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Sure. Push earlier to look good and hang out on the tarmac to make up the difference if EDCTs and flow control are in effect :P
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
(Post 21186126)
But it all worked out well enough, esp. since the yellow handle worked like a charm at ORD.
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I have always had this experience when flying with SQ. They always manage to push back 10-15 mins earlier than scheduled.
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I guess this is a good & smart thing to do in potential IRROPS cases, or to make up for lost time...but as a general process, ignoring the stated boarding time and shifting everything forward? No thanks.
Originally Posted by ddrost1
(Post 21187230)
OT, but my theory on the yellow handle in this case is that your bag was last in/first out. Those who are not having luck with the yellow handles are boarding too early. Who wants to board an RJ with a gate check earlier than final call?
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Originally Posted by fastair
(Post 21187084)
I see alot of CO crews (and repeats of the same ones) that tell me they want to leave early. I always reply that after the checking cutoff, if every checked in passengers are on, and if all of the other depts are done (all bags accounted for, aircraft fully catered...) I've got no problem locking it up early. Usually there is an inbound connecting flight with people on it (I work at a hub) that prevents 100% of people and bags to be on significantly early, so what's the pointing in boarding the remaining passengers early to sit on the aircraft for 30 min? Extremely early dptrs lead to extremely early arrivals. Most airports don't have an unlimited supply of gates so penalty box waits happen. People in the box, even when early often perceive they are late and get ticked off. I'm all for a few early if it doesn't leave people or bags behind, but there's a limit becore extremely early departures creates more problems than it solves.
Originally Posted by ddrost1
(Post 21187230)
OT, but my theory on the yellow handle in this case is that your bag was last in/first out. Those who are not having luck with the yellow handles are boarding too early. Who wants to board an RJ with a gate check earlier than final call?
And there are so many different gate setups and ways that RJ gate checked bags are loaded, this would be difficult to find consistent. |
Yeah, that wouldn't have happened had I been booked on that flight. At LGA, I will be at the gate at T-15, not a second earlier (and will be sprinting to be there at T-15). LGA really needs Pre-Check at the C gates.
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I will say, that on days when there are storms threatening, knowing that lightening on the airport is going to cause a minimum 20 min cease to all outside operations, that "as early as possible" isn't a bad idea. But of course, this is the exception, and should not be the norm.
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I remember when AA 1974 (now 1307) was a MD-80, one time we left the gate early for a 4 p.m. departure and we were wheels up at 3:50. We landed 30 mins utes early. It was an awesome flight because of that. The cool thing is that we had a gate when we arrived in LAX.
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I did have one DJ flight from SYD to CHC where I showed up to the gate exactly at the boarding time printed on my BP and I was the second to last person on board. We pushed 25 minutes early.
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I've noticed that the boarding passes say that boarding time is now 45 minutes prior to departure, even for domestic flights on relatively small planes (e.g. 737s). Definitely a change from pmUA, when boarding time was 30 minutes prior for narrowbodies, 40-45 mins prior for widebodies. Except that, flying out of DEN, most of the time the GA won't start boarding until the "usual" 30 mins prior, despite what it says on the BP (which I've noticed also doesn't agree with the TV screens at the gate, all of which have T-30 as the boarding time). So, I'm rather irritated about the inconsistency on the BP. On the other hand, at least twice in the last year, I've gotten to the gate at T-30 (since I like to eat something beforehand) and found them boarding group 3 or 4 already. :p
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Earliest pull-back from gate ever?
My guess is we won't be reading about this situation at AUS
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Originally Posted by cerealmarketer
(Post 21187006)
Delta at JFK used to make a habit of changing departure times to 5 minutes earlier than published. Why I don't know, I don't see it as often now, but did see it often 1-2 years ago.
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Originally Posted by UA-NYC
(Post 21186048)
Earliest pull-back from gate ever?
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
(Post 21194284)
At AMS, where KLM manages ground services for DL (and earlier NW), they had a tendency to post departure times on monitors ten and even twenty minutes earlier than the scheduled times. I remember a particularly bad time when I saw the posted time and ran to the gate in a huge panic having temporarily forgotten about this habbit. When I asked why, the GA laughed and said that they did it just to hurry people to the gate. I didn't notice this on my last flight exAMS, so perhaps the practice has changed.
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Originally Posted by edcho
(Post 21186102)
If everyone is there early, why not? Although i'm a little shocked that everyone was there at the gate early at LGA.
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