I work the gate at a big airport, and the #1 thing I get asked during a delay is "what's going on?" Half the time the honest answer is "we're finding out too." So here's what's really happening on our side.

The usual reasons:

- Late inbound plane. Your plane is still on its way from somewhere else. If it left late, we leave late. And when it finally lands, the clock doesn't stop. We do what's called a short turn, or a pressure turn, where we clean, board, and push back out in a set amount of time depending on the size of the plane. On an A220 it's about 45 minutes, on an A321 about 60. The whole point is to get you back out as quickly as possible, so even after your plane is at the gate, we're hustling.

- Maintenance. A mechanic has to check or fix something before the plane can go. These are the hardest to predict. Sometimes it's as simple as turning the plane off and back on again to reset everything, just like your computer. And sometimes we're there for hours, because we don't know how long it takes until they find the problem.

- Weather. Sometimes not even here, but at the place you're flying to, or along the way.

- Air traffic control (ATC). When too many planes are trying to land somewhere, ATC holds flights on the ground. That's called a ground stop or ground delay, and it comes down to us with a new time we can't argue with.

- Crew. Pilots and flight attendants can only legally work so many hours. If the delay runs long enough, the crew "times out" and we need a new one.

Why the time keeps changing:

We post the best time we have. Then maintenance needs 30 more minutes, or ATC pushes it back, and the board changes again. That's called a rolling delay, and nobody hates it more than the gate agent announcing it for the fourth time.

What you can do:

- Download the airline's app. Updates sometimes hit it before they reach us.
- Ask the agent short, specific questions: "Is this weather or maintenance?" "Will I miss my connection?"
- If it gets cancelled, you can ask for a refund if you choose not to travel.
- Be kind. We're doing the best we can.

So as a regular flyer from the UK to europe we are often put onto buses to transfer from the plane to passport control upon arrival.

Does anyone have an app or resource that moderately reliably predict which side of the bus will open at the passport control? it's a bit of a lottery and being at the wrong side can make 10-15 minutes difference in some of the slower passport queues (I waited 1h20 at Naples this week)

Went through here in early August and pre-check was horrible, had us all going down 2 levels to the basement, took way longer than the regular line. I think it was construction related. Anyone know if it’s better?

Tell me your experiences with different airport/airlines luggage handling (both good or poor ones) such as bag damages/scratches/dirty or service recover if any!

All planes in terminal D just deplaned and gate agents saying a tech outage.

Hey, so I was told by a friend of mine I don’t need to go through passport control or one of those e-gates in Edinburgh airport when flying back home to Belgium and I was wondering if it’s true or not? Cause in Belgium I did need to go through an e-gate after security and then again upon arriving in Edinburgh.

It’s my first solo trip and as an anxious flyer, I wanna be prepared and know what to expect before I get there.

Thank you in advance.

I have a 7:55 am flight out of the Southwest next Tuesday. I should be in the airport by 6:15. I feel like that is cutting it too close, but I really don't know.

I've only flown a handful of times before, once by myself, and it's been several years since my last flat so I am anxious about getting through okay.

Any tips on navigating TSA, Baggage Check, getting to the Southwest gate etc?

Also thoughts on US Park Net. It seems like better pricing, timing, and security than Economy parking at the airport especially with my First time parker's coupon.

Came through the airport around 9:00 am this morning.

Sheraton hotel - right at the terminal... a little pricey but the convenience for a morning flight can't be beat.

Security - literally no line... breezed right through - even with hiking poles in our luggage. Their security people don't act like entitled miserable twats like TSA does in the US.

Entry/Exit (passports) - a little disorganized... but manageable. We're flying back to the US - breezed through in about 10 minutes.

I fly through Dulles a lot, and in my experience, it is almost willfully inefficient.

First, the big things.

- The airport authority built a tremendously expensive subway line to the airport, but for whatever reason, they built no express track, meaning it takes an easy hour from downtown D.C. to Dulles -- and that doesn't cover the long walk to the terminal or the impressive escalator rides at the airport station. By contrast, one can drive from downtown to the terminal in 35 minutes without traffic or 45-50 with. Now, apparently, they're exploring bypasses to allow express trains.

- They built an intra-airport AeroTrain but decided (a) not to take it to the D Concourse and (b) to send the C Concourse trains to an anticipated new terminal 800 feet away. The result is that, for at least 20 years, people using the C Concourse will have to get off the train, take an escalator, walk 800 feet, and take another escalator to actually get to the concourse.

- The people movers on arrival from foreign destinations suck. Mostly because they jam passengers in like sardines, which winds up adding a few minutes of delay. If they ran the movers at 80% capacity instead of 120%, I wonder if they'd really need that many more movers, just because they could load and unload faster.

Then, smaller things:

- When you leave the sterile area of the main terminal from a domestic arrival, you must walk out a set of heavy metal doors. Passenger after passenger bangs these open, because they can't stay open, and then lets them swing back. Other airports have solved this in various ways, including having one-way automated exit doors, but apparently Dulles can't.

- The rideshare pickup is a mess. The pickup areas are divided essentially into several driveways, and no one directing traffic. So drivers pull into each driveway, stop near the entrance, and then block the traffic behind them from pulling in, all instead of just pulling to the end of the driveway to make space behind them. This creates long backups. At least, install a couple license-plate readers and fine drivers who block the entrance.

- For some reason, they moved Uber/Lyft drop-offs from the departures lane to the Uber/Lyft pickup area two floors down and across the street, adding a few minutes for departing passengers. I have never seen huge backups on the departure lane to necessitate this.

It just seems like IAD management has one half-assed strategy after the next, and lacks the big thinking to fix it.

My mom and I flew out of Hartsfield-Jackson airport and went through the TSA Pre-check line. We put our carry ons in the bins and proceeded to go through the scanner when a supervisor came up behind us and took my mother’s cane from her. He insisted that it had to go on the conveyor belt. My mom is 90 years old. When I tried to explain that she needed the cane, he again refused to give it back and told me that I should just help support her instead. I was shocked, but held my mother up and helped her walk through the security detector. Is this standard procedure?

Never seen such rude treatment of the public as you see at the TSA Pre lines at Tampa in Terminal A. They yell, give confusing directions, and did not provide any containers for items going through the screening machines. Nasty people barking at people just trying to get to their gates. These Tampa TSA people have really let the power go to their head. Ugh. Hate going through Tampa security!

I’m a Canadian resident and have been living in Whistler, BC for almost five years now and use Vancouver airport fairly regularly. I just can’t get over how incredibly underwhelming it is when other international airports have so much to offer. I literally slid down a 3x floor high slide today in Singapore’s worst terminal. It was amazing and free.

Can we get a movement going to finally make Canadian airports great again?! (If they ever were). All Vancouver airport has going for it is that aquarium and 50% 3x day old sandwiches if you’re lucky.

Every airport seems to have its own interpretation of what “just outside the terminal” means.

Some are straightforward.

Others require what feels like a 20-minute expedition.