briantroutman

Thanks for the responses, everyone—lots of interesting points to consider. And perhaps there isn’t one answer but a patchwork of different circumstances the lead to this situation.

But for most of the explanations that have been offered, there’s still something that doesn’t make sense to me. As mentioned, in most of the instances I recall, the result is no action: No one presses the call button or speaks up, no one is escorted off, and the FA’s and GA’s expressions and body language don’t seem to suggest “there he is” or “oh, that explains it”. The FA asks for Irving Farquhar, several seconds of silence and blank stares follow, then it seems almost as if they shrug it off.

If the head count was off, and that prompted them to look for someone who was checked in but whose boarding pass was not scanned—or a CP holder who might be missing—I’d expect someone would be escorted off or they’d have to keep recounting until the number of passengers matched what it was supposed to be. Perhaps the FAs are simultaneously recounting and figure out that the total is correct so they cancel the search. But although I’ve seen passengers escorted off for unknown reasons, it’s never been after the FAs called for a passenger by name.

I’ll have to pay closer attention on my next flight.

fiuchris

In > 95% of these instances, it isn't that a CP or thru is missing or that the count is off. It is simply ops coming down to verify that any checked-in and unscanned passengers are not on board. They will do a few terminal pages and then cancel the boarding pass. This is done at the end of Cs to try and avoid a miscount (before it happens) or to clear standbys on a full flight. They could wait until everyone was seated, but it's done earlier to save time in the turn.

fiuchris

No action just means the passenger isn't on board, the count will match once everyone is seated, and the flight will leave without that person.

lougord99

Thank you for your many posts to this board. Your insider knowledge is appreciated.

But the question remains, why doesn’t Opps absolutely know whether that person has passed their station and boarded.

fiuchris

It's to double check. In a perfect world, there is 100% reliability for scans. In practice, scans can be missed for many reasons - both human and computer - so you want to check that missing pax are actually missing. Missed scans are not unique to WN. As someone mentioned upthread, we can't check the seat assignment so we do a passenger page; thus on other airlines passengers are just less able to know when this is going on. Personal example: last year I was #2 on standby for a DL flight to SJO with 2 open seats ... until their gate agent went on board and found that those two pax were on board but hadn't been scanned or been scanned properly.

briantroutman

If that’s the case, then everything about the scenario (the lack of response, the FA’s and GA’s reactions) makes perfect sense.

Thanks for the insight.

phllax

We had friends on 5414 between LAS-BUR yesterday. They were told to keep their BP's after being scanned by the GA for some reason. Once onboard, they were told there's a discrepancy between the physical count and computer count. Everyone was told to deplane, but to leave their belongings on the plane. Once everyone was off, the re-boarded, again keeping being told by the GA, "You better hold on to these (BP's)", and got off the gate 90 minutes late.

rsteinmetz70112

I've had a few flights recently where they told everyone to keep their boarding passes or that they were going to give them back after scanning. Then on the next flight they'll collect them all. It seems random to me. No one has ever asked for them after I got on the plane.

captaink

^

Just about every time I'm at DAL, I hear "[Passenger name], Please return to gate XX, this is not your final destination, this is Dallas" and so on. This is the logical result of giving thru passengers the option to stay on or leave the plane, but the airline not knowing which they chose until the flight is boarded and ready to go. I'm curious how many are Hidden City cheaters vs simply confused.

I've also had the pain of sitting through while they do a manual ID check of everyone on the plane because one person boarded but their BP didn't scan correctly, and that same person didn't respond when asked to ring their call button, so they gave his seat to a standby, who boarded the plane to find...no seats.

joshua362

The through count, BEFORE boarding commences is supposed to prevent / uncover / resolve this long before its ready to go. Although I once caused a discrepancy but STAYING on the plane and it was like pulling teeth to get someone to listen to me...

Given the "hub" that is DAL, especially before the Wright Amendment repeal, it bet a lot of Hidden City "legal" opportunists took advantage hence the overhead paging.

I just don't get given the TSA security theater & no fly lists and accurate FAA required manifests, how scanning errors & "whoops" are tolerated and shrugged off so frequently.

Either:

1 - the scan is valid,
2 - it didn't scan and can be fixed/overridden right there manually (say a paper crease prevents the read)
3- the PAX is sent away to resolve the problem and/or to get another one.

Yeah, it might slow the line down a tad (only to wait more inside the jetway) but its got to be better than ID'ing the entire plane. Maybe subway style turnstiles are next...