What does departure time really mean?
 

Perhaps this has been discussed in various forms elsewhere but anyway here goes.

It's a familiar story; your flight is delayed, you rush to try to make your connection and the jetway is being pulled back as your 'former' flight prepares to leave.

Question: When does NW begin the actual departure process vs the posted time?

In my case my flight from GFK was delayed this morning because a seat belt in an unoccupied seat was broken. According to the flight crew this required that a mechanic be called and the seat secured. Fortunately they were able to find another seat belt, but we were delayed 32 minutes before the mechanic signed off on the repair.

We landed at gate G18 in MSP at 9:50am (vs 9:16am scheduled) and could see our connecting plane to MDW at gate G14. We were in row 5 on the DC9 and sprinted over to the gate. As we got within about 50 feet of the gate, the jetway was retracted and the plane departed.

The information display behind the desk listed a departure time of 10:05am and the current time of 10:01am. Did the flight actually depart before the scheduled time? Why would NW do this when their computer showed that 3 passengers were arriving to connect?

We were rebooked on the 12:40pm flight to MDW. We could not take an earlier 11:30am flight into O'Hare because two of us had checked our bags.

I am looking for comments about this situation and perhaps suggestions for NW. It's really aggravating as I'm sure many of you can attest to.

PS: The only plus in this entire incident was that I got to see the A380 take off while I was standing at G14 waiting for my new boarding pass.

1) Doors close on flights 5 minutes before departure. If you're not at the gate 5 or more minutes before, you've probably lost your chance. You missed it by a minute, literally.

2) Although there were 3 passengers that misconnected, that is not a lot for an A319. There is usually a certain number of connecting passengers that they need to hold the flight, and 3 is usually not enough, especially to a destination like CHI where there are many flights for accommodation.

SchmutzigMSP outlines the general rule of thumb for NW door closure procedures.

With the thousands of flights on any given day, it's inevitable that a flight will go out without pax that should be on it because of a delay on an earlier flight, etc. It's unfortunate that this happens, but it's just a part of the airline world, and would be something that happens on any airline. So while we've all been in that spot and know how aggravating it is to watch as our flight pulls away from the jetway and gate, I'm afraid there won't be much NW will do in this situation for you.

Perhaps you could ask why the time is 5 minutes and not something smaller. IIRC, SW closes its doors 1 minute prior to departure time.

They want you on board a lot more than 5 minutes ahead...
 

NWA.com says (red text mine):

Domestic Flights: Passengers must be checked in at least 30 minutes and on-board at least 15 minutes before scheduled departure time for flights within the US. Exception: Check-in 45 minutes before departure in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Newark, Tampa and Washington D.C-Dulles and 60 minutes before departure in Las Vegas.

International Flights: Passengers must be checked in at least 60 minutes and on-board at least 30 minutes before scheduled departure time for flights to/from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and all other International flights.

They want you on-board 15 minutes before departure so they have the last 10 minutes to sort out standbys, non-revs, figure out if they have to hold the flight, etc. Typically, if you have a late connection and you run to your gate and it's 6 minutes or more before departure, you can still get on, although there's no guarantee since you technically lost the guarantee to your seat when you weren't there 15 minutes prior.

#1 varies by time of day...the last flight of the day will usually be held for connecting pax for up to 10 minutes (I've had this done repeatedly for me over the past year-unfortunately the GA's have gotten use to looking for me on my normal routes and no it's not ever been my fault I was late...heck once I was 15 mins late, they were holding the plane the 10 mins but it was now 15 mins and the door was closed and I saw a GA walking by and asked where the GA working this flight was since the plane was still there-she went down the ramp and got the GA for me who let me on...it really depends on a lot of variables for each situation :))

The annoying thing about this situation (and with reference to the thread "How do computers talk to each other?") why doesn't a NWA computer manage pax connections better. If I am on a NW flight from SAT to MSP with a connection in MEM, why give my (good) seat to some one else when I am still within 10 mins of boarding. Why doesn't the computer show this? Or was it the GA?

Because you are supposed to be on-board (Read: boarding pass scanned) 15 minutes before departure. After you're within that 15 minute window, you lose rights to your specific seat and it can be given to a standby passenger or a non-revenue passenger. Gate Agents routinely make this announcement when boarding.

There's no guarantee that even if you're at the airport coming in off a delay that you'll make it to the flight by the time the door closes. So, that's why they have to draw the line. Occasionally exceptions are made as pointed out up-thread, but in general the line has to be drawn and 15 minutes is that line.

Normally the flight will not leave early, unless either A) all the people have checked in or B) the posted time is not the scheduled departure. IE the flight was scheduled to leave at 10:00, but was showing 10:30 for delays etc. If that is the case they may not update the board, but the plane will leave since it is either fixed or finally allowed to depart by FAA.

or C) someone else more important is about to take over the airspace. I recently flew out of San Antonio, scheduled departure was 5:45pm. We left at 5:30pm because Air Force One was about to leave and if we had waited, we'd have waited like 45 minutes. I don't think I *ever* had a flight leave early, and I was surprised everyone was there and ready to board and all. Hope we didn't leave anyone stranded. The GA's didn't seem like they were rushing, and they made no announcement that we'd be leaving early, either on ground or on plane. As we took off, I got a nice view of AF1 on the ground at the neighboring AFB.

Just as a followup... Is the posted departure time what is used when airlines report their on-time departures? IE If they leave within 15 minutes of the posted time, they consider it on time?