Earliest pull-back from gate ever?
 

Flew 3454 today, the UX E70 LGA-ORD segment. Blowing through security way too quickly today, I was at the gate T-35 (though the BP said T-25...making progress UX!). I was confused as the door was open and the gate area was virtually empty. I saw someone board and asked the GA if that pax was a nonrev or something...he said "no, we're boarding, the captain wants to leave early". So I got on the plane and was one of the last ones on...basically at T-30 at this point.

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. Makes me wonder though what would have happened if we were still 1 short...would they have stopped the world record pull-back time?

Quickest LGA-ORD flight ever - we were in the air at 3:57 for a 4pm scheduled departure (when does that happen at LGA?), the plane was only in the air 1:50 (crazy fast for westbound), and we landed an hour "early" (though we went to the penalty box for a bit).

So PO'd that I had to check my bag due to the over-eagerness to board, but I guess the pilot got the clearance for an early slot from ATC, so I supposed I'd be busting a move in that situation too.

Curious what others think about this...

If everyone is there early, why not? Although i'm a little shocked that everyone was there at the gate early at LGA.

They had, two, count em, TWO security machines (and four conveyor belts) open when I went through!!! So zero security line. A Festivus miracle. :D

It's a bit annoying though IMO as I rely on that boarding time on the BP. But it all worked out well enough, esp. since the yellow handle worked like a charm at ORD.

I recall a UX flight ex-IAD where I stopped by the terminal C RCC and was informed by the agent, "You know, your flight is boarding right now, and it's in a different terminal (A)."

I looked at my BP, said, "But boarding isn't scheduled for another 40 minutes."

The agent said, "The system says they're already boarding."

I rushed over to A, and sure enough, they'd already boarded everyone, and the GA was a bit put out that I'd "delayed" them (we were still at that point something like 27 minutes before scheduled boarding).

Please see:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-boarding.html

Yes, exactly.

See linked thread, above.

Saw this bizarre one at DEN on Saturday.

http://sfo777.smugmug.com/Other/CO/i...IMG_4322-M.jpg

Context?
 

Plane is literally full, all passengers accounted for, why not (leave early)?

Empty seats, everyone accounted for, another flight within a couple hours... why not?

Empty seats, everyone accounted for, irrops in the system? Different story.

There are days when a fair number of passengers are on rebooked flights. They should be given as much chance to get home as possible, and flights leaving early isn't a kind thing to do.
Was the "posted" time the originally-scheduled departure, or already updated? OK, looked it up on FlightAware. Original departure 11:18, actual departure wasn't until 11:29 despite intentions otherwise.

I love the cognitive dissonance.

I had a flight on some godforsaken airline once -- I think it was maybe F9? I get in the check-in line around T-65, after the kiosk refuses to print my BP. It takes around ten minutes to get to the front, and when I do, the woman looks at me like I'm insane.

"You're not gonna make that flight." "Why not?" "Because it's about to close!" "It's an hour before the flight!" "Exactly!"

She hands me a BP, and says good luck. I run to security, cut the entire line like a d-bag, and then begin to run for the gate. Over the loud speaker, I hear them announcing that the flight is closing, and demanding my presence immediately. I get there, they look incredibly annoyed at me, and the close the door right after I board. This was at like T-40. It was like the Twilight Zone.

UAL155 PTPN-PTKK was OUT 33 minutes before scheduled departure and even OFF 25 minutes before scheduled departure.

Last year, 8AM flight, BKK-PNH on TG. Boarding to begin at 7:30 and I know TG usually begins T-20 for 734 segments.

At 7:25 we are paged in the lounge and the front desk informs me we're the last two passengers and the flight is ready to leave. :eek: It's before the never adhered to boarding time still!!!!

Thankfully it was a close gate and we were the only two pax in C so avoided the glowering stares except for rows 31/32 (TG Y starts at 31).

Two years ago, flying UX out of YYZ, I was paged in the MLL at T-35: "If you're on United flight ???, your airplane is boarding NOW for an immediate departure!"

I limped at top speed for about 5 minutes to the gate, and the plane pushed about 30 seconds after I boarded. I must have looked completely deer-in-the-headlights when I asked the FA what had happened, because she started laughing (in a nice way). Turns out, the flight arrived early, and there's a limit to how long they can sit on the ground without forcing the the crew to clear customs. So it was a choice between (1) leaving at T-29, or (2) taking a delay while the whole crew got off and cleared customs.

Fun times...

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

I have always had this experience when flying with SQ. They always manage to push back 10-15 mins earlier than scheduled.

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.

A very good OT point...I need more data points, even though I don't want them :D

Well said, and the very reason that UA messing with block times causes problems as well. There is a schedule. Many people rely on it. Nice to have it followed.

On RJ with FC, nice to have time to settle in and enjoy a PBD.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Earliest pull-back from gate ever?
 

My guess is we won't be reading about this situation at AUS

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.

Similar occurrences in SIN. Typically 'Final Call' will be posted before boarding has even begun.

Maybe because there's no airside lounge at LGA...

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.

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.

I've been left behind (not in the Kirk Cameron sense) from a flight that departed more than 20 mins. early.

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