As a general rule of thumb, airlines don’t hold flights for connecting passengers. Now, it happens sometimes, and it is happening with an increasing frequency, as airlines employ technology that determines the optimal amount of time a flight can be held without impacting operations.
That being said, when flights are held, it’s typically for a matter of minutes. That brings us to a situation that an OMAAT reader has shared with me…
Southwest Honolulu to San Jose flight held for over an hour
OMAAT reader Thomas shared an experience with me, about a Southwest flight he took from Hawaii to the mainland, which was delayed by over an hour to wait for connecting passengers. Here’s his version of what happened:
We were scheduled to fly from Hilo via Honolulu to San Jose on November 29. We had a 2 hour layover in HNL and the flight from Hilo to Honolulu was on time and no issues. I saw the incoming plane for our flight to SJC came from PHX and was a few minutes behind schedule so originally our departure time of 2:50pm was pushed out by 4 mins – no big deal.
But then we waited at the gate and the boarding time and departure time passed by with no announcement. Then it was announced the flight was delayed by 20 mins. I went up and asked the reason and they said – they are waiting for some connecting passengers. So I checked online to see what flight that could be but saw all flights from neighboring islands were fine except the one from Lihue to HNL which was apparently on a rolling delay and at that time was already 2 hours late and still hadn’t departed.
So I went back up to the agent and asked if we were waiting for the flight from Kauai which she confirmed to me. Then the agent told me oh don’t worry the flight is already in the air. I told her I can see on flightaware that it hasn’t even left the gate. And of course I was right… So we waited, and waited. After another half hour I went up and I asked them if they realize SJC has an 11:30pm curfew and if they keep delayed we will hit it. She said oh no, that’s not for arriving flights (the second lie that day).
Any way, so another 15 mins later I saw the flight from Lihue had finally departed, by now 3+ hours behind schedule. So I thought, okay, we should be boarding soon. But nope… here is what happened next. They waited until the 10+ folks from that connecting flight were at our gate for boarding so – whoever they were – were able to board before A1-15. So they didn’t just hold a plane for a handful of connecting passengers, they delayed a mainland flight so much to make sure these connecting “passengers” boarded ahead of everyone else.
I can assure you everyone was super frustrated. I have flown Southwest for over 20 years and have never heard or experienced a “connection saver”, and definitely not for a 3 hour late flight for a handful of “passengers” and definitely never so that they could board first.
Curious if anyone else ever had such an experience and of these are just rogue Southwest employees doing whatever they want to make sure their buddies get the extra legroom flights – or is this a new policy that they created?
For context, below is the flight status for the Honolulu (HNL) to San Jose (SJC) flight, which was delayed to wait for connecting passengers.
Meanwhile below is the flight status for the Lihue (LIH) to Honolulu (HNL) flight, which reportedly caused the delay.
What could explain the way this Southwest flight was held?
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a flight being held for over an hour to wait for a small number of connecting passengers, so what could be going on here? I think it is entirely possible that the airline made the operational decision to wait for passengers arriving off that inter-island flight, even though an hour plus seems like a long time to wait:
- Presumably everyone was terminating in San Jose, as Southwest has no redeyes or late night flights departing after 10PM
- With the plane ending its night in San Jose, the airline presumably made the judgment call that not stranding passengers was the better move
Now, on the one hand, I can appreciate that. On the other hand, there’s a point at which you also have to think of the other passengers, who want to make it home (or to their destination) at a semi-reasonable hour.
The second part of this is what I’m more confused about — why would the gate agents wait to start boarding until the passengers on the delayed flight got off, and let them board first? You’d think that they’d just start boarding as soon as they had a sense of when that late flight would arrive, and then those passengers on the late connecting flight would be the last to board.
I can’t imagine that this is actually a case of these people having high boarding priority, or anything, and therefore boarding being held. The only explanation I can come up with is that there was a little more to this story, like the plane actually being held because the pilots from the Lihue flight were supposed to work the San Jose flight, and they waited until they were off the plane to start boarding? That doesn’t fully explain it, of course, but I just don’t have another good explanation.
Perhaps those more familiar with Southwest operations than I am can chime in with other theories, because I do find this to be strange.
Bottom line
A Southwest Airlines flight from Honolulu to San Jose was delayed by over an hour, reportedly to wait for connecting passengers. While it’s not unusual to wait some amount of time for connecting passengers, over an hour is a long time to wait.
That being said, I imagine the operations team at the airline just made the judgment call that this would lead to the best overall outcome, given that the plane was ending its night in San Jose. What I find strange in all of this is that they reportedly didn’t start boarding the flight until those on the late inbound flight got off the aircraft, and they got to board early.
What do you make of Southwest holding the flight for this long, and have you heard of a flight being held for this amount of time?
