Originally Posted by
jsloan
What's "in time?"
Given the 40 minutes you quoted, I suspect she meant "before the plane departed," which is not "in time." Nor, necessarily, is "before the doors closed." She needed to be at the gate 30 minutes prior to departure for an international flight.
While it's correct that positive passenger-bag match does not apply when the separation isn't caused by the passenger, UA is still within their rights to mark her as a no-show if she wasn't there at T-30. (If there was an upgrade list, you can rest assured that
#1 on the list was counting down the seconds to T-30, also).
I'm not actually sure the exact moment she arrived, but it seems highly likely she arrived under the T-30. Of course, that wasn't what was quoted to her (she was told shec couldn't be separated from her bags). So if she had arrived 31 minutes before departure, she would have supposed to have been boarded?
The EWR flight went out with open seats in J...
From UA.com (
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...t/process.html)
When do I need to be at the boarding gate?
For flights within the U.S., all customers must be on board the aircraft 15 minutes before the scheduled departure time. We recommend being at the boarding gate at least 15 minutes before departure to ensure that you’re on the aircraft before the doors are closed.
For international flights, we encourage you to be at the gate no later than 30 minutes before your scheduled departure. If you are departing from the following airports, please be advised that you are required to be at the gate at a specific time before departure, as additional security or documentation checks may be required:
HKG is not one of the other airports. I don't see anywhere it says you are required to be at the gate 30 minutes prior to departure.