iadisgreat

I don't see what is so onerous about a 45 minute check in (at most US airports) in this context of boarding flights early.

s0ssos

Can you prove that? I thought AA had one of the worst on-time performances.

beachfan

jordyn

Most of them.

JetBlue, United and Delta's all have default bag cutoff times of 30 minutes. Alaska's is 40 minutes.

Southwest's is also 45, but unlike AA they're willing to late-check bags. (So is Delta; I'm not sure about the rest.)

Exec_Plat

deac83

I don't disagree with this but when I know the reality is different than the policy, I'll go with the reality.

Oddly aa.com give you more information than the app. i.e. app says departed, aa.com says awaiting takeoff.

At LGA, if you are in the aa club, you can see gates 1-5, I'll just take a look to see if the plane has come to the gate and start the clock ticking to get to the gate.

DOT has established the measure for on time departures to include closing the door, I'm not surprised that it leads to bad behavior that negatively impact the pax.

Athena53

Yes- this is what I hate. This past Sunday I arrived late into CLT from CHS- bad fog in CLT and they had to do a "precision landing"- we had to power down all our devices. So, we got to the gate half an hour late. It happens. I had 20 minutes to get to my connecting flight, which was posted on time. Made a breathless run through the terminal- and found that the inbound for my connecting flight wasn't even there yet. They finally posted a later departure time just before the original departure time.

It would certainly help if the app had correct info about flight status, including when a flight has started boarding.

NJFlyer_HOHO

I actually got refused boarding because I arrive T minus 15 mins before departure for an oversold flight PHL-BOS. I was trying to argue with the GA that I was supposed to be able to board because I was not late. But he insisted that "you were late".

ftoader

I was flying DFW to KOA on AA Boeing 772 last month. There were three of us flying from DTW with a connection time in DFW of about 1.5 hours. We decided to go to the American Express Centurion lounge to have breakfast and relax before the next 8+ hours flight (we were flying economy!). When we arrived in DFW, the connecting flight to KOA was showing at the same terminal where the lounge was, so short walking distance I thought. While in the lounge I checked the status of our next flight and it changed the gate to a different terminal. I panicked a bit not knowing how long it will take to reach the gate and left the lounge in a hurry about T-40. It took us 20 minutes to get to the gate but when we were about 3 gates away I received a call from AA asking if we are still going to make the flight because everyone else was boarded. I told the GA that we were seconds away. When we got to the gate the GA was nice and joked with us. I was surprised they boarded everyone in such a big plane and wondered when did they actually start boarding. The flight left the gate a few minutes late.

rjg319

Based on what you posted yourself, AA's rules state that if you're not on board 15 minutes before departure on domestic flights, they can reassign your seat to another passenger. You can complain all you want, but they are following their contract of carriage if they deny you boarding at T-10. I agree that "bothering" you at T-20 is a little excessive; however, it was a courtesy call from a gate agent who was probably trying to get the flight out early (as you also mentioned). The fact that you ended up departing late could be due to the fact that the aircraft lost the opportunity/window for an early departure while waiting for that last minute passenger to arrive.

txirish

Assuming all the times are correct, the OP should have been allowed to board according to the airline's own rules. It doesn't matter if he was sitting in a lounge or racing from a delayed inbound flight.
Personally (flying UA), I'm always travelling with a roll-aboard so I get to the gate at or before the boarding time. I'm enjoying the relatively new 1K preboard policy - it eliminates the need to get in a lengthy Group 1 line. (The other day I saw a couple start the Group 1 line at T-60!) I like to get my gear stowed, headphones and work out, etc. before the crush. With UA, I find that boarding times vary by airport. I fly out of AUS, and it's common for UA to start boarding 5 (or more) minutes early. At their hubs and other airports, early boarding seems to be less common.

JALOO5-Flyer

AA's boarding process is really a mystery.
Situation 1: at LAX, left FL lounge at T-30 sharp heading to Gate 42B for a tcon flight. Took me less than 5 minutes on the way and when I arrived at the gate it seemed the majority had boarded and there's no line at gate at that time. Good thing about tcon was there's still plenty OH space in F.
Situation 2: at MIA. I was closely monitoring the incoming flight on flightradar24 as the incoming a/c was still held on the taxiway. The app showed "boarding now" despite the a/c had not yet arrived at the gate. Asked an AAgent at lounge she said it should board pretty soon you should head to the gate. Boarding ended up commencing 20 min after scheduled departure. That's way more than enough time to take a shower and grab some small bites.

jordyn

Eh, sort of. DOT does track that, but the primary statistic they publish is on-time arrival. The fact that AA obsesses about D0 is because they've chosen to focus on the metric they feel like they have the most control over instead of the one that their customers care about.

jensha

I have experienced this multiple times and missed two flights where the door was closed 20 minutes before departure time. And every time an unhelpful control-freak GA was involved.

jliehr

I don't have my boarding passes anymore, but I am pretty certain that both of my DFW-HNL flights and DFW-KOA flights have had boarding times on the pass at T-45, which makes sense with the larger planes.