Originally Posted by
Dave Noble
1 late passenger or 26 : either way the OP seems by own admission , to have arrived at the gate within 15 minutes of departure after the flight had been closed
I didn't miss that there were more passengers, however that has no impact on the validity of a complaint against being denied boarding
The agent may well have no authority to re-open the flight and should just simply state to passengers "sorry , you arrived late and flight is closed" and not invent some stupid reason - I fully agree there - I just don't see what great outcome would occur complaining about the stupid reasoning
Passengers actions also may not help encourage such honesty - will the passengers then simply accept that they have no valid complaint or start whining and picking things such as the aeroplane still being there - it's not their fault they were late - its unfair - the agent is reasonable rather than simply let the agent rebook them
There is an inherent accountability that flight operations takes when thinking through their decision to pause inbound flights short of the jet way as they jockey flights and gates , all of which causes the passengers who have to get off to be delayed and unable to connect. To simply state the 15 minutes rule, while technically accurate - is to ignore the basic rules of customer service. Shutting the door to a plane that is on the last leg of its night, in lieu of 10 minutes to allow the litany of flyers who were scheduled to board, is short sighted. I know - you or anyone can point to the rule book that technically they are allowed to do this - but add to the decision the need to 1. Rebook these passengers 2. Push them to next available flight At 1:00pm the next day. 3. Risk the optics of the plane sitting there, docked and not pushing back for 25 additional minutes. The decision to close a flight like that, regardless of who made it, was a poor one. This is especially clear given the ludicrous excuses the GA floated to excuse the decision.