makfan

US CBP is certainly not going to process 20 people at one time. For a while my husband and I couldn't go up to the window together as were strangers in the eyes of the US. I can well imagine a group of 20 having vastly different experiences inbound to the US.

I am with you. I can understand there are rules and time limits. I can also say that the very few times I have pushed these limits, I have always been accommodated better than this. I had a bad SCL-MIA-SFO experience when they had the old high-E gates with their own security. I waited too long at the AC to get in the security line and they were paging me for last call. That one was 100% my fault but I still was able to board.
I also had a connection at ORD where BNA-ORD had everything going wrong, including a jam of the elevator for the Eagle gate valet bags. I know I did not make it to ORD-SFO by T-15 but they let me board. They told me in BNA things did not look good for other flights to SFO or SJC that day.

jordyn

As I said before, just because the rule exists doesn't mean it has to be enforced in all circumstances. And in many, it is not. The GA has considerable discretion here (as you yourself acknowledge below).

This is absurd. Please cite the portions of the tarrif or conditions of carriage that you believe supports this position.

No one is arguing with what the rule is. The question is whether AA provided bad customer service or not. Believe it or not, it's possible to provide bad customer service while still obeying all the rules.

Moreover, as others have pointed out, AA chooses the MCT. If it is unrealistically low, it's a pretty crappy business practice to put the consequences of AA's own rule not working on the customer.

Dr. HFH

The fact that a passenger notifies an airline that s/he will be out of compliance with the published checkin time requirements does not does not operate to waive those requirements.


I agree with JD. Unless it's an airport I've never been in before, I rely on my experience rather than the published MCT. I (and I would venture to say that many FTers) know that MIA is somewhat of a disorganized hellhole. There's an airport which I avoid. And when I can't, I allow in excess of the published MCT.


Nor, I would suggest, could anyone argue with a straight face that 15 out of a party of 20 traveling together made it through C&I but the other five took more than a couple of minutes more to be processed unless there was some particularly unusual happening (like when the guy in front of me at Immigration at GVA turned out to be wanted by Interpol and the police responded when the Immigration officer scanned his passport). In the absence of the OP mentioning anything like that, it's fair to assume that there was nothing unusual.


This is true. Harsh, but true.


I think that it's important not to lose sight of this. AA did more than it was required to.


The rule isn't that the passenger must use his/her best efforts to be at the gate in time, the rule requires that the passenger actually be at the gate by the published time.


That's certainly true. But what do you make of AA's providing rebooking and a free hotel room when it appears that it was not required to do so?


Well, then you get back to 75% percent of the party having made it on time.

VickiSoCal

If only 75% of passengers can make MCT AA needs to revise.

ericgdukie44

Still not sure how 15 people made it and 5 didn't... particularly when considering that at least two of them apparently held first class tickets (and got off the previous flight first).

VickiSoCal

I hate to sound like a broken record but:

What line you get in, what agent you get, if you have luggage to be picked up and rechecked, if you have GE or pre-check, are all variables that can cause swings in time for an international to domestic connection at a US port of entry.

ericgdukie44

You think FIFTEEN members of a family of 20 had GE/PreCheck but 5 (including those in F) did not?

You think FIFTEEN members of a family of 20 flew from Ecuador to Chicago without checked bags?

The only reasonable explanation is that 15 are US citizens and 5 are not and had a longer line... and even if that's the case, it isn't AA's problem.

You know what would happen if they made MCT 2 hours or 2.5 hours? People would cry and moan about how AA wouldn't let them book such and such routing because it violates MCT. We'd never hear the end of people saying that they have GE and it's total Crap that they can't book the itinerary that they want and there's no way they ever need more than 90 minutes at MIA with GE. And then people would cry about how the award booking they want (EZE-MIA-random small town USA) won't work because of the MCT and why should they have to stay overnight in MIA when they are exceedingly likely to make their connection? And it would be even worse if there were 2 flights/day. Imagine MIA-ABC runs at 6am and 6pm, and EZE-MIA lands at 4:20pm. Now imagine the MIA-ABC at 6pm has sAAver availability every day, but 6am the following morning does not. Now they can't book the itinerary AT ALL because they violate the 24 hour rule, and they can't qualify under the Last In/First out rule because a <24 hour First out exists, it just doesn't have sAAver availability. People would absolutely lose their minds, especially when they sucked it up, paid more miles to book 2 separate awards, breezed through Customs in 30 minutes, and watch the flight they wanted to be on board as they walked past it on their way to their hotel for the night.

People need to take some responsibility for their own travel. If you're old and it takes you a while to walk through an airport, you obviously need more than the MCT... if you travel light and have GE, then obviously you can make a 60 minute connection. AA has a MCT (minimum connection time) not a GCT (Guaranteed Connection Time) in place to limit the number of people who miss connections. They actually PLAN on people missing connections when they overbook a flight, it's an integral part of their business model, and to say that they should adjust the MCT so that everybody makes all their flights is ridiculous.

/End Rant.

VickiSoCal

And the MCT should take that in to account.

RogerD408

20 people would not be allowed to approach the same agent at the same time. All 20 in the same line runs all sorts of risks too. Breaking the group up and taking different lines was a smart more. It only takes one "event" ahead of (or within) the group to cause a delay. Maybe some needed to do a bio break along the way and only 5 stayed behind. Many possibilities.

Bottom line, 5 missed the cut-off, AA staff was aware they were running late, GA chose to shut them out. Yes, within the rules. I'm having a tough time deciding if risking delaying the departure for everyone onboard vs the 5 late-comers better customer service or not. Now if I was one on those onboard, easy decision, if I was one of the 5, TOTALLY different decision.

ericgdukie44

Why even have/publish rules if they aren't going to be followed? If you're going to let everything be a judgment call at the gate, then just let that be the rule. But if AA is going to have rules, then they should be followed.

VickiSoCal

I don't have a problem with the cutoff. I have a problem with the people who think a missed connection of this type should result in a financial hit to the passenger.

pauleeepaul

+1000.

ericgdukie44

And how do we determine when the passenger was at fault for being slow through Customs and when they were not? Take their word for it?

VickiSoCal

Within reason yes, you have to take their word. I have made a tight connection while flat out running thru the airport. I am a regular runner who has recently done a half-marathon. Should everyone be held to that standard? How fast should you be required to walk/run before it is your fault?

rjw242

Let's be clear here: you (and we) get to determine jack squat. It's AA's call, and in practice they almost always do take the passenger's word for it in these situations. So those who salivate at the thought of severe retribution being handed down to slow connectors are generally out of luck.