ijgordon

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.

SamOF

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?

moondog

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.

JonNYC

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:

Uncle Nonny

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 $/Ł2000 claims tend to affect the bottom line.

JonNYC

Well, that brings up an interesting question; is anyone here under the impression that the situation in the OP is very common/epidemic/etc?

I definitely know that I've seen a couple of threads here where people walked up to closed aircraft early BUT in the ones I personally recall-- very much unlike the OP here-- the passenger was actually late (too late check in or too late arrival at gate/bad connection where GA assumed pax wouldn't make it, etc.) That's my recollection anyway, off the very top of my head.

Further, based on input I'm getting, I simply don't think that this is a very common occurrence *at all* (vs. overbooking scenarios, etc., etc).

Anyone under a different impression?

C17PSGR

I don't know how common it is, but in my recent experience, my flight arrived late to MIA -- we were at the gate 25 minutes before my connecting departure -- since I was at the front and the flight was just a couple of gates away, I was at my gate at least 15 minutes before departure. The door was closed and the GA's were inside the jetbridge (and didn't come out until the plane had pulled away) so obviously boarding had completed at least a few minutes before that. Plus there were several non-revs at the gate who told me they hadn't gotten on but that a lot did so the gate agents must have been clearing well in advance. I'm presuming at least 15 or so non-revs got on since several others from my flight arrived at the gate after I did.

I do find OP's situation strange ... the GA should have seen he checked in at the airport, might have been paging him, and don't understand why the GA didn't just book him on the next day's flight.

MSPeconomist

moondog

I want to say NO, because if it was common, our community would have called it out en masse. My thinking is that the OP's friend was extremely unlucky.

I don't have enough words of praise in my vocabulary for the OP, but I am extremely appreciative for his diligence in this case. In spite of the fact that this is a 1 in 10,000 event, he managed to get the attention of AA. This is a great benefit for all of us.

ETA: I, honestly, do believe that the OP's pushing will positively affect AA policy (e.g. if one of my customers called me out on an idiotic business practice, I would implement changes immediately). Let's wait and see, but I want to thank him, regardless of whether or not this is the case.

dflanagin

yeah I would just stay tuned to the situation because things are happening even faster in private right now, just....stay tuned

serfty

Kidding aside, there are limits.


Imagine what would happen at Hubs and MCT if schedules were all padded by another 15 minutes - bookable (but risky) connections would no longer be bookable.

Ldnn1

c5ruzr

The airlines would probably love not having as many misconnects and IRROPS issues in that case. Though I guess it would come at the cost of a less attractive timetable with longer connections, especially compared to direct flights.

ijgordon

ijgordon

Well I save mine. I checked a few - online BPs and airport-printed. Nada (for DL).