meechyathere

MSY-CLT is not an 'international flight' as per the guidance of when to arrive at the gate - the domestic guidance of 30m applies.

Boarding group and time is not relevant - just because someone is in group 1 does not mean they need to board with group 1.

Singling out pax on intl. itineraries to offload seems to be a strategy occasionally used - which is puzzling because there is no justification for it per the policy as gate arrival requirement is the same as for domestic.

They can't seem to decide whether the 30m gate arrival for domestic flights is guidance, or in fact policy. It appears to be implemented selectively, on a case by case basis.

WeekendTraveler

Was the departure at 10:55? If so, by AA�s own rules, it could give away your seats after 10:40, which it did. If the departure was at 11:00, then AA could give away your seats if you hadn�t boarded at 10:45.

Lesson learned: it�s necessary to push through a crowd (figuratively) and get on board, and arriving to board after the scheduled boarding start time is risky.

I am with you- this is infuriating- but this kind of thing happens to all of us. I guess the upside is that next time we�ll handle it differently and we�ll luck out with an upgrade or something.

LovePrunes

not meant snarkily, I'm just genuinely puzzled why you're here commenting or even reading the AA forum if this is the case?

separately: has the OP actually revealed the exact scheduled departure time? All the comments on here seem like they're trying to do the math to figure it out instead of working off what time of departure was.

AirborneLocksmith

Scheduled departure time was 11:00 AM.

Dave Noble

The guidance on AA's website is 15 minutes for a domestic flight and 30 for an international flight as linked to above - the guidance is different to AA's CoC

jayer

Quality summary to live by. We can quote boarding pass language and CofC to each other all day. But operationally boarding usually starts early, and often ends early.

If nobody is left in the line they start working standbys (some of whom will, at that point, have higher status than you). Frustrating, and I have been caught by it too. Some things just are. (But I doubt other airlines are that much different).

s0ssos

They are different. Like Alaska.

Collierkr

probably the same reason you read this or any other forum. To observe and learn. In this case adding more to my portfolio on why I don�t fly AA.

so let�s make this relevant� what would you have done if you were the OP?

LovePrunes

i guess to start I wouldn't have been so passive. Realizing boarding was almost done and some guy is just standing there fiddling with his phone (and apparently preventing me from boarding) while the clock is about to strike midnight, I would have said "Excuse me, are you boarding?" and then moved around him once he said no. What would YOU have done?.

lowfareair

It sounds like it was less "one last person in the boarding lane" and more OP being a low group number but trying to board a few groups after it but a gate agent offloaded OP despite people still actively boarding.

gators93

At the very best, the OP got to bag drop AND gate at the very minimum requirements. There is clearly discussion as to whether AA jumped the gun by 2-3 minutes and I'm not sure who is correct. OP had a stroller and little ones usually slow folks down and distract them. From what I read, they weren't ready to board, making the unfortunate false assumption that the phone absorbed guy in front of them was in line. All the ATL based costs OP incurred were unilaterally decided and AA is not obligated to pay these. OP asked for advice. I would advice to get to bag drop and gate more than a minute or two before the deadline (or possibly in this case a a few minutes after the website recommended times), especially when traveling with children.

Kacee

It was misconduct by the GA. I'd be getting bounced from flights weekly if this was the norm.

BSBD

I�m confused here - so, they marked you as �no show�, denied boarding, the reservation was canceled, and then AA transported your bags, not only domestically, but INTERNATIONALLY? On a no-show canceled reservation? Is that what happened?

I thought that wasn�t supposed to happen - ever.

js1993

The first flight was domestic and the second might have been treated like IRROPS, depending on the timing of the cancellation and/or the lack of seats.

BSBD

I’m not sure what you mean. On the second (international) flight, the PAX would have been canceled automatically due to the “no show” on the first flight . Lack of seats would have had no bearing on this.

My point is, I do not think (unless there has been a rule change that I am not aware of) that AA would have been permitted to transport the bags to Canada, and they should have been off-loaded at MSY anyway due to the no-show, especially with the international itinerary.