Originally Posted by SKJ traveler
I recently was returning from a conference (no way to check-in online) from San Francisco and checked in 43 minutes prior to my flight, and they would not let me check in. They stated that they have a 45 minute cut-off, and we had to wait 9 hours for the next available flight.
Wow, same thing would have happened to me because I feel so confident about that 30 minute rule. Nice of AS to arbitrarily come up with some 45 minute airports simply because they think you couldn't possibly make it to the gate.
Section III of the Contract of Carriage still has 30 minutes (20 minutes for PDX-SEA) without exception so you could push for IDB compensation. They may try to fight it so be sure to print out the online info from Section III with time and date or maybe they will claim that the contract of carriage on the website is not up to date which I think is even a bigger boo boo. There is nothing about cancelling a reservation within the 60 minute "airport arrival guideline" either.
I certainly feel bad for you. One second your headed to your confirmed FC seat a cool 43 minutes before departure and then the next second you are forced to wait 9 hours to depart to your destination.
