jamesteroh

I didn't think the decision to hold a flight was up to the GA on any airline. A lot of times I am on the last flight of the day to a city from DTW on Delta and have been delayed a few times because they were holding the plane for late connections. It is cheaper for them to hold the plane sometimes than provide overnight accodomations and rebook people if it's a MX delay. There are also times where it makes sense for an airline to not hold a plane regardless of how many people it will incovenience with a missed connection such as when the crew has been flying all day and is in dangerous of going over if they delay the flight by too long (I have been on flights on Delta and Spirit before where they had a MX problem that has delayed a flight by so long they had to bring in another crew because the FA's would be over in the number of hours they can work)

johnslloyd

+1. The GAs are surely talking to their ops folks who make the call; the GAs are just who we have visibility of. All the other reasons you cite for such decisions are correct. I do think the SkyWest GAs at SLC Concourse E have a little latitude on their own when it comes to holding a flight for a short time period.

ftnoob

Delete this??? Are you forgetting who founded this airline (and his reputation)? Hard to imagine commentary he would appreciate more.

ftnoob

[HomerSimpson]DOH![/HomerSimpson]

SWA has something called "A-List" and something else called A+. When you fly that much you automatically get a high BP number, you board "early," pick a prime seat, and away you go. SWA boarding is usually quick, so there isn't much reason to hang out until the last second to board.

ILovetheReds

My wife had an A-2 boarding pass on a business paid trip recently on Southwest and the bulkhead and exit rows seats were already taken from people that were on the plane and had those seats on the first part of the trip or moved. If I am on a TATL flight and am stuck in steerage I like to know I will be sitting in Economy Comfort or an exit row.

American and Delta have something called lounges where you can enjoy adult drinks for free, so if I am sitting in steerage I would rather be enjoying another drink for free instead of boarding earlier knowing I will only have one adult beverage for free and not until the plane is in the air. Even when I am in the front of the bus sometimes I won't board early if I know I will be happy with the bottle of water on my seat and don't have a jacket to go in the closet.

While I haven't had this issue on Southwest, someone in my office flew Southwest recently and had an A-something BP, and her first plane was late getting into Midway and she had to run to her connecting gate with only a couple minutes to spare and was in a middle seat in the second to the last row. So even if she flew Southwest four times a week, she would have had an awful seat. That wouldn't happen with assigned seating.

nsx

Yes, getting to the gate late is a weakness of open seating. The weakness of assigned seating is booking the flight late: you can have only middles to choose from if you book less than 10 days in advance. Neither system is better in every case. Pick your poison.

jamesteroh

What really sucks is when you pay for EBCI for a MDW/SFO or MDW/LAX flight and you end up being one of the last to board because your DTW/MDW 45 minute flight is over an hour late. Like you said that is a risk with open seating, especially when dealing with a connection.

If you are able to have status with a legacy, you usually won't get stuck with a middle seat, even on a last minute purchase. I have gotten stuck with a middle seat one time in the last two years on DL and that was because I accept a very generous IDB on my DTW/LGA to fly DTW/EWR which only got me in a half hour later. If figured for a $500 voucher it was worth it to take a middle seat on that short of a flight that got me in only a half hour later and it also saved me the cab fare to Manhattan since I was able to the NJ train into the city.

If you fly a lot on a legacy they usually hold back premium seats for their more frequent flyers. Even when I SDC, if I don't clear on my new flight, I usually get an economy comfort or exit row (or at least another aisle seat). Usually a legacy won't upgrade every seat in first class until 40 minutes before the flight and the seats the passengers get upgraded out of are premium seats, which they will then reassign to other frequent flyers. You also have passengers that will SDC into an earlier flight, and those will be higher tier flyers with premium seats, so those seats will open up to be reassigned as well.

For a PAX that doesn't fly very often, they would probably stand a better shot a better seat with open seating as opposed to assigned seating.

LASUA1K

Was this on a flight from MSP?

