Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave

I can see why you say that, but my own view is that seems that you are possiblly taking the clause out of context: it modifies clause 2 (about check-in times) and relates back to clause 1 (scope). There are a number of reasons in the rest of regulations why airlines can legitimately deny boarding and they aren't superseded by the clause that you quoted. Most importantly that the operating airline is responsible for its own actions. If you took your reading to its logical conclusion, it would imply that all flight would have to be held, even across alliances, for as long as it takes. That definitely wouldn't be the correct reading of that clause.

Originally Posted by FromGVA

I thought that the connection time was two hours LAX .How could the passenger got an 1.35 minutes connection ?
When i travel LAS-LAX-LHR i always put a 3 hours connection in LAX .

Originally Posted by Nyghtwing

All I can say is that I am only going by what I've been told by a BA Duty Manager at LAX when I questioned why we weren't allowed to us the airside transfer bus anymore; we were allowed to in the past.

Originally Posted by Enigma368

Lots of good points here. I think the salient facts are:

2) The BA flight was likely oversold. Only roughly 10 of 30 passengers made the gate on time, yet they seemed to completely run out of both economy and wtp seats, which I think is why I ended to up getting a CW seat. Had all 30 passengers made the gate, they would probably have had to deny boarding to some or upgrade many more to CW. CW was not full. I did not officially get upgraded to CW btw, I ended up getting 3 different boarding passes for this flight - none of which were for CW - but in the end I had no seat and cabin crew just shrugged and let me sit in CW.

3) The BA flight was actually delayed to 9.47pm from early that morning. I get an email with every change to the est. departure and this did not change again until about 8.50pm that night, when est departure went up to 9.56pm. Only at 9.20pm did it go back down to a 9.35pm departure.(it then went up again presumably because of us) They may not ever have taken this delay into account or maybe they felt the LAS flight was going to be too late regardless.




Sorry if I sound like I am beating up on AA/BA. BA staff were actually very good and seemed to handle the situation quite well in the circumstances. AA staff were trying to be helpful but we ended up getting such conflicting advice from cabin crew and then ground staff, that it made the whole thing feel very messy. My main criticism really is that imo we had enough time to make the connection and yet were offloaded without being given that chance. It felt like maybe someone had pulled the trigger a little prematurely, but then maybe 9 times out 10 in this situation, we would not have made it.



Yep, this matches my recollection. I was one of the first LAS passenger to arrive at the gate and yes they seemed to be boarding the last few stragglers. The fact though is that boarding was still open when we arrived at the gate so technically we arrived on time. BA staff initially said we would not be allowed on but I think they relented pretty quickly and I cannot really fault their handling in what were difficult circumstances.

I was not involved in any shouting or major kicking off btw....I just politely said that I felt it was unfair if I would not be allowed on given I had arrived on time. They then issued me a new BP without much disagreement. I think the main group of LAS passengers arrived after I boarded and that the discussions may have gotten more heated then. I was actually seated for about 20minutes before the rest of the LAS passengers started appearing.

Originally Posted by springsdxb

It is good that the AA crew were very proactive and informative. That is not always the case so I guess the airport manager for AA/BA made a call based on their previous experience. Connections ex LHR also need to be taken into account for the remaining 400 or so pax onboard.

Originally Posted by Tbase100

..It is clear that people who were transferred to another flight would be entitled to compensation by the operating carrier, even if ticketed by a third party airline.

Originally Posted by Nyghtwing

I believe the BA flight was fully booked or very near capacity, not oversold. CW was left with several empty seats on both levels of the aeroplane (I was in CW upstairs, and my colleague in CW downstairs confirmed this). When those thirty or so transferring passengers were offloaded based on advice communicated by AA, it opened up space to onload standby passengers, wherein their standby hold bags would be loaded after the t-60 check-in deadline, but the flight was only at capacity in First, WTP, and WT to my knowledge.

Originally Posted by Nyghtwing

I think you probably boarded before I did, but there was one lady in particular from the group that was clearly getting emotional (shouting and crying) when the group were told by the gate staff that they were offloaded. Several men in the party then started in with the staff, which is why I stayed to watch. It was only after the decision has been made by the gate Duty Manager to re-open the flight to accommodate the group (which occurred quite quickly if I'm honest), that I left to board.

Originally Posted by Nyghtwing

I do have a question for you however? As I only tend to usually go by the BA app for flight timings, and I know the app posted an initial delay early in the day through to the early evening when the incoming flight went airborne from LHR. When the flight landed (earlier than estimated), the app soon reverted to an on-schedule departure time of 21:35. So I am curious to know what site you use that emails you to inform you of flight time changes. Could this have been compromised whilst you were in the air? That is, unless you paid to use AA's onboard wifi. Just curious.

Originally Posted by Nyghtwing

Honestly though ... glad you made it.

Originally Posted by ukgooner

What's not really mentioned is how good AA are at giving you your new boarding passes and vouchers for hotels as you leave the plane for these types of situation. They do this by making a judgement call while you are in the air then having everything ready for you when you land.

If they didn't then these 30 people could have been queuing for ages to be individually handled.

Originally Posted by Globaliser

If this group hadn't managed to (figuratively) push their way onto what it sounds like should have been a QF bus, AA's judgement call would probably have been entirely correct for all 30+ pax.

Originally Posted by porphyra

With the JB, things get a little more murky here as revenue (and presumably some costs) is shared to a large extent.