zrs70

Centurion

This is what happens when an Airline locks down the computer system so much that common sense overrides can not be completed by a customer service representative.

donotblink

Sounds to me like something else was going on, this doesn't sound like an Easy Sabre issue. More likely, the pastor and the 39 other people had to wait in line before being served, and then it took a while to get through everyone's passports.

Dave Noble

I don't think that there is enough information to make a determination

According to https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/arrival-times.jsp , AA recommends that passengers arrive 90 minutes before departure - it seems that they were more than 90 minutes before departure

It is unknown whether they had to queue , and if so for how long, before they reached the check in desk

Once the passengers had boarding passes, did they all wait at check in desk or did most of them make their way throug security - if the former , then not waiting would have got them to the gate in time for the flight ( if they really missed it by 3 minutes )

It does sound like the passengers did do what they should have done by getting there nearly 2 hours before departure

CPRich

It will be interesting to hear the other side of the story.

Checking 40 people with luggage in for a flight happens every single day. The fact that they were together should be irrelevant.

Trying to check 40 bags under one person's ticket is idiotic.

CPRich

Pretty sure Leon, Mexico is outside the U.S.

Pedantically, no it didn't.

Dave Noble

Except that they were flying TO Mexico, not checking in in Mexico

They were not outside the US

Centurion

I read that the CSR issued boarding passes for everyone and then was going to put all the bags on the group leaders ticket. This could have been done back in the day but not anymore. I stand by my earlier post <<This is what happens when an Airline locks down the computer system so much that common sense overrides can not be completed by a customer service representative.>>

Dave Noble

I don't see how having a procedure that is supposed to be followed is not common sense

Agents should follow correct procedure and not be making up their own ideas on how they would like to do it

Agents shouldn't be able to normally override procedures that are in place

If this was the cause of their missing the flight, then it sounds like it is AA's fault

C46

40 bags pooled - the respective Station GSC should get smacked over the head, with a full AOSSP-printout, for allowing such bullcrap at his station!

Uncle Nonny

Refund everyone's ticket.
Pay the added hotel and meal expenses.
Offer vouchers to each passenger.
Stop doing idiotic things like this to customers who follow the rules.
Be proactive instead of reactive. Issues should not have to make the internet before they re resolved in a common sense manner. For every occurrence such as this one, there are dozens that go unnoticed by the general public.

jordyn

Seems like basically every AA employee they interacted with did something silly. One agent suggests the bizarre procedure of doing all the checkins and then all the bags which seems like a bunch more total work than just doing a series of regular checkins. The next agent tries to check 40 bags against one person. Then the GA decides to hold to a technicality on boarding time despite the fact that it's a HUGE group, they have checked bags already on the plane, and it's almost certainly slower and going to delay everyone else on the plane more to pull 40 bags out of the hold. What a dumb, lose-lose decision. Maybe the GA gets to claim the plane left "on-time" this way, though. (Good job AA execs! If there's ever proof of "you get what you measure", this is it...)

Seems like a series of bad customer service interactions by AA. Hopefully they're doing a lot to make it right, but probably they're not.

dave_261

This is what I don't get. I would imagine if a group of 40 is at the gate before the plane has pushed back- and the luggage is in the hold- any reasonable captain would override the GA and the group board. Surely the captain had to know 40 expected passengers weren't on board. I suspect most of us on FT have had a plane held for far fewer people.

Of course, we only have the 1-sided view from the group, but if what they're saying is reasonably close, it's hard to believe a GA would rather try to rebook 40 unhappy people than simply let them board.

IADCAflyer

I'm going to hit a lot of fault on closing the door without allowing the group to board. We're talking a large group - not one or two strays.

Common sense is lacking here.

Uncle Nonny

Factor in that the GA knew they were checked in already. It's amazing how airlines continue to find creative ways to screw things up.