Originally posted by: Cheetah8799
Well, the reason I'm nervous is because I recently went to Boston and flew with ATA. On the way back, they stop in Chicago, but our flight was delayed a LOT (3 hours or so on the runway) due to storms in the midwest. They were telling people on the plane during the one single chance they could get off that if they didn't get off, and instead took the risk of maybe missing their connection flight, that ATA would NOT help them at all! They were on their own! I just don't want to end up as one of those people....
I'm having a hard time following what happened, so I'll give my experience with American (obviously not a small or discount airline), which sounds similar to that one.
I was on a flight from Rochester to Chicago and then on to LA. The flight was delayed in Rochester because of weather, after we were already on the plane, and we had taxied out. The whole airport was delayed because of it. Our plane was in line so that as soon as the weather cleared up, we would be in the queue to go. For some reason, we had to go back to the gate. There was one airline (I forget which one) that was getting ready to leave, and they weren't waiting for the same conditions as we were. They gave people the opportunity to get off the plane and try to get on the other plane. However, if you weren't back on the plane by the time it left the gate again to get back in the queue, you lost your seat. If you made it to Chicago via some other method, but missed your connecting flight, they wouldn't help. If you stayed on your original flight, and missed your connecting flight, they would get you on a different flight.