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American Airlines is making it easier for passengers to make their connecting flights.
The carrier is in the process of enhancing its flight hold capacities designed to help flyers rushing for a connection, without disrupting departure schedules.
The airline’s system can reportedly briefly delay some takeoffs so passengers arriving late from a delayed connection can still board — but only when the entire network can handle the delay.
And they’re not just holding the flights — they’re also telling passengers exactly how long they have to make it to the gate.
The technology identifies departing flights with connecting customers who might miss them, then determines if it can delay a flight without impacting the airline’s schedule. The process is performed by Connect Assist, American Airlines’ in-house Gen AI tool, in combination with the airline’s staff on the ground.
“American considers a complex algorithm that takes dozens of inputs that the tool analyzes to ensure there is no downline impact to the overall schedule or customer itineraries,” American Airlines’ spokesperson Luisa Barrientos Flores told Afar.
Customers will get an automated text from the airline when their flight is held, informing them how long the connecting flight will wait for them at the gate.
Most domestic flights start boarding 40 minutes prior to departure, but American has posted connecting flights as short as 25 minutes, which can be hard to make, especially when gates are far apart.
On average, flights will be held for 10 minutes, Flores said.
The tight connections have long been a topic of discussion on social media, where travelers have exchanged stories.
Recently, one passenger posted in the r/americanairlines sub-Reddit, noting that they’ve been on quite a few American flights with short layovers, and received the hold notification for the first time.
Their first flight had been delayed by about 50 minutes, and they were concerned about being left with just 30 minutes to make their connecting flight — but as soon as they landed, they received a notification that the flight would be held for 17 minutes.
“It was last flight out of the night, and there were a bunch of connecting passengers, so it makes sense that they’d hold it, but I’ve never gotten notified,” they wrote.
Many people shared their personal anecdotes of stressful connecting flights and were glad to see American making a change to benefit the customers.
“This is freaking AWESOME. A simple text like this could alleviate so much stress with passengers who might miss connections due to no fault of their own,” one person commented.
American began testing the move for delayed passengers in the spring at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT).
The airline has now added five additional airports where they will hold flights: Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Miami International Airport (MIA), Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
Flores said the country’s largest airline “plans to expand to additional airports in the future.”
American Airlines is not the first airline to use AI-driven tools to help determine flights to hold so passengers don’t miss connections.
United Airlines’ Connection Saver tool has had the same initiative since 2019, and the new AI part of the United app started alerting passengers at certain hubs in June 2025.
The news from American Airlines comes after the carrier cut its program that awards bonus miles and other travel perks to passengers who purchase a basic economy ticket.
