You can claim EC261 for weather, its been successfully done in UK courts before. They would still be breaking contract, nothing in the CoC or AA International Rules says "A pilots decision to depart early voids liability for all previous agreements."
It's also a customer service nightmare, why didn't they just rebook him for free. Their answer, "You were on an economy ticket, sir."

Here we go:

At the risk of beating a dead horse, you should send Ms. J. the boarding pass image, which clearly states 10 minutes. Like most people, I don't read the COC (which isn't even available on many booking channels), but I do read my BPs, and consider the information printed on them to be reliable.

In terms of legal angles, the TX AG would likely compel AA to refund your friend the change fee in a heartbeat, but I'm thinking he might be eligible for EU 261 IDB compensation. As such, please check out this thread:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...61-2004-a.html

Yes there have been some cases that have been successful but they are not rulings that creates a precedent as the circumstances need to be taken into account. There is still no ruling at the EU level (which is what really matters) that says weather is no longer an exemption.

And yes airlines can try and depart earlier if all pax are on board. If a pilot wanted to try and get away early because of expected bad weather the airline should be paging passengers to try and get them to the gate. And these days with apps and text messages etc it's even easier to contact a passenger and encourage them to get to the gate in such circumstances - there are threads raising this on Flyer talk usually often complaining they were called. But if it does leave a passenger behind then the IDB provisions would apply and I wouldn't expect an airline to fight a compensation claim in such circumstances.


I don't know what the US legal system would say but in a UK district court (Money Claim On Line) they would more likely find in favour of your friend due to the confusion over the various cut off times and whether a reasonable person would understand what they meant and where they needed to be by specific times.

a BA BP from a flight I took this week says 'Board at 1815' but not what time the gate closes - which I know to be 1835 for a 1855 departure but someone else might not

Time for airlines to have a look at what they print on BPs.. They can't rely on passengers knowing the CoC or remembering what a check in agent told them.

I would write back asking to speak to someone. Clearly the back and forth isnt working in text.

I find it amazing that, given how much AA has locked down things a GA can do, they allow them to offload a pax and push a flight 20 minutes early.

Especially given that the check in agents dont always know the rules. One recently tried to not check my bag in claiming the cutoff was 1 hour :rolleyes::eek::mad:

Even if my friend had known the CoC as intimately as I do now....I still feel like he could roll up T-15 and at least expect to be rerouted for free if they had to depart early for any reason.

I assume 100%, it was definitely the most basic economy ticket.

Several passengers minutes later boarded after me. They closed the door after accounting for the last passenger.

Another interesting comment from the GA is how millenials board up until the last minute let's say T-11. And I consider myself a millenial. :D

Setting aside anything on a boarding pass, what is the rule on when you have to be at the gate for an international flight?

For example, I arrived in Miami a few days ago on a delayed flight at 1034 PM. I was up front and ran over to the gate for my connection and arrived there at 1040 PM. The connection to Santiago de Chile was scheduled to depart at 1055 PM.

Of course, by the time I got to the gate it was sealed tight and the GA's were no where to be seen. There were a couple of non-revs standing around saying the plane had gone out full and was closed. So obviously, they had given away my seat well before 15 minutes before departure.

It doesn't sound like going through normal channels is going to get your friend anything at this point. My suggestion would be maybe send an email to Doug Parker (well, his staff) directly or see if JonNYC​ can give you some offline advice/contact/magic.
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I actually just called the 1800 number and asked the customer service rep at what point they could deny boarding on an international flight. She replied 10 minutes. I asked her in what cases would a plane could leave 22 minutes early without a checked in passenger, she assured me that wasn't possible!

I then gave her my claim number and told her to internally pass the recording of this call onto the folks handling my case, and I wrote an email to AA support directing them to my phone number.

Anyway, we are still obliged to give them 14 days of warning as to our intent of action which we sent yesterday, so they have 13 more days. Still waiting on official CAA support to submit as evidence, too.