Bumped due to misconnect?
 

I'm new to AA but I'm on well on my way with the Platinum Challenge.

A couple of questions:

What is the cutoff for passengers being present at the gate? I was on LGA-ORD-XNA today. LGA-ORD was 20 min late (aborted approach into ORD). I got to the ORD-XNA gate about 8 min prior to departure. The agent told me the flight left. The terminal displays were still showing BOARDING (as opposed to FINAL BOARDING). I couldn't tell if the plane gate was closed or not since the G gate at ORD itself was one level below the gate counter.

Was the fliight closed 7 minutes prior to departure or did the agent just involuntarily bumped me without compensation? Inventory was zeroed out the night before. Thanks.

You must be at the gate 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure.

http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?...ge.jsp#CheckIn

So you misconnected, you were not bumped.

Thanks. I wasn't sure if AA had a policy similar to UA where if a flight left full, any misconnects were automatically considered involutarily denied boarding regardless of whether they showed up at the gate or not.

That's when you look for clues.
That's one clue, but there are even better ones, such as ...Anyway, you misconnected. I hope you did make the next flight and that the inconvenience was minimal.

OP wrote that the incoming was 20 minutes late so he/she arrived at the gate 8 minutes before departure. This means that an on-time flight would have put you at the gate 28 minutes before departure. That's cutting it awfully close for a big airport like ORD. I always Just Say No to AA.com's suggested 31-minute connections!

In this instance, the flight was closed out. But since you were denied boarding due to a misconnect, AA is obligated to observe the usual AA domestic reaccommodation "Rule 240" niceties.

Link to aa.com Rule 80 / 240 reaccommodation policy


Link to FlyerTalk - AA thread

Turns out one of my collegues was on the flight. She confirmed that ORD-XNA was indeed oversold. That's why I found it strange they didn't do a final boarding page for me by name.

There's no obligation or should there be an overhead page for passengers not at the gate.

How do you know they didn't make a final boarding call using your name? (done just prior to closing the flight - up to 7 minutes before you even got to the gate).

-FlyerBeek

I overheard a ticket agent last weekend, ironically also at ORD, tell a customer that she had up until 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure to make it to the gate. Either way he wouldn't have made it in time.