I was just barely in time to get on the plane today for the second leg of my US domestic trip. The gate agent was announcing “Final boarding call” as I fast-walked up to the gate, having been delayed by no fewer than three postponements of my earlier flight. Then, just as I’m getting settled into my seat, the captain announces that there’s a maintenance issue that they have to look into. Almost an hour later, we finally leave the terminal and take off.
If I’d been five minutes later, ticket in hand and with the plane still there at the gate, would they reopen the jetway and aircraft doors for me?
In my experience no. Once the gate is closed they cannot allow anyone from boarding unless they de-board the flight. Even if it is sitting at the gate. I’ve missed such connections.
As I understand it depends on whether you have checked bags, as they are not allowed to fly with your bags but without you. So if they have not yet taken off your bag then they will let you on, in order to avoid doing so (as it’s a massive hassle).
Depends, but it can happen. As it happens, I saw it happen a couple weeks ago.
We were sitting in the plane ready to push off, the captain announces a maintenance issue, and we sit there for another 40 minutes. During that interval, apparently 4 more passengers were allowed on board.
Back in 1994, our flight from O’Hare to Denver was delayed. We (husband, kids, and I) ran like the wind to our connecting flight to Billings, MT. When we got to our gate, the door was closed, and there was no agent, but the plane was still connected to the jetway. I ran across to another gate agent and gasped out our desperation. She made a call and opened the door for us so we could board. She said that if the blocks had been off the wheels, she couldn’t have done it.
We got on the plane and waited. I’m not sure for what, but our baggage made it.
I don’t know if the rules have changed in the last 31 years. I’d never heard of the “blocks on the wheels” policy, but that’s what she said.
In 2012 we had a connecting flight in Madrid. Because of how fucked up that airport was at the time it took forever to get to our new flight.
When we got there the gate was closed and they said sorry, shit out of luck.
But somehow our bags made it into the plane and when they realized that they opened the gate and let us on. How the bags got on the plane when it took us so long I never found out.
I lucked out a couple of times 10 years ago when I was flying twice a week. Got delayed and arrived at the airport after the official gate closing time. The flight was no longer listed on the departure boards but my ticket still worked on the security turnstile. So I googled which gate it was and headed there and boarding hadn’t even begun yet as the plane hadn’t arrived. Sometimes the tardiness of the budget airlines can be a blessing! It also probably helped that I had no luggage with me.
This was once at Luton and once at Prague. YMMV in other parts of the world.
Back in 1991 DesertWife and I were flying from St. Louis to Reno with a change of planes in Las Vegas. The layover was 45 minutes but the flight left St. Louis an hour late and couldn’t make up the time. A lot of people had connecting flights so when we deplaned there was an agent announcing them all, “Los Angeles gate 30 to my left, Seattle 15 on my right,” and so on. We dashed down the corridor to our connection and there was an old lady making her best speed behind us. As soon as she was aboard the door was closed and the pushback started about the time she was settling into her seat.
As we were taxiing out an attendant stopped and said, “You’ll be happy to know your baggage made it on board.”
I was figuring we’d have to return to the airport the next day so I said, “It’s a miracle.”
“The planes were right next to each other. It’s the people who have to run a quarter mile.”
I think there has to be more to it than just that “your bags can’t fly without you.” Some time ago (post 911 but before they started texting when your baggage was loaded) my baggage got on the flight before mine and ended up in NYC without me.
My fifteen-year old daughter was flying alone, her first time, to meet us in northern MI. She had to make a connection in Detroit to the regional flight. The earlier flight was delayed and the door had just closed when she got to the gate. They opened it back up and let her on. I figured they would rather let her get on board than deal with an unaccompanied minor stuck in the airport.
That’s not true anymore. Shortly after 9/11 it was. The rules have since changed and are rather complex as to which bags / passengers / flights require positive match and which don’t. Thousands of bags fly on different flights than their passenger every day.
To directly answer the OP: It depends.
Each airline has their own policies, things differ at hubs vs. spokes, or whether it’s the last flight of the day, the staffing level of gate agents, and the mood and whim of the agent you encounter.
