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…
In this post:
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?
I’d say the part that would upset me the most as a passenger on that flight would be the lack of communication and the outright lies told by the agent. If they conveyed to passengers that they were waiting for connecting passengers who would otherwise be stranded, followed by the “it may be you we hold for next time”, I’d be annoyed but informed if not totally understanding. But trying to lie about a flight’s...
I’d say the part that would upset me the most as a passenger on that flight would be the lack of communication and the outright lies told by the agent. If they conveyed to passengers that they were waiting for connecting passengers who would otherwise be stranded, followed by the “it may be you we hold for next time”, I’d be annoyed but informed if not totally understanding. But trying to lie about a flight’s progress in 2025 when apps like FlightAware and FlightRadar24 are widely available is just plain dumb (especially with AvGeeks feeding ADS-B data in exchange for unfiltered access). The FLIFO is no longer secret, people. What used to cost a pile of money in the 90s/2000s (systems like SABRE or AMADEUS) is dirt cheap today.
Irreverent behavior!! Would somebody think of the people?!
This story is an absolute disgrace and a slap in the face to every single person who has ever remained loyal to Southwest.
For the benefit of ten (let me repeat: TEN) inconsequential passengers from a flight that was over three hours late through no act of God, Southwest chose to hold an entire 737 MAX full of 170+ paying customers for more than 80 minutes, then added the ultimate insult by allowing those same...
This story is an absolute disgrace and a slap in the face to every single person who has ever remained loyal to Southwest.
For the benefit of ten (let me repeat: TEN) inconsequential passengers from a flight that was over three hours late through no act of God, Southwest chose to hold an entire 737 MAX full of 170+ paying customers for more than 80 minutes, then added the ultimate insult by allowing those same ten latecomers to board ahead of A1–15, ahead of A-List Preferred, ahead of families, ahead of everyone who actually played by the rules. Ten people. Ten utterly inconsequential individuals were elevated above the other 97% of the manifest. Their convenience was sacred; everyone else’s time, money, and earned boarding position was declared worthless. Gate agents lied twice in the process (claiming the Kauai flight was airborne when it hadn’t moved, then falsely asserting SJC’s curfew doesn’t apply to arrivals). Lies on top of contempt on top of theft of boarding rights that loyal customers paid good money to secure.
This wasn’t “protecting connections.” This was blatant favoritism, whether for revenue passengers with upgraded boarding, non-revs, employees, or someone’s buddies, and Southwest executed it with breathtaking arrogance. They sacrificed the comfort, schedules, and dignity of an entire aircraft to coddle a microscopic minority that had no realistic chance of making the flight in the first place.
Are you saying those 10 "inconsequential" people weren't playing by the rules? What did they do wrong?
Sarcasm?
An hour and 20min late? Poor guy. Couldn’t board first? Tragic.
A similar event happened to us 8 years ago on Southwest. We all boarded, and then the captain announced that we are going to wait 40 minutes for connecting passengers. But he also said that in the future it might be us for whom a Southwest flight might get held. So actually, we all just accepted it, there was no complaining.
And then 3 months later a flight was indeed held for us for 20 minutes when our inbound plane arrived late.
Very common occurence
All I can say as advice is, don't ask or expect gate agents to know or do anything, or have any connection to any decision making authority, or hold them to that standard. Think of them as garbled loudspeakers connected to the computer system that occasionally get some actual live info from the crew. Trying to reason or dispute with them has no purpose and will just make you frustrated.
The people with the...
All I can say as advice is, don't ask or expect gate agents to know or do anything, or have any connection to any decision making authority, or hold them to that standard. Think of them as garbled loudspeakers connected to the computer system that occasionally get some actual live info from the crew. Trying to reason or dispute with them has no purpose and will just make you frustrated.
The people with the authority and making any kind of decisions about departure times, hold times, aircraft issues, substitutions, etc. are the operational dispatchers or zone controllers, who are sitting thousands of miles away from wherever you are.
All you can do is vote with your feet.
Have seen this before. The 15 or so passengers were part of a group ticket/buy. SW will let that entire group board first, usually to the middle of the plane so they aren’t split apart. Have seen this with schools, and church groups. So they probably held for the SJ termination reason but allows them to board to keep the group together.
This is just a business decision. If there is an inbound with many connecting passengers onboard, it may make financial sense to hold the flight as opposed to needing to deal with the passengers who arrive and need hotels, compensation, and so on. Nothing strange here at all. CASE CLOSED.
The airline can do whatever they want. End of story.