Originally Posted by
sba110
Not only are the FA's actions legal, you would be committing a felony offense if you left against instructions.
This is quite simple - if you're on board a plane, disobeying instructions from a member of the flight crew is a felony under federal law. Of course, you might be able to argue in court that those instructions were completely unreasonable, etc., and maybe the jury would be convinced by this in some cases, but it's a very dangerous game to play. And besides all that, you will get arrested and probably charged in any case, which will be a massive inconvenience.
This makes sense, too - there's lots of cases in which you, as a passenger, won't have the training and the information to make a good decision. The flight crew is responsible for your well being while you're on board the flight (and whether or not the door is open makes no difference), so they will have to make decisions for you.
But don't instructions have to be both legal and reasonable? How is preventing someone from leaving an airplane (assuming it was safe to do so) not unlawful detention? Regardless of baggage or other details that would occur (that is the airline's problem), if a person wants to leave their service, if doing so poses no threat to anyone else what is the legal standing to block someone? In this case charges could be made against the G/A too. And I disagree on the matter of the door being open making no difference. It does matter, and in this case the OP would have had a reasonable complaint against UA personnel.