No one wants to be running late for their flight, but hey, it happens! As you’re sprinting to your gate, out of breath, panicked, and crossing your fingers that you’ll make it, American Airlines has started making things easier this year.

American Airlines

Lots of changes have hit flying this year, especially when it comes to making it through TSA security, but this change happened over the summer, and many people still don’t know about it. If you’re flying American Airlines and running late for your connecting flight, they’ll hold the plane for you for a few minutes…but also send you a countdown that might cause your stomach to drop.

It’s true! According to American Airlines’ Newsroom website, back in May 2025, American Airlines debuted this new feature to help passengers rushing to make a connecting flight. The technology began testing at Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) airport in May, and it works like this: If the airline determines it can delay the flight without any impact to the airline’s schedule, the airline will propose a short hold to get those connecting customers onboard. 

American Airlines Information Packet

Forbes goes into a little more detail on the service — the technology will send a message to those passengers who could be at risk of missing their connection and let them know just how long the plane is able to hold for them. The technology worked well in Dallas, well enough, in fact, that it rolled out in Charlotte, NC, in mid-May and in Chicago, IL, on June 30th of this year. In Charlotte alone, the technology has saved over 1,000 connections, and that was just after implementing it less than a month prior.

American Airlines Plane

Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association (which represents American pilots), said the union has long pushed for the airline to be more sensitive in accommodating connecting passengers who arrive late at the gate. Specifically, he’s quoted as saying, “Pilots like being part of taking care of all our passengers, both the ones on the airplane and the ones struggling to get on it. There is no better time to try to humanize air travel.”

American Airlines

This isn’t the only airline with a service like this, though. If you’re flying United Airlines, they debuted a service called Connection Saver in June 2019 that, to date, has saved about 3.3 million connections. However, when Delta spokesman Morgan Durran was asked about the airline’s stance on holding planes, he said, “Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis and can be done centrally at our operations and customer center or by airport team recommendation to our OCC.” While the Delta app provides real-time flight updates like boarding door closing notices, and new seatback technology provides details on individual passengers’ connections, the airline doesn’t appear to be as concerned with helping passengers not miss their connections with similar technology, but that could change in the future.

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