It's very easy to do also:
https://www.transportation.gov/airco...umer-complaint

And note this:
How Do Consumer Complaints Help DOT?
Complaints from consumers help DOT spot problem areas and trends in the airline industry. Complaints can lead to enforcement action against an airline when a serious violation of the law has occurred. Complaints may also be the basis for rulemaking actions.

Here from Reddit too!
 

Good work OP!

Just out of curiosity, why in the world?

I find sitting on the plane to be as comfortable most of the time as being off the plane. I get overhead space for my luggage. etc etc.

I truly cannot understand this mindset (it is ok that you have it, just can't understand). Whether we are boarding group 1, 1st class, or 4, economy, I'm in line and ready to go. Different strokes I guess.

I never worry about bin space because I always check my bag.

Bus gates are pretty common here, and the last bus is a short bus with actual seats.

Since bus gates don't have power, the aircon doesn't work very well.

I also often wait to board until the end if I don't have luggage that needs to go in the bins. I spend too much time on planes as it is, so am in no hurry to get on ASAP!

This seems like...an unusual opinion. Can you really not understand why someone would be more comfortable off a plane than on a plane?

I can see that but at the same time I also recognize that many people feel otherwise (see gate lice/boarding scrum). Either way its a personal preference and neither option, boarding as soon as you can or waiting until the end of boarding, is an invalid choice. A passengers personal preference for when to board, so as long as they choose a time that's in compliance with the policies that AA and the customer agree to w/r/t CoC, is also not really relevant to the topic at hand IMO.

Update: Still no response from American Airlines, however my school’s press office reached out for comment and they just said: “we are sorry for inconvenience caused to Mr. Mascarenas and we are investigating the situation.” The NQ followed up to clarify what rule enabled the cancelling of Matt’s reservation, to which we have received crickets.

On the other side of things: the story has been syndicated and commented on everywhere all over the world; Vietnam, Australia, China, Europe, parts of the US, more every day. Hundreds of thousands of reads.

I did find this curious document, it’s a grid of all US carriers CoC restrictions/rules. Take a close look at AA’s required gate time....;)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.smart...uide_10_31.pdf

UPDATE: They have offered Matt $2000, he is waiting until he speaks with an attorney to make a decision.

What is the need for an attorney ? the amount that he is due is quite easily calculable and it either meets the requirements under EC261 or ir doesnt

I think that sounds reasonable and is likely more than he's legally due, EC261 would be 600EUR plus the money they charged him (~$300) would be about $1000.

That seems like a good offer to me.

What's the question? $2000 cash is clearly more than was due via EU regulation and the cost of rebooking. Take it and move on. IANAL, but I can't imagine any attorney would advise him that he could somehow get more than the already more that has been offered which is more than to which he is entitled.

You forgot what his UK attorney % (sorry OP couldnt let it pass,LoL, but everyone should have a friend to look out for them even 20% as good you have).

$2k more then makes him whole and leaves him with some extra $$, Id take it and move on

OP nice going!

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

Or at least we can decide whether or not to fly with an airline that may have overly onerous boarding requirements.

Delta doesn't mention boarding deadlines on their BP's or in their CoC, but the CoC references the times on the website, which indicate a T-15m requirement at US airports, and a T-45m recommendation at international airports. Sometimes agents will stamp a BP with the doors closing time, but not sure DL regularly does this.

But in any event, just post the policy and ABIDE BY IT. Nobody wants to have to guess whether or not they'll be accepted for their flight based on a GA's mood.

And don't get me started on AA's customer service "process" for when they do screw up.

Do you have the sense if there's any introspection about how other airlines (at least Delta?) seem to be able to handle both reliability and customer service? Or any sense yourself about why it's so hard for AA?

Since I don't save BPs, I can't say for sure, but I religiously check my BPs for boarding cutoff times, as a matter of practice. Basically, if there is a sports bar across the hall from the gate, that's where I want to be until the last possible moment.:D

Those are big questions-- and important ones-- so I won't bluff my way through and say I have any insightful answers there. I know AA was/is going to pad the flight times a bit more and a bunch of other steps to help (I tweeted a few things on the subject a few months ago when I was given some very interesting insights,) but the present focus on improving on-time stats is as intense as any time I've ever personally heard of.

here was that tweet:

And the reason AA cares so passionately about on time departure? It isn't out of altruism. It's their bottom line, whether customer migration or, more likely, the snowball effect delays have on their operations. Enough $/£2000 claims tend to affect the bottom line.