[countrynewsman]

Very true...the plane will leave. It happened to me in Denver when connecting to a flight to Kansas City. Our plane sat on the tarmac for 35 minutes because there were no open gates. When we got to our gate, deplaned, and ran to our connecting flight, the jetway was pulled and the plane was ready for pushback. The supervisor booked us on a flight over 2 hours later. I stated I thought there should be some compensation. I was directed to the customer service counter and was told by the agent that we should have been at the gate at least 30 minutes before departure. Wrong thing to say! I said I would have loved to be at the gate if YOUR airplane that I came in on had not sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes. She printed off vouchers worth $600 for the three of us. I then wrote a letter to United and got another $600 in vouchers. I really wasn't expecting that, but I sure as hell didn't give them back! Actually, United has been pretty good to us. When they knew it's their fault, they have done what's right.