MrMan

HOU is closer to MEX than BWI, Fort Lauderdale is closer to Carribean than BWI

djp98374

Yeah they do...they are called cross country....many east coast-west coast/Vegas/PHX flights are 5 hrs+

tusphotog

I wouldn't be so sure in the case of other AAirlines. I'm sure the GA just wanted to get my friend's flight out on time and neglected to tell the captain or ops there were late inbound connections. It's happened to me on QX before, so I know how the GAs play the game.

At least the plane was there....

ILovetheReds

[QUOTE=tusphotog;19558451]Yep. Her flight was sked to arrive at 7:45p, but touched down at 9:15p. They then had to wait 20 minutes for a gate to open up. She and the other folks from her flight had 15 minutes to make her connection from D to A, IIRC. She mentioned other people were trying to connect to that flight from various east coast/Florida cities.
QUOTE]

There are several reasons for getting a flight out on time and not delaying it for a lot of late connects.

It sounds like there was bad weather in DFW if her flight was delayed by that kind of time and people on other flights were trying to connect.

It's possible if they had been experiencing bad weather all day they were concerned with more bad weather coming in.

If her inbound had to wait on a gate to open and there were a lot of other flights inbound they needed the gate space.

The most likely scenario is that the crew had been flying all day and were in risk of being over in their allowable hours for the day. If they hold a plane for even a half hour and then get stuck in a groundhold because bad weather moves in or because of air traffic (which would be likely to happen if a bunch of flights were delayed and all the gates were taken) they would be forced to return to the gate and get a new flight crew and probably cancel the flight.

There is also a possiblity that the crew had an early morning flight. If that flight got in too late, the airline is forced to delay their outbound the next morning if the crew rest requirements aren't meant. I have been on early morning flights that were delayed due to the inbound flight the crew was on the night before arriving late so that the required crew rest requirements could be met.

Did your friend ask why they didn't hold her connection with all the PAX connecting? Or did she just assume the GA wanted to get the flight out on time?

No airline is going to hold a plane for late connections if there is a chance it will cause the flight to cancel.

kerflumexed

There are some captains that will go up the jetway to check for late arriving pax and non-revs and commuting crewmembers to make sure the over-zealous ops agent doesn't leave em behind when there are empty seats on the airplane. Ops agents are being pressured to get flights out early and are rewarded with steak dinners etc. All part of the new regime.

But back to the original title of this thread...

Gary Kelly has stated in multiple forums that he is looking for new forms of revenue but that he has not made up his mind yet. I think they will select from an amalgam of Tranny, Alaska, and JetBlue's basket of fees. My bet in priority order include the following:

Change non-refundable ticket, now zero, others charge 75-100. My bet is $75 to start, to be raised to $100 later to match JBLU.

Phone fee of 15 clams - this is what the others in my basket charge.

UM fee is now 50, will increase to ~75.

First checked bag will remain at zero, 2nd will be at 25. A variant of this would be to raise fees on overweight, and 3rd bags etc. in order to avoid backtracking on bags fly free. Another possibility is to convert to "Bags Fly Cheap" with more modest fees than others.

Fee for flying on an aircraft with the old interior: $137.00

In the future: assigned seats with associated fees plus part of the cabin with more leg room.

LegalTender

Not as whimsical as some would believe.

jamesteroh

It would make sense for them to eliminate the 2nd free bag fee (1 free bag is still cheaper than their competition if you have no status with another airline) and to start charging a phone fee.

I could also see them cahrging a modest change fee. If they charged $50 thgat is still cheaper than their competitors. If they do charge the fee though they should allow a-list passengers to fly on an earlier flight the same day for free, even if standby or at least not charge the fee for same travel changes.

Something I think they should do is charge a standby and/or SDC fee of $50, unless they have a lot of people currently who pay the entire fee to upgrade to a full fare. If I am getting home a lot earlier and finish up early in the city I am in, I could easilly justify a $50 charge to get on an earlier flight (especially if it was SDC) but would have a harder time paying hundreds of dollars to upgrade from the lowest fare to a full fare ticket. ANd if Southwest has the room on the plane, they aren't out much by letting a passenger go on an earlier flight.