNT when we took off just before 6 PM... people had just started boarding when I got to the FNT gate, aided by the fact that it was in "A" terminal. Things were helped by pretty quick taxi to the arrival gate... and the door opened almost as soon as we got to it.

So... a bit of anxiety but all turned out OK.

Re the OP comment... I certainly don't have a problem when we hold for a bit waiting for connecting people on these last flights of the day... there but for the grace of god, and all that.

It happens .... won't be the first time, nor will it be the last. If anything I'm glad they held it 40 minutes for connecting pax.

Late night, but your flight made it -- inconvienient, yes, but not the end of the world. Sounds like they kept you up to date about why it was delayed likewise.

I think its safe to say most of us have encountered much worse durring irreg ops (i.e. I've had 24 hr + delays, missed connections, etc). I once had a flight cancelled to JFK on NW due to wx (blizzard) and was happy to make it to any NYC airport -- a delayed CO to EWR did the trick and I was as greatful as could be.

SDF_Traveler