We often run into delayed departures, but for the first time I ran into an “early” flight departure on United Airlines…
My United Airlines Flights Departs “Early” From LAX
I was flying from Los Angeles (LAX) to New York (JFK) and when I reached the airport I noticed that instead of showing on-time, my flight was showing an “early” departure.
As usual (and with no checked bags and a mobile boarding pass already issued), I cut it close. Interestingly, as I cleared security at around 10:10pm and made my way to the restroom ahead of my flight, I heard a final boarding call for my flight. I could not imagine that the flight would leave 30 minutes ahead of schedule, so I continued to the restroom.
Again, at 10:15pm a “final call” was made for the flight. I proceeded immediately to the gate and asked the gate agent what was going on. He told me that due to some “Air Traffic Control” issues we needed to leave early to arrive on time.
Indeed, the aircraft door did close three minutes later and we pushed back almost 20 minutes early. And indeed, the flight did take a bit longer than usual, though we still landed a couple minutes ahead of schedule (I loved it – make redeyes as long as possible if I have a bed to sleep in!).
I have to imagine, though, that the “early” departure and frequent “final boarding” announcements from the gate agent were meant to cajole passengers onboard. I doubt (though may be wrong) the flight would have departed early if it had not boarded full (though perhaps at the 15-minute mark, those passengers who had failed to board would be unseated, nonrevs cleared, and then the door closed).
In all my years of travel, I’ve never seen anything like this. I can’t help but wonder if there may be more to the story.
CONCLUSION
Most of us have been on flights that are delayed and we’ve probably also experienced flights that have departed early if everyone happens to board on-time. But this was the first time I’ve ever seen a flight departure board post an “early” departure. It seems rather unreasonable for such a last-minute schedule change, but in this case no one was left behind.
Sounds like total BS to me. It sounds like a crew legality issue…
BS or not I am all for early departures and early arrivals.
Whatever the reason, my guess is that they wouldn’t have done it if there weren’t a Newark flight leaving an hour later for anyone that missed the announcements.
Also, it will be sad in a couple months when there are no longer San Diego flights on the board as in your photo…
the station and its motivated employees get special credit for Early Departure Minutes. I’ll take a few early rather than late anytime.
Had this yesterday 8/19 for my flight from sfo to yvr. They gave the same reason. Er left 15 mins early. The funny thing we landed 20 mins early!
I flew a Delta mainline flight to SLC a few months ago. The gate agent made an announcement that the captain wanted to get going 10 minutes early because of ATC delays into SLC. Sure enough they started boarding early and pushed back 10 mins early.
…but it was all for naught as we landed and waited 20-30 mins for a delayed flight to clear our gate.
The rationale behind “waited 20-30 mins for a delayed flight to clear our gate” would make a fascinating blog post. It’s one of the, if not THE, most annoying and poorly-understood aspects of commercial flight. Arrive 20 or 30 minutes early, about which the flight crew ALWAYS makes a big deal, and then spend 25 or 35 minutes or longer in the penalty box because “our gate is occupied”, about which the flight crew offers nary a peep. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!!!
If the gate is occupied, why can’t the airplane go to a different gate?
Everyone, pilots, crew, airport, pax, people online on FlightAware or PlaneFinder or FlightRadar has known for hours EXACTLY what time the flight will land, plenty of time to rearrange gates. The number of gates which can accommodate only certain airplane types is probably quite small. It’s not like an Emergency Room where we never know from one moment to the next how many arrivals there will be. It’s particularly infuriating and dissatisfying for an airline like UA at an airport like DEN or EWR where they “own” most of the gates. So the luggage carts will have to be driven to a different gate and departing pax on the next flight will have to go to a different gate, there’s plenty of time.
Matthew please (research if necessary and) make a blog entry post about this annoying occurrence. Undoubtedly EVERYONE would prefer to get off a flight 20-30 minutes earlier instead of sitting on an airplane on a taxiway or ramp area for those 20-30 minutes (or longer).
