Originally Posted by
emma dog
Can in the sense that if the airline wants it opened it can be opened. But you being "late" to the gate does not make the airline want to reopen it for you. It's also quite possible that they gave up your seats to standby passengers and therefore were completely unmotivated to fess up to that and instead go with the "door can't be reopened" statement.
Exactly.
As I mentioned before the door is supposed to remain closed once closed. If opened there has to be a reason listed. The agents/pilots/FAs have to answer to delays and are not likely to delay it just because someone is late. The agents will almost never take a delay. The biggest reason FAs and pilots will delay the flight is to clear the standby list and to wait for missing catering items.
There are a few ways you will see it being reopened such as:
-The door was closed prior to departure time and letting someone on will not cause a delayed departure.
-the plane has an atc delay and was pushing off to sit anyway.
-the airplane has a mechanical delay and they were reopening it to let maintenance on or maintenance is working on it outside and the plane is sitting.
-Management decided there were a significant amount of passengers connecting to hold the flight for.
-a late arriving crewmember is needed so the flight is not understaffed. I was deadheaded to Chicago one day to work purser to London. My flight was delayed at LGA due to ATC. When I got to ORD it was at departure time but I ran to the gate anyway and saw that the bridge had just been pulled. I stood at the window and waved my arms frantically until the pilots saw me. They told the agents to reopen the door to let me on.