Originally Posted by
susanc
twitch76, There was no flight currently going out of that gate. The police officer clearly states, SW requested police intervention, the gate is trying to closed, passengers no longer have a valid ticket, they need to leave the secure area and proceed out of the terminal, or be arrested for trespassing.
My experience has always been to rebook via phone call, club agent, or at an in terminal gate agent. The last options all occurred within the secure terminal. Regardless of what may or may not have happened prior to filming, Nashville SW office made a nightmare travel situation worse for these passengers.
Edited to add:
As to how do the gate agents, disperse the crowd. The agents announce their gate is closing, pack up their things and leave. If their were threats, then the police officers could easily be available to escort the agents away.
They still had a valid ticket, and even as for TSA purposes, they had a valid BP. It doesn't become invalid just because the flight was cancelled. In fact, if you leave airside, you can still use the BP to re-enter. Even without IRROPS, one can use the BP of the flight they just flew in on, to enter security again. However, you don't get PRE benefits in this case.
Originally Posted by
twitch76
It’s not trespassing until you’ve been asked to leave. In this case, pax had been asked to leave. They didn’t. They were then informed of the consequences of not leaving. Let’s keep in mind that as far as we know, they were not actually arrested.
Handled badly? Sure. Worthy of some of the outrage in this thread? IMO, no.
The employees of WN had no legal right to have them removed for trespassing. They were not on company property. In this case only the airport could have them removed for trespassing.
Originally Posted by
ORDtoMEM
You could say the same thing about Dr. Dao but that didn't work out very well for United. Thankfully this didn't escalate to that level but anytime police are brought in to bark orders at frustrated travelers there is that possibility. How would the potential headline "Police bloody stranded Southwest travelers" look for the airline, no matter how wrong they were for not leaving the secure area?
Dr. Dao involved a passenger on United property (the plane). The employees (regardless of if was right to do or not) had the legal right to request police remove the passenger for trespassing. In this case passengers were not on company property. WN had no legal right to have them removed for trespass, only the airport could do that.