ani90

I do - actually was yesterday and arrived 23 minutes early to EWR. Indeed my last three UA flights arrived early. Problem is that on flyer talk no one ever complains about UA flights arriving earlier than scheduled; rather posts complaining or reporting on delays get wide response and propagation and gives the impression that UA flights invariably arrive late.

I suspect it is a tiny minority of passengers connecting at EWR that do miss their connections - otherwise UA would not sell those tickets which 'always' misconnect as the cost of misconnects to all involved is not insignificant.

ani90

It maybe rare for the flights you use but not necessarily so for others. I was on the kerbside yesterday waiting for a car at the scheduled arrival time. Not only did we land 23 minutes early, I was through immigration, picked up my two checked bags and out on the street by the designated arrival time - this has happened several times to me.

l etoile

As mentioned up thread, this announcement is only effective if it is specific to the point of saying something like: There are five passengers who have five minutes to make their flight to Sydney, please let those passengers off first. Anything else is silly and ineffective.

andyh64000

Sometimes there are places you need to be on the ground...not just tight connections. SEA-SFO is always late. With apologies to those with tight connections, when it is 10:30 and I need to grab a rental car and be in Palo Alto by 11 I am definitely getting off the plane as soon as I can.

318i

Just chiming in with my hatred for the announcement.

Inevitably, after the FA gets on the horn and the seatbelt sign dings off, some passive-aggressive kettle will start making conversation along the lines of "so where are you connecting to?" to everyone in the aisle.

It's like DYKWIA extended to the nth degree... "Do you know how short my connection is?"

May my travels all be international flights with customs & immigration on the other end, so I don't have to hear it again!

zrs70

I'm a bit perplexed by the thread. People are angry at United .... So they respond by not wanting to help fellow passengers.

Not sure I get that.

Ok, so a passenger runs ahead of you with a tight connection. You then see him having a drink at the bar. Possible reasons:

1) He lied
2) he missed his flight and is now waiting
3) the connecting flight is delayed or cancelled

In any scenario, who really cares?

It reminds me of those begging on the street. Will they uses the dollar y give for food or for booze? At the end of the day, the person who gives is no worse for the wear.

fastair

/agree. I've seen this plenty of times. I think the flight attendants get it from passengers who have no clue about what time it is or what time their next flight leaves at (they read the boarding time of next flight in big letters on their BP vs the dptr time.) I tell the flight attendant "This plane is 30 min early, why the announcement about late flight and tight connections?" They usually respond that some passengers have told them that they have extremely tight connections and that they are just passing it on. I've told many a flight attendant to "trust but verify" (if you hear this, instead of being a mindless robot, ask to see the customer's BP and check it out before assuming it is accurate.) This goes along with the other phrase I tell them "investigate before escalate" when they call me down to resolve a seat dupe in the back of the plane that they say they need me for. I look at both boarding passes and most of the time, it isn't a dupe, but a person who just took the wrong seat. Solved by asking the person in the wrong seat to move vs calling me down from the gate and ceasing the boarding of the flight while I do this.) In both cases, it is IMHO, the fear of conflict "I'm trapped in a metal tube with them and don't want them mad at me for hours" where they just pass the buck instead of attempting to actually resolve something.

FWAAA

Exactly. A few times on AA, I've seen the FAs strategically re-seat the tight-connection passengers (or the uniformed soldier in the back row) to any available seats up front in the last 20-30 minutes before landing to facilitate their tight connections.

That is a sensible solution rather than imploring 150-200 passengers to sit tight while 10-100 passengers are allowed off first. Those 10-100 passengers either didn't plan sufficient connecting time (not my problem) or the airline screwed up and shortened their connections by arriving late (again, not my problem).

Too many passengers seem to forget that they should locate their stuff and prepare for getting off of the plane when it lands, sorta like the people in line at the grocery store who don't even open their purse and look for their wallet until long after the cashier is done checking them out and their stuff is all bagged. "What, you mean I have to pay for my stuff?"

