[AirlinesMustPay]

Originally Posted by wkharris2001

in an ATC delay situation when is it okay to release the passengers seats give them to standby passengers and send the flight out?

do you wait to dispatch the flight untill the posted estimated time of departure that the passengers were given?

risk losing your wheels up time and extending the delay?

or do you decide once a majority of passengers are on and you're still waiting for 5 more passengers?

release those 5 passengers seats get people from the later delayed flight onto the earlier delayed flight so the other passengers on the plane can make connections?

The OP asked 5 questions, but in my mind it was the same question being rephrased, perhaps for clarity.

My post clearly answered the question by saying, Yes, leave the 5 passengers behind anytime it suits the airlines to do so. By necessary implication it means that my view is that prudent airline management will release the seats for standby passengers. You don't want to leave with 5 empty seats. You sell them to standby passengers. After all where is the airline going to get the money to compensate the one of the five who needs to be compensated. I see a new word, "gripe"

If expecting to be compensated when the airline leaves you behind is to "gripe", so be it.

So my suggested airport sign will read, "Wimps, whiners and gripers this way for a $500 voucher and a reservation on the next flight out."

That's the line you can expect to see me in.