(Matthew, is “blog entry post” or “blog post” correct? What do you call one article on your blog? Thank you.)
Another gate may be available, however it may not be the correct size for your aircraft or is being held because an aircraft that must use that gate (e.g. a widebody gate with a widebody arriving in 45min). You also need to understand the complexities of doing a gate change, if you are scheduled into Gate 76 the airline has been staging checked bags at that gate for the next departure of that aircraft, pax are sitting at that gate waiting for the next departure, while they do happen it does take more work Even if there is another gate available you might not have a ramp agent to flag in the flight or a gate agent to meet the flight and bring the jet bridge up, they may have 15 min left on their lunch break when you show up 20 minutes early or are working another flight due to leave in 10 minutes. Even before current staffing issues, airlines staff to the schedule and if a plane shows up early they might not be staffed to meet it at that time.
So while yes another gate may be open there are numerous complexities that don’t make it easy to park there instead of the assigned gate
I’m going to have to disagree with you there. Gate changes are very easy. https://youtu.be/o1fAA378ePY
LOL.
This happened to me years ago on a Delta flight, STT-ATL. I always opt-in to text notifications, but you can imagine my surprise when my phone dinged & I saw that Delta was announcing an early departure– by almost two full hours– rather than a delay! The short story: weather was incoming & we either left early or didn’t leave until the next day. Luckily I was en route & made the flight but many didn’t. We left about 2/3 full on what was originally an oversold flight.
I’ve seen this occasionally over the years. ZRH to IAD and GVA to IAD frequently show as leaving 10 minutes early during all times of the year. These are the only “regular” early departures that I know of. Check this out on the app sometime!
Is GVA-IAD seasonal or year-round?
It’s year-round with UA
Had this for my 10:45pm flight last week – LAX-SFO. Went through security about an hour before departure and flight said ON TIME. Then it appeared as EARLY on the board. I imagine they do these for later last flight outs where its already padded, when most people are already checked in and aren’t running late to the airport, traffic is quieter and they can get off on time. We boarded a bit earlier (10 min?) than what was on my printed ticket – gate agents wanted to board earlier but were waiting for captains. Ended up have an auxiliary problem so got into SFO a few minutes late.
Good thing you don’t fly on Avianca! My grandson missed his flight as they changed it for 3 hours earlier, they sent out an email the night before but he didn’t have data on his phone and where he was stayy no wifi, anyway he only flew into Cartagena to see my mother and I who were on a cruise that was stoping for 5 hours, there would have been no point on making the flight anyway as he wouldn’t have had time to see us! He didn’t find out about the flight change until he met us at a restaurant which had wifi, they wouldn’t give him a refund, luckily I had paid for the flight on my American Express card, so I called the cc company disputed and I wasn’t charded
Sadly, I do:
https://liveandletsfly.com/avianca-airlines-business-class-review/
https://liveandletsfly.com/avianca-787-business-class/
Thans for the onfo.on early fights.Do u know if i M allowed on Delta flights with a cold ice pak nit frozen in my hand lyggage traveling with me in the cabin.
Thanks
You would ask TSA and they would have final discretion. Good chance they would let it through after explosives swab if you explain it is for medical reasons.
I’ve seen Delta do this a number of time pre-pandemic.
I don’t know if they would leave early with checked in revenue customers not on board but when your a non-rev they would definitely leave you.
Have experienced an early departure due to weather. MSY was experiencing its share of severe storms, but a break in the clouds was approaching. In unison, the gates in the terminal belched “early” departure and “final boarding” messages. The stampede out of the restrooms was something from a Jerry Lewis film. Gate agents repeated messages of “make sure your boarding pass were readily available” (this was prior to phone apps). Once aboard, F/As made repeated statements about taking your seat immediately. The taxi from the gate to the runway felt like a NOPD car chase. The flight deck gunned the engines as we rolled onto the runway and we were gone!!
I suspect some luggage and a few PAX got left behind,
I’ve seen this in Asia a lot in my travels.