Some people possess situational awareness and some people don't.

fastair

Works great on flights that are lightly booked and there is space for carry on bags. Full flights with overheads full and most people having a bag in the bin, reseating a person from the back to the front with no way to move their luggage can just make the situation worse. With US airlines average load factor above 80% which includes bad days, most flights are full to the point that if there is a roll aboard suitcase, moving the person doesn't move the bags. Locating their stuff isn't something that can be done until the "ding" and seatbelt sign is off after the aircraft has blocked in. Until that point one must remain in their seats with their gear stowed.

Doc Savage

Well, in this case I just smiled and joked with the FA about all the "late" pax since I'd checked my dive gear and had to wait to pick it up anyway.

Probably lots of, ahem, infrequent flyers on a leisure flight like that...

JBord

I'm struggling with this topic. While I understand the frustration with UA, it's just as frustrating to see selfish passengers who don't care at all about other people's problems caused by UA.

I've waited a few times when this announcement is made. Not everyone getting off has a connection. So what? If I don't have a tight connection, what's 5 or 10 more minutes to me? I've never waited longer than that because inevitably someone takes 2 minutes to wrestle a bag out of a bin and I get up and go. Anyone here ever run up to a gate just when the door is closing? Sometimes 1 minute makes the difference. If just one person makes their next flight because a few people wait, think how relieved they are.

Well said. It's annoying to me that people seem to care SO much about the intentions of others who deplane before them in this situation. If it does you no harm, "who really cares" is exactly right.

This makes a lot of sense on mainline flights. I have seen it a couple times on UA as well, but it's rare.

Just because you didn't cause a problem doesn't mean you can't help a fellow passenger. In all fairness, the FA didn't cause the problem either, perhaps they are just trying to help people not have a once-in-a-lifetime vacation ruined.

Fewer and fewer do. Airports have the highest concentration of those who don't. Walk through a crowded concourse and the odds are high that the people in front of you dragging their bags will stop right in front of you, turn around while standing 5-people wide and look around lost, rather than take 3 steps to the side of the aisle to get out of the traffic flow.

I find this way more frustrating than the situation described in this thread. People don't book complex flight itineraries or travel every day, but I assume they walk in buildings, down streets, etc. most days and should have some basic awareness that they aren't the only people on Earth.

Kacee

If this were what it's really about, all but the social misfits (10% of any given FT thread) would agree. To me, there are three basic problems (all of which are previously identified upthread):

1. The announcement is made regardless of truth. Five pax connecting to the SYD flight which leaves in 25 minutes? We can all agree they deserve priority. But that's rarely the case. Much more likely, it's either inexperienced flyers or, even worse, self-important people who think their 45 minute connection is more important than everybody else's.

2. It doesn't work. Regardless of what I do, odds are that at least five other pax will immediately block the aisle.

3. It suggests that I am responsible for ensuring that these pax make their connection, when the responsibility in fact lies with (i) United, for arriving late, and/or (ii) the pax who booked an inadequate connection.

(And just for the record, I do nonetheless typically keep my seat when the announcement is made, unless/until the aisle has been hopelessly blocked by others who ignore it.)

lskohn

The one time it made sense to me: On a puddle-jumper (the 1-2 or 2-2, no first class sort) we all waited while someone seated way in back who was trying to connect with an international flight from ORD F14 made his way forward (and no, he didn't have a gate-checked bag). The FA had actually announced his problem even before we landed.

I think personalizing the request made a big difference - the generalized "We're late again, prioritize yourself" announcement has gotten old and ineffective, and subject to the abuse described in this thread.

why fly

perhaps there next flight was late.

DudeE

Another annoying aspect of this practice is that they're not about to hold the door for those late passengers. So while everyone on the arriving flight can endure the inconvenience, the door will close on the departing flight right on schedule (or even earlier in my experience) whether or not those passengers make it to the gate. I have (more than once) arrived on a tight connection - along with a half dozen other connecting passengers - to find the gate agents had closed the door on us and refused to reopen it.