CDKing

Thanks for pointing this out. I better register for flight stats. had no idea it goes further back

I thought US arrival time listed in the response to DOT was off because EF showed wheels down was a couple minutes after 10:08. Couldn't be at the gate before wheels down time but times appeared to be close enough.

The rest seems to match up. Scheduled departure time was 2:50 and flight pushed at 2:53. I highly doubt they pushed before the MX was resolved.

The more and more i see these situations, it seems in many cases, had the mechanical issue never came up, the flight would still take a weather delay

soccerpapi

Since you have access to the flights in question, please post the arrival time of the Charlotte to Newark flight.

In any case, the way the gate agent handled the situation was poor. I am not saying the passenger is entitled to compensation, just that the way it was handled was wrong.

soccer

EWRfflyer

For the record it was exactly 8 minutes according to my cell phone. And yes we did have bags checked. And I would have had no problem either having the bags delivered the next day or picking them up at EWR. Also I never saw any flight crew member board 3 after the scheduled departure time. But IMO means it was probably more like 4. No restrooms used we flew down the concourse in from first class to the EWR gate in about 5 minutes. So in other words according to the latest US Airways story. Had the crew member had not been late 3 minutes I would have made it to the gate with one minute to spare. But that's semantics. They knew they had passengers coming in shortly. The flight could have been held open for a few more minutes. Plus its now water under the bridge. My anger now is all these conflicting stories i keep hearing from different US Airways reps.

GalleyWench

Unfortunately it's not the gate agents decision to make.

brewdog11

I can't understand why so many folks are ready to throw the OP to the dogs regarding the 30-minute connection. HPdbaUSdbaAA sold the OP the ticket and it was in line with the minimum connection time, so they should be responsible.

soccerpapi

Whose decision is it then? Sure seems like whoever made made it, in any case was the wrong decision. Stranding passengers overnight when they could have waited a few minutes for them to get to the connecting gate.

I think the arrival time into Newark will show that this flight arrived early and there was no reason for whoever made this decision that not wait for the connecting passengers.

As I said to the original poster, I would write a certified letter to the president of US Airways detailing the situation so at least there is a record of what happened that night.

soccer

iztok

But (s)he takes the brunt of the anger from disgruntled passengers

soccerpapi

I have been thinking the same thing and it does seem to be a pattern in the US Airways forum. I am concerned that this type of service level seems to be acceptable to US Airways customers.

soccer

GalleyWench

Gate agents don't monitor every flight connection coming in so there's a good chance the agent didn't even know about the delayed inbound. Considering there were probably 30+ plus flights connecting to that EWR flight that's a lot of flights for an agent to check on. Holding flights is a central operations decision (the guys that have access to the big picture). There are always other factors to consider as well such as crew being on a minimum overnight, possible other delays enroute etc. I'm sorry for the OPs issues, hope your future travels are better experiences.

justhere

They are responsible to the extent they are required to be responsible. In other words, if it was a weather delay, they are not required to be responsible. I'm not saying that's fair or right but it's the way it is. I'm also not saying in the OP's case that it was a weather delay, just pointing out that in general airlines are responsible as long as it is something within their control.

It doesn't really matter what the arrival time is because at the time the flight was supposed to be closed and depart, they don't necessarily know that they will arrive early. Also, with a destination like EWR I would imagine that they could run into issues if they depart the origin late and expect to miss their arrival slot.

It would be great if they could wait and flex by a few minutes but the reality is that the airline has to minimize the impact to as many customers as possible and delaying them even a few minutes at the origin could result in further downline delays impacting more than just a couple of people.

serfty

Sure - not that it matters.

it arrived 6 minutes early:

soccerpapi

Thank you for confirming that the flight could have easily be held for a few minutes to wait for the connecting passengers.

soccer

soccerpapi

But there wasn't 30 flights with connecting passengers that they were waiting for, apparently there was only one, so it would have been very easy to check that one flight.

soccer

justhere

Sorry for all the clich�s but hindsight is 20/20 and you are Monday morning quarterbacking this thing to death. When the flight was boarding they didn't have the knowledge that the flight was going to arrive 6 minutes early. They also didn't know exactly how long it would take the passengers to get to the gate. The one thing they did know with 100% certainty was what time they needed to close the doors on the flight to get it out on time.

I know it seems like they could have held the flight and I've been in this situation more than once where I got to the gate a minute after they closed the door. I have no idea how many times I've been a passenger sitting on the plane where they closed the door on time and someone missed the flight but I do know I'm grateful the flight left on time so I could make my connections.

You have no idea how many connecting flights there were. We are just hearing about one situation. That could be the only one or there could be 10 more. For you to assume that there was only one flight implies that you are not seeing the entire picture.

Also, sometimes flights are held so it's not like it's never done. The decision isn't made based on one thing like "we think the flight is going to arrive 6 minutes early". There are a host of factors that go into the decision while trying to minimize the impact to as many people as possible.

olde hornet

I never book connections with less than an hour, I usually go for 1.5 to 2 hours, they works the best. In the future, dont trust 30 / 45 minute connections especially in PHL, CLT and PHX.