It doesn't really matter - UK small claims do not allow ( except is special circumstances ) allow for any legal fees. The who system is designed to run without use of solicitors or barristers

If he is paying someone, then that is purely a personal cost and not something that impacts AA

<shark jumped>

Glad that the publicity put some pressure on AA, but sad that it had to go that far.

Not sure why he would need to talk about the offer with an attorney before accepting either, but I'm not an attorney, so would not rule out that there are things a good attorney may suggest here that are not obvious to a layman. Having a small chat with an attorney seems to be nothing more than prudent to do in this case, and is the intelligent choice. It would be nothing less than fair if AA also reimbursed the OP for all the work involved in researching and formulating his friends claim at a reasonable lawyer-per-hour rate, but I guess that's not going to happen.

I must be immensely satisfying for both dflanagin and his friend that after AA's obnoxious behaviour, both by the gate staff and others, AA finally are finally being forced to eat humble pie. Fabulous job by dflanagin.

Well done OP! And some of the comments by people that have escaped the clutches of their carers on the comments section of NQ prove that point that not all the lunatics are locked away. :)

I don't care about how much money was offered/accepted to be made whole. I care that AA rectify their seemingly inconsistent boarding shenanigans. Many of their GAs (and FAs) act as prosecutor, judge and juror in regards to what should be routine and defined matters. We constantly see AA reps go "jazz" at the worst possible moments and toss the script aside.

This is what I am hoping for. I am glad the OP and his friend are getting somewhere, but I think that AA should be sure to stop closing out the flight so early if people haven't arrived yet but have checked in for the flight.

That's not in the cards.

Every. Single. Point. Of. Emphasis. for AA for the coming months is improving on-time reliability-- an area where AA has seriously fallen behind. It's the #1 priority, there pretty much is no #2 or #3 . The pressure is unbelievable.

Expect more stories like this rather than less in the coming months. With the *hope* that the casualties of same (like the OP's friend) are treated far better. Although whether/if/how that happens I think the jury is still very much out on.

Boarding early and offloading at the proper time are not mutually exclusive. You can do both. Or, concept alert, AA can change they policy until they can actually improve on time reliability AND follow their own written policies.

You're talking about what we'd -like- to see happen.

I'm taking about what we -will- (and won't) see happen, in case folks are interested in that aspect.

Does anyone in Fort Worth see how myopic this is?

I'm guessing that most of us would be okay if they printed "t-30" on the boarding passes. I haven't flown any US airlines internationally in a few months, but iirc Delta and United use t-20 or t-30.

No need to beat around the bush with these 20-25 minutes too early departures then. Might as well depart a full hour early, to further improve on-time statistics. AA - so on-time that sometimes you will arrive before our scheduled departure time.

Or simply pad every single flight to take an extra hour an dthen brag how the flight arrived 1 hour early!

Kidding aside (sort of since years ago the flight times were generally alot less then published today) whats wrong with starting the boarding process early get everyone on board but No closing of the doors if even 1 person hasnt boarded till at least T-10 or change it to T-15 and no off loading till that time. Of cause if @ T-25 everyone going has boarded and no SBYs then by all means depart if they get the clearance that they can

sometimes a company gets caught smack in front of a single tree and misses the whole forest eg Ford years ago wanted to over atke Honda with having the bests elling car that they lost $$ on every Tarus they sold, Id rather have the least selling car and make $100 per car. So being able to get ontime performance way up there but at what cost? tahts the question and going from 1 nightmare and creating another one isnt an answer whatsoever