On Jan 3, I had an flight that came into DFW at 2PM, with an outgoing flight departure at 4:55 out of terminal A. With 2 hours (and then some) to kill, I went to the Admirals club in Terminal D, since the one in A is closed.

At 4:10, I made way to the Skylink to get to my gate in time for boarding (which was starting at 4:25). I got to the Skylink in terminal D at 4:15, and waiting about 10 minutes with a growing crowd of passengers as the Skylink trains zipped by without stopping. At 4:20, an agent of the airport comes in and tells everyone that because of a 'security breach', the skylink wasn't stopping there (how that makes any sense, I really don't know), and directed everyone to walk to terminal B's skylink station. I held back and confirmed with the agent that the second stop in D was also closed, and was told yes, we had to go to B.

So, family in tow, we hoofed it over the skybridge to C and grabbed a truck-operator to drive us to A20 with a few other passengers going on a different flight. When we got to our gate, the agents had the door closed when we arrived at 4:45 at the gate. Not sure how long it was closed (technically, we should have seen them close it if they actually followed the 10 minute rule), as there was already two parties that were out-of-breath and in mid-argument complaining at the gate agents.

The gate agent told the family in front of us, that because they originated in DFW, it was their fault for not being in the gate on time and they had no priority on rebooking and would have to 'standby' low on the priority list until they could get on a plane. Apparently, they had the audacity of eating in Terminal D and got stuck hightailing it to B where they catched the skylink to get to A.

The gate agent told us, that because our incoming flight arrived at 2, we should have been at the gate by no later than 2:30 and would have made the flight so it was our fault (his words, seriously) that we missed the flight. (by the time we got done arguing and got our standby boarding passes, the plane was just then leaving the gate at 5:05).

All told, there was about 8 parties/15 passengers that missed this flight because of the same reason. After us, the gate agent told everyone else to go to customer service (a line, that looked about 45 minutes long).

We got on standby for a flight an hour and a half later (at a gate in Terminal D, just two gates from the admirals club where we started). On the skylink back to D, the one stop was still closed but the other one (to the south) was open (not convinced it was ever closed to begin with). I met a nice ederly lady who was going to high D gate for an international flight, and we couldn't convince her that she needed to get off at the stop on the low D gates (after zipping by the closed stop) -- I hope on her second time around she finally got off!. I talked to the admirals club agent once back inside to see if we could get seats confirmed, and she, at least apologetically, couldn't and told us to go down 10 minutes before boarding. Other than this disappointment, the admirals club staff was on their A game.

We ended up being three of the 4 passengers cleared out of list of more than 20 people long on that flight, and the plane left with at least three open seats still! Oddly, they removed a random guy seated in front of me just before we left the gate. (why?, was the plane too heavy?)

So, I guess a few lessons:

1. At DFW, if the skylink fails you, AA claims it is your fault for not being at the gate hours in advance of boarding and doesn't give two yulelogs about it.
2. The skylink stations can close for 'security breaches' and nobody may tell you for 10 or more minutes if at all.
3. The doors will close earlier than 10 minutes prior to departure if that is what the gate agent wants to do.