Warnings of Basic Economy
Over this past weekend I was traveling with a friend who had purchased a basic economy ticket on United.
We arrived at the Premier Check-in @ Sea-Tac about 5 minutes before boarding was about to commence so about 35 minutes before our flight time.
I understand that this cutting it entirely too close, but this was our situation and we know that is on us.
Neither of us were checking a bag.
Due to basic economy restrictions they would not print my friend a boarding pass even though we were not checking bags and could have still made the flight.
Proof that we could of made our flight***
I went through security and tried to get the GA to print my friends boarding pass with his ID at the gate and then return to TSA with his boarding pass. The door was not closed but they understandably would not issue a boarding pass without him present. I had to try anyways!
Why there is a time restriction on issuing a boarding pass when no bags are being check seems beyond me.
After exiting the secure side to go work out what we were going to do with my friend we had a great premier checkin agent (different from our original checkin agent that could not get him a boarding pass). She was able to re-route us on the "flat tire" rule. Even though it was an unpleasant red-eye departing 8 hours later to a connection the next morning we arrived at our final destination.
This ended up being a success after a mistake on our own part but it seems silly that we could not get a boarding pass for my friend when we were not checking bags.
Has anyone else run into this time restriction on United Basic Economy?
Has anyone else had success with the "flat tire" rule?
Thanks, Austin