skymaster

I never fail to be impressed by the thoughtlessness and rudeness of so many airline passengers. My BOS-EWR flight is frequently late, and more often than not arrives at one of the most remote gates at EWR. Shortly before landing, the purser announces that there are a number of passengers on board who, due to the flight delay, have tight connections. The request is that passengers whose travel ends in Newark or who are not in danger of missing a connection, remain seated while the connecting passengers deplane first.

Of course, as soon as it is legal to unbuckle, EVERYONE gets up, stands in the aisle and takes their carry ons out of the overheads. Not a single connecting passenger is able to penetrate this impossible gauntlet.

I have two suggestions for United.

Since the FAs know who is connecting, they should give each of those passengers a small red flag. The announcement should then be: "We have ten (for example) passengers with tight connections. They have been given red flags. Please remain in your seats after landing until all of the passengers with red flags have passed your row". The passengers could drop their flags off at the forward galley before deplaning.

United and OTG have conspired, in the name of greater food profits, to remove the moving walkways. From C95 to C135 can be quite time consuming. Since the airline knows that a given flight has a number of passengers who need to get to another gate quickly, why aren't there one or more golf carts waiting at the arrival gate, specifically for passengers with tight connections?

A little thoughtfulness can go a long way.

mahasamatman

There's nothing the airline can to do change human behaviour. After a couple of times, you should have learned what may of us have done for a long time - simply don't book tight connections.

BBSHOPSINGER

I agree with the comment about thoughtless passengers. I've seen the same behavior many times. I'm afraid that the flags probably wouldn't make much difference - people would just bull their way out no matter what.

I think it's funny that the people that can't wait to get on the plane first also want to get off first. Is there a prize for the fastest one off?

My sons were once flying on a delayed NH flight (in coach), and had an extremely tight connection in SFO. The flight attendant came back and had them sit in business class for the last portion of the flight, and personally walked them through customs and security to get them to their connecting flight on time. They were very impressed!

mduell

I have a third: operate your flights on time so you don't create situations like this.

[Needlessly personalized content edited by Moderator.]

I also chafe a bit at the suggestion the FAs could even identify the 10 tightest connections. They have no idea who moves fastest/slowest or needs a potty stop, nor which connecting flights will be boarding/departing closest to on time.

docbert

It's Newark. There's likely a LOT of people on the plane with 'tight' (or at least, in their minds, tight) connections. There's also a lot of people sitting on the aisle or middle seats blocking those with short connections.

BBSHOPSINGER

Remember that he's not talking about tight connections caused by booking, but caused by a late flight.

mahasamatman

Seasoned travelers take that into account, particularly when it's a frequent occurrence as stated in the OP. While it would be nice to change everyone's behaviour, it's not realistic. You only have control over your own choices, so it's best to make wise ones.

And, of course, EWR is a hub, so there's a good chance that a majority of passengers have connections anyway (as docbert also pointed out above).

mherdeg

Instead of handing out red flags, United could also (1) raise their minimum connecting times, (2) operate fewer larger planes on routes that are ATC slot restricted during bad times rather than packing schedules to the gills with many small flights that cannot all operate in bad weather, (3) pad flight durations to match actual 90th percentile arrival times.

To be honest -- I don't know if it's just good luck or conservative planning or what -- in the past few years I have rarely misconnected on UA. I have had itineraries with delays that guarantee misconnects and have changed them proactively, but it's pretty rare to have no better alternatives and try walking up to the gate I want only to see the plane pulling away.

Usually I can sprint thru a domestic hub and make it almost in time — even with the marginal extra 5-15 min delay from pax de-planing inefficiently.

But 2016 has been worse.

I misconnected once in February, having booked LAS-SFO-DEN with a 31 minute connection, ending up with a 15 min mx delay and needing to transit from SFO's intl gates to their domestic gates, and still almost made the flight -- arrived at the gate as they were pushing back the aircraft. It's difficult to fault UA too much there because they did offer to rebook me to LAS-DEN nonstop and I declined (had a confirmed upgrade on an intl-config SFO-DEN).

I also misconnected once in March, flying ORD-SFO-OGG and taking a 2+hr mx delay that turned into a forced overnight at SFO due to 747 mechanical shenanigans. That was sad, although on the bright side, the SF CS agent who rebooked us was totally delighted to extend our stay in OGG by an extra day (pushing back our entire return trip by one day) to make up for the lost time.

Solutions at the margins (help get pax off the plane faster) might help a little bit, but the operational issues that are the root cause need more thought.

Silver Fox

Indeed he is which I think a number of people have failed to notice.

BlissWorld

I've been in situations where one of those people aggressively and forcefully shoved people out of their way in order to go from the back of the plane to the front of the plane. It just doesn't work. When you book your tickets and select a seat in the back of the plane, you accept the risk of not being able to get out of the plane 10 minutes sooner than those in the front. It is what it is. I absolutely hate it when FAs make these useless announcements encouraging aggressive behaviors that don't really resolve the problem. There were plenty of other people that he shoved, screamed, and pushed through also had the same short connection that the DB did.

tarheelnj

One thing I think we can all agree on - having a flight arrive late at a gate and having no one there to drive the jetbridge is inexcusable. Way more frustrating than time to disembark once the door is open.

skymaster

Whoa!
First of all, there is no point in mduell telling me to operate my flights on time. That is a message for UA. [Reply to text edited out since original was edited or deleted by Moderator.] But I can assure mduell that the FAs do have a list of connections and do know who is in greatest danger of missing a connection.

Second, to mohamassmetman, I was not talking about myself. I do not accept tight connections. The less experienced traveler will accept whatever connection and whatever seat the airline offers, no matter how ridiculous the connection times might be.

As an 80 year old (81 tomorrow), sprinting to the next gate is usually not an option.

However, I do take seriously my suggestion that UA have carts waiting at gates of flights whose arrivals are significantly delayed and which are known to have connecting passengers. Let's not forget that we are in the age of computers.

mduell

My "third" suggestion was for UA, as your first two were.

The FAs may well have a list of connections, but still lack of information and competence to prioritize them.

BBSHOPSINGER

We can only control our own behavior. When asked to wait for others with tight connections, I sit and wait, even if it seems no-one else is. Try it - sometimes it starts snowballing when others notice that some are sitting and waiting. Be a trendsetter!

notquiteaff

Since every major company nowadays seems to be investing into self-driving cars, perhaps UA could solve a simpler problem and "invest" in self-driving jet bridges.

(and yes, it's frustrating... just had it this past weekend with BA. Our arrival must have come as a complete surprise to the ground crew )