Sister in law's connecting flight left 15 minutes early without her
 

My SIL is pretty upset since her connecting flight left 15 minutes early without her and several other passengers. American was able to get her on the next flight out, which was around 2 hours later. :mad:

Does she have any recourse? I've heard of passengers getting bumped off a flight. But it's strange that American would decide to just depart early without all passengers on board.

So you are saying that she was not at the gate and ready to board 20 minutes before the scheduled time?

Please follow this thread in the AA Forum
Thanks..'
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

What does https://flightaware.com/ show as the departure time vs scheduled time?
The time to be at gate is not the same as scheduled departure time.
A flight leaving 15 minutes before schedule would be unusual.

Yes, leaving 15 minutes early is very unusual. You didn't mention the airport. It could be weather was headed in and the captain wanted to get off the ground quickly. AA got her to her destination so not much more is due. A complaint to AA may get her some extra miles, but that depends upon the agent dealing with it.

AA knows very well if a passenger is on a connecting flight and will often hold a flight especially if there are several connections. It may be her flight was showing as delayed and they knew they had seats on later flights to accommodate those left behind.

Again, have her contact AA and lay out the facts to see what they will do.

This is from the conditions of carriage... Which also state she must be at the gate and ready to board 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure.

I'm going to guess it's unlikely she's entitled to anything considering how close she cut it. If she arrived at the gate on the right side of the 15 minutes, maybe she'll get some miles for the inconvenience. AA still got her to her final destination, so they held up their end of the bargain regardless of whether or not she was at the gate in time.

1. Was this domestic or international?
2. Was she at the gate reader at T-15, or could it have been just after T-15.

If domestic, AA requires passengers to be at the gate by T-15. T-14 doesn't cut it. If international, it's T-30 and she was 15 minutes late.

As soon as all passengers at the gate have boarded and T-15 has ticked by, AA is free to close the flight and the aircraft can push as soon as authorized.

She may or may not have something to complain about, but it likely comes down to seconds and the GA has to close the flight with keystrokes which are recorded by time.

I'll find more information about my SIL's flight and then update this thread.

This was a domestic flight and I believe she said around 5 people also missed the connecting flight. They got to the boarding gate 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure time and the attendant would not let any of the passengers board, said that the flight already left.

More likely the flight was closed

A good thread to read is http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html.