There are times where you can get the gate reopened and you aboard late, and then there are times when it’s more hassle than the gate folks are willing to go to, then there are times where it’s impossibly (well extremely improbably) more difficult. Until you see the airplane physically move backwards, most of the factors that affect difficulty are not things you can see from the passenger POV; it’s all in the bureaucracy and the mutli-dozen step inter-departmental checklist of tasks to actually get to movement.
All that can be reliably said is avoiding the closed gate situation is far better than getting embroiled in it.
Chiming in to say that it’s certainly possible for your bags to get on a flight without you. I once had a connection in Chicago where my incoming flight was delayed, resulting in me (and my wife) getting stuck in Chicago overnight but our bags making it to San Jose that same night.
I think the idea is that if, due to some action or inaction of the passenger (getting kicked off the plane or missing the boarding time) the bag must be removed from the plane. If the bag goes on a different plane due to the airline’s action or need, then it’s okay. This makes sense if the intended purpose is to prevent someone from putting a bomb on the plane and not blowing themself up. Don’t give the passenger control over the separation of him/her and the luggage and you’re fine.
About 6 months after 9/11 I was flying home from London and due to miscalculating the Tube crowds on Monday morning I was late getting to Heathrow. As I came up out of the subway to the terminal I heard a final boarding call for my flight. I ran to the desk and quickly explained to the person there my situation. She asked if I had any checked luggage, I said no.
She looked off into the distance, picked up her radio, and said “Hey, can you take one more?” Apparently the answer was OK since she looked at me and said, “Come on.” She took me to the head of the security line, I made it through, and she said “Run.”
I sprinted to the gate (it was a long run) and they closed the plane door the second I stepped on board.
You’ve correctly sussed out one of the larger factors. But there are other factors. Sometimes we need to pull bags, or can let them go, regardless of whose fault the disconnect is.
Like everything aviation security-related, there’s a thin fog of secrecy poured over the whole thing.
In one of the early seasons of Amazing Race there was an episode where one couple was late to the gate and the airliner actually pulled back into the gate to let them board. Makes you wonder what sort of cozy arrangment the network had with the airline.
I’ve had the opposite, they pulled myflight back to the gate to unload a passenger. He kept interrupting the flight attendant’s safety presentation several times to complain why some lady got moved to a first class seat instead of him. (It wasn’t even a great seat. It was a tiny aircraft where “first class” was wider seats so they were 1-1 instead of 1-2 across. For a 50 minute flight)
When I worked at a hotel in Wausau, Wisconsin in the 90s we were always getting luggage from the airport. I finally asked and was told it had to do with the dual facts that they only flew puddle jumpers to Central Wisconsin Airport and also took cargo.
One more anecdote about having your luggage fly separately - in the beginning of 2020, we were flying home from Thailand, and had a stop in JFK. We knew there was a flight just under 1 hour later to FLL, but the airlines didn’t let us book that because we needed time to clear customs and immigration. We were booked on a flight 6 hours later.
We made it through everything, and the 1 hour flight was running late. We found a helpful agent that made a handful of phone calls for us - we were crossing a code share boundary between airlines and they needed records released or something. She told us she got clearance, but our bags were not going to make the flight.
To me, this was a big win, because it meant we didn’t have to wait for baggage claim after a Very Long travel day. The airport is close enough to my house that going back in the evening wasn’t a big deal, and there wasn’t anything in the checked bags that couldn’t wait.
When my husband was traveling to Hong Kong, he hd a connection in Japan somewhere and his flight was late coming in and oddly enough he was the only passenger getting off the plane. This airport was about to close operations for the night. He was greeted at the jetway and then made to hustle and run to his connection. Accompanied all the way by airport personnel who handed him off like a racehorse to the next concourse and finally his gate. Where he was rushed onboard the doors slammed shut the engines already running and they immediately taxied away.
He felt that there was no way they wanted this white American guy stuck overnight in their airport so they kept the jet waiting for him.