Ever Been Burned Arriving Late for a Delayed Flight?
 

I know the official word is you need to be at the gate for an on-time departure since the delay could be erased but with the modern tech and being able to watch your incoming plane it seems unlikely to happen. Of course, there's always the equipment swap but my airline (Alaska) only seems to do that out of absolute necessity.

So, has anyone missed a flight due to a delay being erased?

If you're going off of the estimated landing time of the inbound aircraft and assuming yours will be delayed, but the airline hasn't actually posted a delayed departure for your flight, then that's definitely risky.

If the airline has actually posted a delayed departure, then IME, it is very rare that the flight will depart earlier than that, even if the plane is at the gate (e.g. a maintenance delay). The airlines (especially AS) seem to be very conservative about posting delays, I think because they know people will take it as the new departure time and be late to the gate). I'd make sure not to push it and get to the gate 2 minutes before door closure (because they sometimes do close the door a few minutes early to try to recover some of the delay time), but I regularly arrive at the gate ~20-25 minutes before the posted departure time and have never found the door closed early.

If flying an airline like AS and departing from an outstation (where recovery options using different aircraft are much slimmer), the risk of an unexpected aircraft swap is pretty minimal, and I've been known to plan to arrive at the airport late if the inbound is delayed, even without a posted departure delay. Those are the cases where I :rolleyes: at AS for being slow to post departure delays--like, really, the plane isn't even on the ground yet and we're supposed to start boarding in 5 minutes? Someone in Ops is asleep on the job in those cases...

BTW, I've noticed that DL seems to be much more proactive about updating estimated departure times than other airlines and also tends to make aircraft swaps and gate changes more frequently--likely because of Delta's investment in better back-end IT (e.g., the Delta Nervous System) enabling them to react better to operational changes (something WN could learn from, as the entire country now knows). I'd be less likely to play it fast and loose with DL than with other carriers--if they aren't pushing back the departure time, there's probably a reason they aren't doing so, so be to the gate on-time.

Thanks - Yeah it's 898 out of OGG and is now scheduled to depart at 645 (HST) but the curious thing is the inbound aircraft is landing at 515. They just bumped the departure from 606 to the 645 which seems odd. Crews are usually on island so I don't see that being an issue (Standard AS crew scheduling is to have them fly over on an AM, stay the night and then back on the PM the next day). As you say it could always be a maintenance issue. Also, could be a gate shortage thing as OGG is notorious for making planes wait for a gate after landing. I'll probably still arrive at the airport by 530 or so. It just wouldn't be a travel day if I didn't have time for at least one $16 beer.

I guess it depends on what you call getting burned. I’ve had to ditch a meal at an airport because a monitor-posted/app-shown flight delay got unwound such that boarding (and departure) happened way earlier than was indicated when the flight departure was initially showing as delayed. Grab and go wouldn’t work, so I got burned by paying for the food that I couldn’t eat before boarding cut-off and then had to suffer the lame excuse for “food” on the flight.

My flight from PHX to MIA was first delayed by 50 minutes due to a late arriving a/c. However, apparently the a/c got better routing and according the delay at 20 minutes before the normal boarding period was cancelled and the original departure time reinstated. It does happen, particularly at a hub airport in which a replacement a/c and crew can be found.

burned, yes.

Had FF seats in F and arrived after door closing. The aircraft than took a delay (baggage?) but the GA said they had already given my seats away

Booked a trip with my AS miles from BCN to SEA via DUB. Was in a restaurant and had just ordered when I got a notice on my phone our flight was departing at 2pm (it was 1:50pm) we freaked out, crammed a bit of food and raced to the gate only to fine the plane was actually departing at 4pm. We sat at the gate with 6 others that also got that notice and raced to the gate only to find we each had plenty of time. sigh. One other time at SEA, I had a QX flight to EAT that was delayed so I took my client who was flying with me to the board room (it wasn't the lounge back then). We strolled back to the gate at 10 minutes before the stated new departure time only to find out the mx had been fixed and the plane had taken off. Thank goodness there was a later flight! (EAT is a small regional airport, and AS is the only airline to fly to them) But, my lesson was learned, never leave the gate if there is a mx.

So it wasn't a delayed flight, but it's kind of funny that just after I responded to this thread, something similar nearly happened to me.

My 9:00pm DFW-SGF flight last night (E175) had a published boarding time of 8:30pm (and a very light load). I was on the SkyTrain at 8:27pm when I got the push notification that boarding had started. I got off the SkyTrain at 8:29pm and started walking to the gate. At 8:31pm, I hear "This is the final boarding call [for my flight]. Once the door is closed, it will not be reopened." I begin running to the gate and round the corner at 8:32pm (28 minutes before departure) to see the agent tapping her badge on the reader and starting to close the door, so I yell, "I'm here! I'm here!" and sprint up to the podium. She stops closing the door and kind of rolls her eyes at me and says, "Calm down, let me reopen check-in."

While she's logging back in to her computer, four more people show up behind me who had apparently been at the restaurant two gates over and had seen me running.

Apparently I was literally two seconds away from the boarding door being closed (28 minutes before departure and 18 minutes before published door closure) and being left in DFW overnight. I know the rule is technically that you must present yourself at the gate 30 minutes prior to departure to avoid your seats being given away, but still...

Anyway, a reminder to not only not push it to the last minute if your flight is delayed but also not to assume you can always show up at the gate less than 30 minutes from published departure. (Will I learn this lesson? Probably not, but it's still a lesson. :p )

Yeah, it's amazing how fast they can load the plane when I'm NOT at the gate :) I've had similar things happen. Several times, I've gotten the "now boarding" text and arrive at the gate four minutes later to find they're on group D!

that’s *especially* annoying when I’m in Row 1 and *both* my laptop and rollaboard wind up over Row 6 … yeah I suppose I could ask the FA to verify that the stuff in the forward-most bins in fact belongs to the other folks in Row 1, but that’s too much of a DYKWIA move