Often1

There is no US airport with conformance. If you are checked in, even if you need to print a BP, nobody will stop you from heading to the gate. If you make it to the gate by T-15, you are good-to-go.

And, unless your bags are truly gigantic, just lug them through the checkpoint and gate check them. It will earn you some dirty looks, but that's about it.

arollins

Just out of curiosity, did your daughter mentioned anything to the check in agent about being prior T30 and the agent not paying attention to her? Did the 3rd passenger on the waitlist cleared?
I've always found that most small stations agents tend to have multiple tasks w/regards to the operation of a flight, and they tend to stick to their schedule, ticket agent, check in agent, gate agent, jet bridge or ramp attendant, etc.

Artpen100

I usually anticipate something will go wrong, so will always check in online and have the boarding pass on my phone - and then will get the paper boarding pass when I get to the airport if I don't have access to a printer. I am convinced that bad things are less likely to happen to your reservation once you are checked in and have a seat assignment.

weero

... or plan 30 minutes extra if you are a foreigner as then the online checkin doesn't work for you.

Or pick other carriers where it does ...

cerralee

cerralee

I don't think the possibility of being denied boarding ever crossed her mind until it actually happened. When she started the process their was ample time to check in and get to the gate. The agent was cordial, chatty and took over the check in process, getting her to try the kiosk first, then moving on to the counter computer, making small talk and never mentioned time was a factor-just carried on like all was fine. Then hit her with too bad...your time just ran out at t-30 even though she was the only one at the counter and had ample time to complete the process if it was done in a timely manner. I am not 100% positive on the circumstances, just going by what she said when she called 4:35. t-30 was 4:30 and we we had been in the car for a good 25 minutes when we got the call after dropping her off at the terminal. It takes less than 30 seconds to walk from the car to the ticket counter and my husband went in with her so I am pretty certain the agent was using a stalling technique cause she knew she had messed up with the ticketing situation and wanted to get out of it without having to compensate for the giving away of the seats before the appropriate time. I can see when she made the call to me on my phone records, and I knew that she had a what the hell conversation with the agent when she sprang the oh too late to print the boarding pass bit on her. She had time to rebook the flight before she went to the gate to let the other passengers on, just not finish what she had started with the getting her the boarding passes/check in bit. Being that the airport is tiny and she did the stall technique so she wouldn't get in trouble ruffles my feathers.

JohnnyRockets

How do you know the flight was full or overbooked or they gave her seats away.
As far as I see there could be 10 seats left so it wasn't a big deal to clear standbys early.

cerralee

I guess I don't know, the flight status screen stated there were 35 seats, 32 checked in with two on standby. Then the two standby names went to confirmed. I have the screen shot. How do you see there were 10 seats left?

drvannostren

I dunno, this sounds honestly to me like you arrived too late. I realize deadlines are deadlines and not "well you should really arrive 45 minutes prior even though the deadline is 30 minutes". But if you're not checked in, show up 60 minutes prior. Is it really that big of a hassle in your day?

I show up at T-45 all the time in Canada, I know that's the cutoff for baggage and check-in. But I'm always ALWAYS checked in already with a BP on my phone. If I miss the cutoff for my bag, I'll carry it on. I prefer to check it, but I don't wanna be at the airport super early since I'm constantly there.

I doubt an agent would arbitrarily just give up your seats. It's possible she cleared the standbys a COUPLE minutes before the cutoff so she could go do something else, sure, but that's not malicious and when in 2015 you're not checked in 33 minutes prior, I don't think that's unreasonable. If you really showed up with a few minutes prior, it should've been insisted on "I'm not yet checked in, can you please do it so I don't miss the cutoff, I'm not familiar with the kiosk, it'll take me too long".

MSPeconomist

Could the airport agent have seen a child in the reservation and assumed that it was a lap kid, so that only one seat would be needed? If so, then the agent could have cleared the two standbys and still thought she had enough seats (one) for your daughter and kid. When they arrived and she realized that it wasn't a lap kid, she tried to cover up by delaying the check in until it was too late.

I'd deal with US first and then, depending on the outcome, almost certainly ALSO report this to DOT as it looks like an attempt to avoid admitting that an IDB happened.

MSPeconomist

Sorry, but I really disagree. Please don't blame the victim. If the US rule at this airport is T-30, then it is absolutely wrong to give away seats at T-33 (although it sounds to me like the seats were given away at T-45 or earlier). At T-29, yes.

Dave Noble

There is still no evidence that the seats were given away. Did the flight actually depart without there being enough seats to accommodate the passengers if they were checked in?

SpinOn2

My first and foremost thought when reading this is, why did you wait so long to get there? Unless you were stuck in traffic for an hour or two, that is not giving yourself ample time to check in and all that. You may not need 2 hours to get through all of it, but its still recommended that you arrive 2 hours prior if you want to be safe.

You guys arrived last minute, and the computers and kiosks do have issues at times, as do reservations. Even 40 minutes prior is asking for trouble if anything goes wrong. Reservations are not always that easy. If the gate agent is doing their job, 29min and 59 sec before departure they are restricting the flight to the gate. Once that is done, the gate agent controls it and the counter cannot do more than simply call and ask them to please open it up.

I'm sorry for the situation, but 40 min prior is not a smart move, even if you already have boarding passes and don't need to check bags, all it takes is one thing to go wrong and you miss. Don't forget doors close 10 min prior so that 40 min leway was actually 30, before any unforseen mishaps.

Sucks that the agent couldn't get it to work, but ultimately its your job to show up and be there ready to go with more time than that, because as you saw, all it takes it one little malfunction and thats that, they aren't going to inconvenience 49 ppl because you guys waited til 40 min prior to arrive whether you meant to or not.

I dont mean to be mean, its just the honest truth. I highly doubt anything sketchy was going on.

SpinOn2

No it;s not, agents can give seats to standbys as far in advance as they want, odds are if they gave seats away that early then there were open seats and everyone with a reservation was already accounted for with a seat. If that person doesn't show up, the non-checked seats are then cleared and opened up for anyone. Agents are not going to take seats from someone with a confirmed seat 30 min before the flight (45 for certain places), if standbys are cleared seats prior to that it's bc there were more seats than reservations.

drvannostren

The other thing is when you're that tight, you run the risk of the clock. Maybe yours is 3 minutes slow...that happens all the time. Next thing you know you're at 29:59.

I'm not blaming anyone specifically, but the OP is suggesting nefarious things are going on with the agent. I don't like that assumption.