Originally Posted by
Often1
Impossible to tell whether the GA was correct without knowing the carrier and the fare rules for OP's ticket.
While it is true that many tickets lose their value if you no show (which OP was effectively doing), others may be changeable, changeable on the day of (SDC) (with or without smallish fee), or changeable for a fee + fare difference. No way of knowing without knowing the rules for OP's ticket.
Rubbish. OP says he was *boarding the plane itself*. He's ticketed, checked in, and has a boarding pass in hand: The airline denied boarding, pure and simple.
In fact, if they did, as OP says, cancel his ticket as a no show in between denying boarding and his eventually ending up back out at the ticket/check in counter then they've probably committed criminal fraud in that they've altered a document for pecuniary gain.
As to the specific issue, the FA was wrong and on most carriers has no authority to handle ticketing. The GA was largely correct if correct about the fare rules.
Not only unworkable to allow individuals to decide which rules they must obey, but it would become the immediate FT scam of the week (show up last to board with a bag and they will rebook you for free).
If they're going to deny boarding (if there's no space left for carry on & the pax has a boarding pass and legal carry on (on an airline that allows carry on, etc.) and the pax doesn't want to check the bag) then the airline should be finding another flight for them. Personally, and if this took place in the US, I'd bet cold, hard money that they could have pulled any number of oversized carry on bags from the overheads, checked them, and put the legal carry ons up there instead.
Originally Posted by
B747-437B
The "solution" to this is to agree to gate-check the bag, but to request your right to declare "excess valuation" of the contents to increase the level of carrier liability (and to pay the relevant fees mandated in the Contract of Carriage for the excess valuation). The airline is obliged to permit you to do this at the point of luggage check-in.
In every single case I've requested to do this, the agents back off pretty much immediately. It's easier to let you carry the bag on board than to deal with the paperwork for the excess valuation, which would almost certainly either delay the flight or wind up with the flight departing without you.
Note that this only works if you are within your baggage allowance and passage is being denied purely because of "space on board" and not due to non-compliance on your part. If your bag is too large or too heavy, I would not suggest you try this.
That. ^