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I was on a flight a few days ago and what United Airline did completely baffled me.
I was traveling from city A to city C with a connect in city B. The connection time was 55 minutes, which should be enough. We boarded on time and it looked everything would be one schedule. I checked my app right before boarding and it said it would be.
Then after everyone at the gate was seated, the plane didn't take off. We simply waited. 10 minutes after the scheduled takeoff time, all of a sudden a new group of people started to enter the plane, like more than 20 of them, and boarding was not completed until 35 minutes after the scheduled take off.
It turns out that was some long lines in the security checks, and the UA simply was waiting for those passengers.
Does it make sense? I missed my next flight due to this, so did a lot of other passengers. Upon arriving, a man next to me said his next flight is taking off in 4 minutes. Another guy holding a boarding pass saying his next flight is in 25 minutes (hope he made it). Another lady was anxious trying to push ahead of the line, when at least a dozen other passengers said they were in the same situation.
Fortunately I was able to rebook the next flight, so my itinerary was not interrupted. I am not sure everyone else was this lucky. The question is, even knowing 20 passengers were stuck at security, how could the airline punish those who are on time by keeping them waiting for those who are late, and therefore making so many miss their next flight? Is that a standard practice? Shouldn't those who were held up at security face the stress and risk of trip interruption, instead of sacrificing those who were actually early? I don't get and I am still trying to decide whether I would file a complaint. I was put on standby and luckily I got in. What if I hadn't? My entire trip would have needed to be cancelled because it would not make sense to go any more.
I am not sure there is a standard practice. On the other hand i've been part of a large group of passengers who arrived late from a flight only to see my connecting flight leave a few minutes early and a large group of passengers complaining that the flight didn't wait for them.
Usually airlines do not wait at all, because delaying one flight starts a chain reaction of other delays. But..delays are just part of flying, if i'ts not the airline screwing up it could be weather or airport runway congestions, you just have to roll with it to a certain degree. If a flight is late due to fault of the airlines, a flyer has some recourse subject to the rules of the airlines and depending on the length of the delay - maybe a free meal or hotel and other stuff. In your case, it doesn't seem to have effected your travel except for stress.
20 is a significant number of people. My airline would hold for that many. They were probably on a late,arrival and your flight was their "connection". Now if it had been 3 or 4 people, they'd probably have missed the flight. ( no hold).
There are so many factors which can influence whether a flight leaves on time or not. Airlines do their best to keep as many people happy as they can. But, as the saying goes, you can't please all the people all the time. For myself, I always try to allow 90 mins or more connection time.
I've never heard of such a thing for people going through TSA, but if it's a group connecting from another late flight I've definitely seen that happen.
20 is a significant number of people. My airline would hold for that many. They were probably on a late,arrival and your flight was their "connection". Now if it had been 3 or 4 people, they'd probably have missed the flight. ( no hold).
sure, but at the cost of a dozen passenger who were on time, missing their flight? Doesn't sound right.
As I said, I was lucky to be able to be put on standby and managed to made it. Otherwise, my trip would have been completely ruined.
There are so many factors which can influence whether a flight leaves on time or not. Airlines do their best to keep as many people happy as they can. But, as the saying goes, you can't please all the people all the time. For myself, I always try to allow 90 mins or more connection time.
it is not about making everyone happy. If those late passengers miss the plane, they can only blame themselves for arriving at the airport too late. Security time can range widely and they should have allocated enough time.
On the other hand, those who already made it on time should not be punished because other people were late, should they? I got up at 4:30am just to get to the airplane early enough not to miss the plane in any case (extra long security checks etc.), and I was at the gate 30 minutes before boarding started, and then I was punished because a bunch of strangers were late? Does that sound fair to you?
it is not about making everyone happy. If those late passengers miss the plane, they can only blame themselves for arriving at the airport too late. Security time can range widely and they should have allocated enough time.
On the other hand, those who already made it on time should not be punished because other people were late, should they? I got up at 4:30am just to get to the airplane early enough not to miss the plane in any case (extra long security checks etc.), and I was at the gate 30 minutes before boarding started, and then I was punished because a bunch of strangers were late? Does that sound fair to you?
The airline doesn't care about who's at fault. They're looking at the numbers. They can tell how many passengers have been held up at TSA and compare that by how many passengers would miss their connection if they delay. In this case, it made more sense for them to delay. It's not uncommon.
It's also possible that not everyone out of that dozen had booked their connection on the same ticket, so as far as the airline is concerned, they don't have a connecting flight to catch.
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