Originally Posted by
js1993
There's no excuse for the rude behavior, but the problem with your theory is that if the mistake was on the part of the GAs, it seems they would have gone out of their way to rebook and make him happy. It sounds like it was an actual glitch** and the GAs were confident nothing could be traced back to them if/when the inevitable complaint is filed.
Maybe your relative had zero interest in 2.5 hours in Y, but I'm not sure I would've missed my flight over this, especially with the long resulting layover.
(** I recall similar reports here recently of people being checked in on the app but then being told they weren't checked in at the gate. It does appear to be a possibility, as odd as it seems.)
My understanding is that he de-planed at the advice of the flight attendant (since it was early during boarding, and there was still plenty of time), but during the discussion outside with the gate agents, they suddenly closed the door mid-discussion without warning. They then refused to re-book him, falsely claiming there were no confirmed seats available, only standby. He did not intend to miss the original flight. Fortunately, it's a Saturday, and he didn't have anywhere he had to be by any certain time today, but it's still a significant inconvenience.
I think I spotted at least one report recently here about seats suddenly being dropped (perhaps at CLT?) -- I'll see if I can find that thread to compare stories. Hopefully this isn't going to become a systemic issue at AA.
The rude/dismissive behavior of the gate agents, including their tone, closing the door suddenly mid-conversation, lying about seat availability on subsequent flights, and failure to re-book a confirmed seat, will undoubtedly generate a complaint -- hopefully, as part of that process, we can get some information about exactly why the seat assignment was lost.