@Matthew, were you not keeping track of the flight via the United app? Or was the early departure not reflected in the flight status on the app?
When I was frequently flying between USA and NRT, it was quite common for flights to depart NRT 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. I experienced this on UA, DL, NH, JL. Seemed to be an NRT thing.
Occasionally I see DL departures listed on the board in SEA 10 mins earlier than scheduled. Of course, DL the airline that thinks they are perfect, also seems to have far more delays than other airlines ex SEA.
Many replys mentioned correctly the reasons why early dep, early arr, delayed arr or dep etc….its just normal biz for airlines. Pax will never understand this because they dont want to. Its a pax choice to travel how they want and be able to talk about their experience…..before you bitch about any flts with problems that crew have no control over like weather, late arrving pax to gateroom, terminal gates still occupied, etc, get the facts 1st. Captain is your best source.
I wonder what air traffic control thinks about this? (You can’t land buddy, you’re too early?!).
I missed a connection in DFW when my connecting AA flight closed the doors 20 minutes early. We got to the gate on time to see the plane pushing back leaving 15 of us stranded overnight in Dallas, including a family of four with two small kids. I was so pissed off.
What reason did they give?
I’m a Captain for United and will offer a bit of insight here. It’s comparatively rare for flights to depart earlier than scheduled (I have only done so a handful of times in my 25 years with UAL). To do so requires the coordination of a lot of different departments, not the least of which includes the FAA and ATC. It’s generally done to avoid weather disruptions to a given flight (thunderstorms, fog rolling in, ice storms, etc) that might otherwise result in a cancellation or diversion. Case in point, a few months back I was operating a late evening flight into Eugene, Oregon and the visibility was quickly dropping due to fog developing over the airport. Eugene has CAT III approach capability, but only when the control tower is open…once it’s closed, the airport reverts back to standard CAT I capability (higher minimum visibility required). On this particular flight, we were scheduled to arrive 30 minutes after the tower would have been closed for the night, and given the weather forecast, the visibility would have been below the required minimums. Thus, we coordinated with our dispatchers, customer service folks, etc to depart about 40 minutes early. Unfortunately, that meant leaving seven connecting passengers behind in SFO for the evening, but it was still a better course of action than cancelling a flight or diverting, and inconveniencing 150 other passengers. Again, it’s not a decision that is taken lightly or done very often, but the main reason is for either safety or the least amount of disruption to the majority of our passengers.
My wife got left in May when she got to the gate 15 minutes before boarding was supposed to BEGIN and the plane was already rolling away.
Had this happen to me on an AA flight from VVI to MIA 4 years ago, the flight left a full hour earlier without me as they did not let me check in because I was too late for the new departure time. On top of that they then proceeded to rebook me for the following day and charged me the fare difference.
I got left in Chicago, I missed my connecting flight because it left early. I had to stay overnight to get a flight the next day. (The airline paid for the hotel)
I spoke with the agent in the United Club and they told me the pilots have discretion to leave early, typically for weather reasons. But, as they agreed, there clearly were no weather related reasons and couldn’t explain what happened.
So odd.
United routinely intentionally “delays” the Newark Dublin flight during tailwind season per Dublin ATC as there are no gates available to accommodate early arrivals with the Aer Lingus hub overnights.. Sure enough, even arriving ontime, Dublin gates are seldom free and a 30min wait is still needed.
I’ve had a plane leave early from DFW. I started in Cleveland headed for Albuquerque. We caught a tail wind and arrived about 35 minutes early. I wandered yo the departure gate for the flight to Albuquerque just to make sure I knew where it was. When I got there they were announcing boarding for the flight to Albuquerque. We left about 45 minutes early after an announcement from the captain “We have a ticketed passenger for every seat, and every passenger is in their seat. We have a slot on the runway in 5 minutes. If there are no objections, we are going. That flight caught a tail wind and I arrived just over an hour early in Albuquerque.