Originally Posted by
raehl311
And the same result applies: If someone assaults you during your 2 AM campus walk, there will be legal repercussions, just like if United IDB's you even though you were there on time.
I guess it's a question of whether "legal repercussions" balance the trouble you've faced.
Using a more extreme example, if you cross the street with a walk sign, walking within the marked crosswalk, and some speeding car flies through the red light and hits and kills you, the driver will still face legal repercussions. On the other hand, you're still dead.
While certainly nowhere near the same scale of consequences, the difference between showing up 30 minutes before the flight and 21 minutes before the flight is, in this case, the difference between making the flight and not making the flight but having UA face legal repercussions. Are UA's legal repercussions enough to compensate for the passenger not making the flight, and all the subsequent issues that causes?
I see this as a problem with society in general. Too many folks think only in what's legally necessary (or what they think is legally necessary) when just a little bit more prudence would save a lot of trouble on both sides.