I have a non-elite friend who misestimatrd traffic in ICT. Arrived 5 minutes before departure but needed to checkin. That obviously wasn’t going to work, and the checkin agent was also working the gate, so by the time she got back, she wasn’t interested in helping him. Even though it was still fairly close to departure time.

He texted me and I told him about the flat tire rule and he went back to her and quoted it to her and she finally agreed to rebook him the next morning. Sometimes I think agents enjoy the power trip of telling people to pound sand.