I was traveling from San Francisco (SFO) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) on my way home to Raleigh-Durham (RDU). My original schedule gave me 1 hour and 40 minutes to connect in DFW for my 8:25 flight home. I had to change terminals at DFW, as shown below, but with 100 minutes between flights there was plenty of time - or so I thought.
Unfortunately it was foggy in San Francisco, so we were delayed in departing. I received the first update at 11:45 am PST, and it dropped my connection time to 1 hour, so no panic yet.
I started to worry when I received the next one at 12:27 pm PST. The 8:05 pm CST arrival dropped my connection to 20 minutes, which would be difficult to make.
I received another update 7 minutes later, and my connection time dropped to zero. I felt that my chances of getting home that night were shot.
That was my last update before boarding. While in flight I checked the AA.com web site and saw that my departing flight was delayed to 8:35 pm, and that we were scheduled to arrive at 8:20 pm. 15 minutes to make a connection between terminals? Unlikely, but it turns out that I made it. Here's how:
- I had gotten and upgrade, so I was the very first person off the plane when we landed.
- The flight attendant asked the gate agent to call the departing gate and ask them to wait for me.
- Both gates were reasonably close to the stations for the DFW "SkyLink" train. I ran to the station and caught a train almost immediately.
- Upon arrival I ran to the gate, but the plane had already pushed back.
- Best of all, the plane came back to the gate! Maybe they came back because there were 3 of us at the gate, or maybe it was my status on AA. In either case, that is unprecedented in my experience.
Here is a summary of the updates.
Time of Update
|
Depart SFO
|
Arrive DFW
|
Depart DFW
|
Connection
|
Original Schedule
|
1:20 pm PST
|
6:45 pm CST
|
8:25 pm CST
|
100 minutes
|
11:45 am PST/1:45 pm CST
|
2:00 pm PST
|
7:25 pm CST
|
8:25 pm CST
|
60 minutes
|
12:27 pm PST/2:27 pm CST
|
2:40 pm PST
|
8:05 pm CST
|
8:25 pm CST
|
20 minutes
|
12:34 pm PST/2:34 pm CST
|
3:00 pm PST
|
8:25 pm CST
|
8:25 pm CST
|
0 minutes
|
4:00 pm PST /7:00 pm CST
|
3:00 pm PST
|
8:25 pm CST
|
8:35 pm CST
|
10 minutes
|
Final
|
8:20 pm CST
|
8:41 pm CST
|
21 minutes
|
