Is there a UA procedure for holding flights for late conx pax? [plus experiences]
 

Reason I ask is that UA has changed the afternoon IAH-IAD flight to a later time. I about to embark on my 10th IAH-IAD-DXB trip this year and I now have a 50 minute connection instead of the usual 90+ minutes. If I were departing today, the IAH-IAD flight is delayed at least an hour.

Being that there is only 1 IAD-DXB flight per day, are there guidelines in place to hold the flight for late connecting pax? Does being GS have any impact on that?

generally no -- but at times will -- depends on many internal factors.

Might help but no guarantee.

There are issues on holding departure.
Is the gate is needed?
What impact it might have on other passenger's connections?
Crew timeouts?
Take-off slots?
and others ....

related threads
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...nsit-gate.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...n-get-off.html

Yes there is a policy and procedure for holding flights for connecting (or even originating) passengers. We don't know what it is. It has been speculated to consider a number of factors.

I'm sure there is a policy, but at times it doesn't seem to make sense to us as passengers (especially when high $$ tickets pushed onto other airlines). Status doesn't not seem to play a role in that based on my experience, although I will readily admit that my last incident was a few years ago.

Ouch. Take the earlier flight and hang out at the Club at IAD.

The policy is that it's committed to the discretion of Ops, unless someone in senior management intervenes, e.g. a US Senator or Cabinet Secy is delayed.

You should presume that the flight will not be held and that if you arrive at the gate 1 second past T-30, that your seat will have been given to somebody else.

Flights might be held where the flight isn't overbooked and at risk of oversale, the WX is better than expected, the crew doesn't have timing problems and a host of other factors.

While 50 minutes is doable at IAD, there is no way I would attempt a 20-minute connection (remember, T-30), unless I absolutely had to.

The real question is what is Plan B? If you noshow for the xIAD, what are your options? Not many.

They have held seats for me numerous times till T-15. If they know you might make it and they are not oversold then they will usually wait till thye really need to close up.

Recently arrived at IAD on a delayed flight, seated next to a GS and his family, who were heading on to Europe. I asked him if he thought they'd hold the flight for him, and he said no but that they'd have one of those in-airport golf carts waiting for him in the terminal. So you might call the GS desk in that situation and see if they can have a "ride" waiting for you given some of the distances at IAD (e.g. if you need to go from the west end of D to the east end of C.

Or refund the ticket and fly Emirates nonstop.

+1 , Best option for OP!

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Had an case where NH was late into NRT connecting on UA.
UA6 takes off at 4:35 PM daily. Checking flightaware the avg was like 4:46pm.

Had 30 minutes on arrival , instead NH reticketed on another flight, UA took off 15 minutes early instead (4:20) which was really surprising.

I've never had an case where UA took off "early"

I agree, given UA's dreadful operational performance you are asking for trouble. As suggested, take an earlier flight to IAD or better still, as Channa says, take Emirates nonstop.

Are you flying F or J? I can't speak to guidelines/policy, but I'd venture a guess that there is a decent amount of IAH-IAD-DXB business related to the oil industry and I wouldn't be surprised to see them hold the flight for at least 15-20 minutes for connecting passengers since there should be ample time to make that up.

Has United ever actually held a flight past departure time specifically for a passenger? Not that the plane wasn't ready for departure, but ONLY because of a late connecting passenger?

Not directly answering your question but when my LAX-IAD was delayed last year, they put us on the non-stop LAX-DXB on Emerate 's A380 and we had to rush over to the international terminal (is it still called the Tom Bradly terminal these days?)!

yes.

To OP....try to book earlier IAH-IAD flight. Or, call GS and ask for MB transfer between gates.