Originally Posted by
GUWonder
It might not be clear to you, but it's clear to others that there were some who were certainly on time for check-in, checking luggage and got to the gate while passengers were still boarding.
Are you really this ignorant of boarding practices on trans-Atlantic flights from Europe or are you deliberately glossing over the details?
After your BP is scanned for the final time, you go into a departure lounge to wait for the actual boarding. There is often no additional scan at the gate itself. However, the flight can be closed out and passenger manifests printed, transmitted to immigration authorities, operations, whatever, while the pax are still boarding from the departure lounge.
No matter how timely you might consider your last minute arrival to be, if they've closed out the flight and started printing the manifests, they're not likely to scan your BP & let you through.
There can pax waiting to board 20 feet from you. If the flight is closed, you're not joining them.