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There's a reason why you have schedules. On AC, the flight will NOT depart early if people have checked in and have not boarded at the gate.
This get-there-itis is highly counter-productive. If you depart early you are most likely going to be in the penalty box on arrival (or on departure if your takeoff slot is not ready) so the question is where to wait? Most pax would rather wait in the airport or at the lounge. Not in a metal tube. |
My experience has been that early departures happen fairly frequently from international destinations s compared to inside the USA. I seem to recall that in some Asian countries security/boarding processes are coordinated to the extent that they know when everything is on board. And they're off early.
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About a year ago I was flying DL, LGA-PWM, boarded at T-1:20, departed almost an hour early.
This was a late flight (10:40pm departure) and was before the LGA hub was up to full strength. There were almost no arriving flights scheduled after 8:00 and the airport was basically deserted. The flight was on an A320, there were maybe 45 people onboard. |
Originally Posted by UA-NYC
(Post 21186048)
We ended up pulling out from the gate at T-18 (with the door shut a few minutes before that...all pax were on board, so I guess we were clear to shut the door.
Originally Posted by edcho
(Post 21186102)
If everyone is there early, why not?
Originally Posted by kenn0223
(Post 21186817)
Winter 2011/12 on a BOS - ORD flight ahead of a winter storm. GA and RCC agents announced that captain wanted to leave 20 min early and they would begin boarding immediately. We boarded very quickly with both the Capt and FO on the jetbridge and in the cabin helping things along. We pushed 30 min prior to departure and, based on the loads, my guess is we left some folks behind. It looks like BOS effectively shut down shortly after our departure.
It was ~8 years ago and on a US turbo-prop out of a tiny upstate NY airport (ITH). There was weather on the way and the pilot wanted to get ahead of it for fear of being delayed. I knew the airport extremely well and timed it to arrive and clear security at about T-20 only to find my plane gone. The GA said they were paging me before departure (so, perhaps I was the only one left behind). I ended up on a flight ~3 hours later (still making my meeting) and got a free domestic r/t cert from US out of it. ^ |
LAX-MCO (flight 261) had everyone loaded up and ready for take off at about T-25 (Saturday AM 8/3)
Actually left at T-13 and I immediately thought about this thread |
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