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How not to make a connection
Jul. 14th, 2003 08:16 pmToday I flew ORD-LGA-BOS (since that was how I could get the right combination of scheduling and affordable fares). We were supposed to leave ORD at noon; right at noon, my cell phone made its SMS noise ("oh yeah, I should have turned my phone off") with a message from American that the flight had been pushed back to 12:15. At this point the crew came on the PA and announced something about maintenance paperwork that hadn't been signed off on. So we wait. Another SMS at 12:15, announcing a delay until 12:30. But around 12:25 we push back and head for New York.
I'm supposed to make my connection to the Boston flight at 4:00 (Eastern). We get to La Guardia at 3:45, at gate D4. I get off the plane, find a monitor, and determine that my flight is at C4. For those of you who haven't experienced the wonderfulness of La Guardia, you need to leave security to go between terminals (like, when changing planes on the same airline). I ask the gate agent at the arriving gate about the timing, and she tells me to just go. So at 3:55, I appear at C4 holding a boarding pass and photo ID. The door is closed, and the gate agent there looks at me confusedly. She tells me that the flight is closed, and at least gives me the impression that everyone expected to be on board is. After some futzing with the computer, she hands me a boarding pass for the 5:00 flight (which, in turn, leaves 15 minutes early and makes up another 15 minutes in the air, so only a 30-minute loss in all).
It seems like it should have been theoretically possible for me to make the 4:00 flight, if it hadn't left early. Perhaps "left early" is a conscious policy decision, but shouldn't their computers have known that I existed, and was on the ground at La Guardia 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time? Couldn't the gate agent at the arriving Chicago gate have done something to tell the system that I was about to try really hard to make the connection?
I'm supposed to make my connection to the Boston flight at 4:00 (Eastern). We get to La Guardia at 3:45, at gate D4. I get off the plane, find a monitor, and determine that my flight is at C4. For those of you who haven't experienced the wonderfulness of La Guardia, you need to leave security to go between terminals (like, when changing planes on the same airline). I ask the gate agent at the arriving gate about the timing, and she tells me to just go. So at 3:55, I appear at C4 holding a boarding pass and photo ID. The door is closed, and the gate agent there looks at me confusedly. She tells me that the flight is closed, and at least gives me the impression that everyone expected to be on board is. After some futzing with the computer, she hands me a boarding pass for the 5:00 flight (which, in turn, leaves 15 minutes early and makes up another 15 minutes in the air, so only a 30-minute loss in all).
It seems like it should have been theoretically possible for me to make the 4:00 flight, if it hadn't left early. Perhaps "left early" is a conscious policy decision, but shouldn't their computers have known that I existed, and was on the ground at La Guardia 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time? Couldn't the gate agent at the arriving Chicago gate have done something to tell the system that I was about to try really hard to make the connection?
