My family was flying home this past Wednesday. My son pre-boards because of disability and this was out first trip since the elimination of the blue sleeve. We were at the Denver airport and when they called for preboards, my son and I walked up and stood next to the people in wheelchairs and I made sure that I was holding the boarding pass so that the preboard message was pointing out.

The gate agent was working alone and took two folks in wheelchairs one by one. When she returned from taking the second wheelchair down, she went directly to the intercom and welcomed the A1-A15 people (there was a third person in a wheelchair but I guess this wasn't her flight). I said something like "Wait, don't forget about us" to her to let her know that we still needed to go. She was extremely condescending and said that we weren't boarding now unless we were pre-boarders. I showed her the boarding pass and she got even nastier and said "Didn't you hear me? I already called for the pre-board passengers?"

I try to stay even keel around my son, but she was so freaking mean. I snapped back "We came up and stood in line with the wheelchairs. I don't know what else you expect me to do?"

I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and I will just assume that she was at the end of a long day. But that said, the lack of blue sleeve makes it impossible for a gate agent to tell if a person is standing there cause they don't know the boarding process or if they have an invisible disability. Of course they shouldn't get crappy with a person, but I do understand how there could be uncertainty on both ends.