Doc Savage

One more reason not to check bags.

NovaEngr

Not to be snarky, but exactly how is the "at the departure gate by T-30" enforced? How does AA know if a passenger who checked in the night before is at the gate area at T-30 or not?

As long as a passenger boards before the door closes at T-10, I would think that is all that really matters.

AustinDiver

I understand the social media team is part of the Marketing, public relations, imaging of the company.

I heard the National Chief of The Order of the Arrow of the Boy Scouts praise AA Twitter team in front of 15,000 people at NOAC 2015 for how they helped solve problems.

I do not think they are the same organization anymore that got such great compliments. They will offer advice, and encouragement with issues. They gloss over real customer concerns. The positive spinning actually infuriated me and was not helpful. The advice given would have been solving/putting off he problem for them.

I was in an oversold International FC cabin without a seat assignment. AA attitude was wait until you get to the airport. I was first to book on a award ticket. There were others in the cabin that had just booked the previous weeks of loosing the assignment on the same MileSaver award that I booked. The only solution AA offered was to book me on a Chicago 777-200 flight that averages 2 hour departure delays. I had been scheduled on the 777-300ER for over 10 months.

Twitter team just kept glossing over the issue by saying the gate agents are great.

The Twitter team may have security concerns about who the are talking too, but they are not what was praised at the 2015 NOAC.

I should not have had to reroute because AA oversold the cabin.

Unfortunately, The impression that I get from coworkers is that all of the mergers have made the remaining top airlines pretty uncaring. It is not just AA.

JonNYC

There's some truth to what you're saying, obviously, and I can't discount any individual's experiences, but, no, personally I don't agree as a general statement as AA's Twitter team is still very engaged and empowered.

Goes without saying a very good % of the time (maybe even the majority, when viewed from the outside) it won't manifest itself as that. But, can't say I agree with your broad-stroke conclusion/assessment.

ijgordon

Check-in times are part of AA's conditions of carriage. Shouldn't whatever time was in the CoC at the time of ticket purchase be what is in effect?

If I purchased a ticket based on the CoC saying 30 minute check-in and then AA denies me boarding based on the subsequent (unannounced) change to 45 minutes, wouldn't that be a violation of the contract in the part of AA? Not a strict IDB I suppose, but warranting some type of compensation?

If AA can individualize, say, baggage allowances based on date of ticket purchase, surely they could individualize check-in cut offs.

Austin787

It's not really a rule, more like a recommendation. AA usually starts boarding at T-30, sometimes earlier, which is why AA strongly encourages people to be at the gate at T-30 to ensure they get on the plane. You could, in theory, show up at the gate as late as T-11 but that is risky - you could get on the flight or be denied boarding because they gave your seat to someone on standby (happened to my Dad a few times).

ThreeJulietTango

That would be my guess as well.

Of course, being hub-based, I've been used to the D-45 cutoff time for as long as I've been flying AA so this is no noticeable change to me.

The passenger needs to be on board by D-15. The five minutes between D-15 and D-10 are spent dropping seats of no-shows and clearing standbys. There was a whole thread about someone who arrived at D-12 to find that they had already been dropped from the flight: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-hosed-me.html

That would probably be more trouble than it's worth for AA. Better to fight a hypothetical DOT complaint or two than to have to deal with the complexity of implementing such a system.

And since the check-in cutoff is based on when AA can more or less guarantee that you and your bags will make it to the plane on time, it wouldn't make sense to have different cutoffs for different passengers on the same flight. It's not quite the same as baggage allowances.

ArrVea

I wonder what the average airport arrival is for FT travelers is? I like to get to the terminal about an hour and a half to two hours before my flight, but then again I make it a point to get my money's worth of my lounge access.

rjw242

Also, if you're high on the upgrade list, not answering a page at the gate is a good way to get passed over.

IADCAflyer

Given that I almost always checkin in line, this isnt an issue. But i usually get to the airport one hour prior to departure.

cova

I wonder if you check in on line the day before, but then don't print the boarding pass, and go to the airport after cut off time - can you still print a BP?

Sometimes you don't have a printer. But I guess the best thing to do for a back up is email yourself an electronic boarding pass just in case.

cova

But you can always check the AA app and check your upgrade status.

Recently I was already boarded on a flight and at about T-10 - I then got upgraded from viewing the list on the AA app. Someone then boarded and had my old seat.

But issue was gate agents did not come down for 15 minutes, so I had to tell the FA and stand and wait as there was two seats in F.

Unfortunately, at DCA the former US agents are not as good as the former AA agents and things like this happen more on the new AA.

LaserSailor

It's a sex religion and politics topic. There is a chest thumping contingent here who want the world to believe there time is so important that an extra 10 minutes times 365 flights per year ruins their lives, but the reality is real people don't OJ through the airport routinely.

You can't time travel down to 10 minute granularity in any city of size due to traffic anyhow.

If you travel every day, you get the gate at T-30 if you don't want to miss any flights.

rjw242

Yeah, it never hurts to have backups. I always get the PDF version emailed when checking in online, and/or take a screenshot of the app BP. Saved my bacon on more than one occasion.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Given the long lines at PreCheck now indeed getting to the airport at T-30 is a high risk, particularly large airports when you may then need to walk and/or take a train to your gate. I personally would never purposely do anything under T-45.