Originally Posted by
sts603
How do you think those other passengers would have felt? Maybe they know IDB policy. Maybe they don't. But skipping over the last to check in passengers without seat assignments to IDB someone else goes against AA's protocol. If those passengers had seat assignments or had checked in at T-24 knowing that they didn't have seat assignments and were at risk for IDB - and still get IDBed anyways, I'd certainly be POed. These policies are in place for a reason. Anyone who wants to can learn how to best avoid an IDB.
Fair point. I know I would be pretty pissed off too. I may have been a little too harsh in saying "dropping the ball". The agent(s) working the flight were understandably just following the rules (no argument from me). Was it the right decision? Yes, as far as the letter of the rules go. Was it the best decision? Probably not. Not every school will or can send more than one chaparone for a group that size, so I understand why whoeever was in charge of the group did not want to send 6 underaged kids alone. And this leads us to this little PR incident. IDBing 8th graders, shock horror. IDBing a couple of middle age guys, meh.
Now, it's not to say the group is completely blameless. Yes, anyone can learn about how to avoid IDB, but realistically not many people will. They could have avoided this situation by paying for a few premium seats. But again, realistically it's probably not going to happen.