Transit through Abu Dhabi on Etihad

While transiting through Abu Dhabi (AUH), from India (BLR) heading to the US (JFK) -all on Etihad, there's a "pre-clearance" that passengers need to go through. Few questions regarding that:

If in case the BLR-AUH flight gets delayed for some reason, will the passengers be accommodated in the next flight?
Assuming that the delay is at the "pre-clearance" stage (i.e., the inbound flight is on time, but there is a delay in pre-clearance for any reason) what happens at that case?
What happens to the baggage that is presumably "through checked"?
Do the rules of the game change if the tickets for the entire journey (onward and return) are booked through a third party site instead of Etihad?

This is an offshoot of the original question: Abu Dhabi: Transit time and US pre-clearance question

Best Answer

Yes, the carrier will protect you onto the next available flight. (I assume this was all booked on one ticket—that is to say, you paid for all flights at one time in a single transaction to form a single contract with the company.)
Again the carrier will accommodate you at their expense. Long delays at AUH pre-clearance were common until recently, so you are advised to proceed there with haste.
Your baggage is "screened" by US Customs at AUH. Usually they just show you a photograph of the bag on a computer monitor and you confirm that it is your baggage. If US Customs have any suspicions they will pull the bag from the system for inspection but otherwise that's it. The baggage is through-checked to your final destination in the United States.
No, the same rules apply.