Hey Guys,

Flew AC other day, came up with this general question. Flight was supposed to leave at 3:15PM and I had checked baggage so I usually get there 45min. before the flight (2:30PM). Before leaving the office to catch the plane, I saw the flight was delayed by an hour (New departing time of 4:15PM).

I was wondering if this meant that I could arrive at the airport at 3:30PM (45 min. before departure as per usual) or would I need to arrive at 45min. before the original planned departure?

Thanks!

Not sure what the airlines' rules are regarding this type of situation. Regardless, you take a chance by counting on the delay, as at least occasionally flights do end up departing earlier than the delayed time. They typically don't hold the departures for passengers who don't arrive at the gate on time, even though the passengers' late arrivals were due to the initial information from the airlines.

Those status readouts are not authoritative. They could fix the mechanical, make up time en route, swap aircraft, etc. -- all kinds of possibilities -- that put your flight back on schedule, and not send another update. If you slip your arrival time on the advice of the e-notifier, you risk missing your flight (happened to me on UA).

...and it would be your fault. Don't cut it too close.

With oversold flights I wouldn't risk not checking in at the original time.

As this is a general travel related question, we'll continue the discussion here in the TravelBuzz forum.

Thanks all!

~Moderator, Information Desk

Why not tell us the carrier. That may make a difference.

Most carriers require you checked in by a specific time and at the gate by a specific time, all based on the originally scheduled flight time. If you aren't there and the flight is at risk of oversale, you are SOL.

There is always the chance they will substitute a new plane or make up the time in some other way, and you would be left behind. Annoying as it is, you need to be there in time for the original departure.

There are a number of threads on FT about pax missing their flights this way.

I made that assumption once. Then the plane left earlier than it's "new departing time". Not worth the risk.

Depends on the airline. I've had text messages advising of new check in times (normally sent the evening before), eg:

Flight BA0191 on 26-May/LHR - will now depart at 1345 local time. Please check-in no later than 1300 local time. British Airways apologises.

DL will text updated time but still may "fix" the problem and leave on time. I completely agree that you shouldn't risk it by showing up later even if the airline contacts you.

It depends on the circumstances. If you'e departing from an outstation where your carrier has no aircraft, with the inbound being delayed but scheduled to arrive by a certain time, you can be pretty confident that your flight will not depart before that time.

OTOH, aircraft substitutions are common for an ailing bird based on the airline's operational priorities. Cannibalizing a plane from another route is a common solution.

It's rare for a MX to be fixed earlier than announced (perhaps because the carrier underestimates the time in order to discourage passengers from rebooking, hence the continual "just 15 more minutes to boarding" announcements), but it can happen. In that case, the airline usually wants to board and depart ASAP.

+1

That's how I play my nng-sha flights (find the inbound aircraft online and leave for the airport when it's an hour away). Even with this strategy, the inevitable departure delay is still awful, but I typically reduce my total delay by an hour.

However, when flying out of a base city, aircraft substitutions can happen. I almost got burned pretty bad because of this last summer, but saved myself by carrying on all of my heavy bags.

Just because you noticed that it was delayed doesn't mean every other passenger did too.

Depending on where I'm flying from, I will get to the airport 2+ hours before departure (somewhere not too familiar) to an hour before. In other words, I will probably have been at the airport by the time a delay message appeared. In any event, have always heard that check-in closes based on the original ETD.

Drawing upon my NNG-SHA example again, MU doesn't really do "delay messages" (i.e. they don't place a great deal of value on passengers' time), but this doesn't matter because it's physically impossible for a plane that's in Shanghai to transport me to Shanghai when I am 1,200 miles away from Shanghai. During my early days of doing this drill, I tried to get fancy by switching flights around, but quickly learned this was a losing battle (i.e. Murphy's Law dictates that the inbound aircraft for the new flight is also stuck in Shanghai). Now, I pretty much accept the fact that the 4p flight is really a 6p flight, which isn't going to leave the ground until 7p.