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Originally Posted by PHXFlyer
OK they knew you were arriving for an hour. They know ALL the flights that are inbound to arrive. You expected them to keep a gate open for your aircraft once it was airborne in anticipation of it's arrival? You stated your inbound flight arrived 10 minutes late. They probably had a gate scheduled for your aircraft but it was either occupied by a late departure or given to another aircraft that arrived ahead of yours.
Airline operations are dynamic. Things change throughout the day and changes are made to gate assignments etc. based on many factors. I got a tour of an airline's operations center last year and it's fascinating. Believe me a lot of factors go into the decisions they make. Might not always make sense from a customer's perspective but it's not just a random decision and they try to impact the fewest number of people.
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Most airlines cut off boarding at ten minutes. They need time to calculate the final passenger/baggage load, double check fuel, etc. By letting someone on last minute, especially on a smaller regional aircraft, it throws all of those numbers off.
So it was "right down the hall" yet by my calculations of your reported times you took 6 minutes to get between the gates. Perhaps a little further than you remember?
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They are always aware of connecting passengers. Perhaps they felt that inconveniencing a handful of people was better than holding up a full plane load. If they wait too long they lose their takeoff slot and that really throws things out of whack.
See above.
A hotel wasn't an option?
There are already established minimum connection times and they vary by airport and airline however they assume that everything is on or reasonably close to schedule. As we all know this isn't always the case, however when I book flights I always try to choose an option that will allow for late connections even if it's a few dollars more. Also, if your scheduled arrival to the connecting city is too late for the last flight to your onward destination you can always call to book the ticket and tell them to force the overnight at the lower fare. Sure you have to pay a fee to talk to a live person to accomplish this but the 10-25 dollar fee is almost always less than paying for essentially 2 one-way tickets when you should be charged at the connecting fare.
I wholeheartedly agree that PHL should be avoided at all costs unless it is your final destination. The airport was never meant to serve as a hub but has evolved into that.
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Just returned from a March trip to St.Thomas from Atlanta via Charlotte and US Airways gave away our seats on the way down. There was weather delay and the US Airways flight got on the ground 20 minutes before the departing time rather than the scheduled 60 minutes. 6 of us were connecting to St. Thomas. As the plane unloaded, they told the St. Thomas passengers to check at the gate counter. We were told that the flight had departed (10 minutes early with weather delays?) We ended up losing a day of our sailing vacation to the Virgin Islands because they could not get us there that day. We were routed through Philadephia and got there the next afternoon.
We had made the reservations months in advance and I believe that the airlines gave away our cheaper seats to get more revenue from the later ticketed seats. Overbooking flights might make money for the airline but it is false advertising of flight availability. If they are going to treat the passengers like they are on standby and bump them whenever they feel like it, the flight booking should be listed as standby so you know that from the start. Perhaps it would drive the airlines to do a better job of scheduling if people start avoiding "standby tickets." Perhaps there should be tracking of overbooking and publishing it so the consumer knows.
Anyone else had this problem?