Have they ever reopened the door for you?
 

I was sitting at my gate last night in ATL waiting to board. Across the terminal was a flight to TUS. The posted departure time was, I think 8:16. At around 8:09, the last pax boarded and they shut the door. The board changed to reflect the next flight, and the GA walked away. At 8:11, 5 pax arrived, red-faced and out of breath. There was a lot of confused looking about and walking back and forth. When they spotted the a/c still attached to the jetway through the window, they commenced to pounding on the gate door. It took a couple minutes before they gave up and walked away. On the one hand, it was sad, because it was probably the last TUS flight and they were going to spend the night instead of arriving at their desired destination. On the other hand, it was funny to watch.

I've arrived too late to board on a few occasions and it's never done any good to point out that the jet is still there and I'm there before the official departure time and it's the airline's fault that I'm late, etc.

So, have they ever opened the door for you? How hard did you knock? :D

Yes. Years ago I was flying ATA (which I vowed never to fly again) out of San Juan after disembarking from a cruise ship. If you've ever been in Puerto Rico's airport on a weekend, you know that it's jammed with thousands of people who are tired, cranky and just ready to go home after their 7, 10 or 14 day cruise, but they're forced to sit in the airport for a few hours until the arriving flights bring the new batch of cruise ship passengers. The terminal is loud, hot and there are kids running around. It's generally unpleasant.

I'd snagged a seat about 8 rows from the gate, but with my back to the door of the gate, while I sat, waiting for the boarding announcement. I reguarly turned around, looked to see what progress they were making at checking people in (this was pre-9/11, so some were still getting boarding passes at the gate) and I'd go back to reading my book with one ear cocked for the boarding call. Finally I turned around and realized that they'd boarded without using the intercom...

In a very noisy airport, the gate agents yelled out that they were boarding the plane!

I immediately rushed to the gate, started to raise hell and demand that they open the door (the plane hadn't pushed back yet). (We were flying to Chicago and there was only one flight daily, so I didn't want to be stuck, and didn't trust their interline agreements.) I was joined by a woman with two young children who also hadn't heard the boarding call. After a few minutes, and conversations between the gate agents and plane, the door was re-opened and we were allowed to board.

It seriously made me question the judgment of ATA staff...who in their right mind would attempt to load a plane in San Juan without using the intercom? Or maybe they didn't have the ability to use the airport intercom?

(This was not the first time I'd had reason to wonder if ATA lacked clout to use airport facilities. Once at MDW, I'd sat on the plane for several hours while they attempted to get a refueling truck to fill a plane. At PHL I'd disembarked and found that their flights weren't listed on the arrivals boards so you just had to track down an agent to find out where baggage was...and the people meeting you--again pre-9/11--had to do the same to find your gate. It made me serious question if they had the same problems getting attention from maintenance and ATC. So I stopped flying them years ago.)

Not reopened it, but AA has held it open for me when my inbound connection was delayed. A call to the EXP desk took care of it.

Had it been more than a few minutes, I don't know if they would have. Since the chances are more than 100:1 that I'll be one of the folks in the seats the next time I'm near a situation like that, not the guy on the electric cart being rushed to the gate, I kinda hope they wouldn't.

Once in Feb 1995. Four of us were traveling and simply running late. We got to the gate, door was closed but they reopened it without so much as a word.

A couple of years ago flying AS from SNA (Orange county) back to OAK. Arrived at the airport 30 minutes before departure time and got held up at the check in counter because agent told me computer wouldn't put me on so she put me on the next flight (Even though the computer wouldnt let me on, she could have told me to go to the gate anyway and they would have allowed me on :mad: imcompetent agent, anyway) So I arrived at the gate for my original flight and saw the door was closed (still 15 minutes from departure time). There was still a gate agent at the counter so I told her what had happened. She told me to get to the airport earlier next time and made a phone call and reopened the gate for me :D ^

America West circa 1994. Incoming flight was delayed and ran like crazy at PHX to make the connection. Apparently they called ahead from my incoming flights gate and when the gate agent confirmed I was the missing passenger, ran ahead of me & opened the boarding door.

What I do remember is I actually got a couple of dirty looks from passengers as I walked towards the back of the plane which was odd to me as it was maybe a couple of minutes late in pushback.

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space have been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

Yes, the door was reopened for me this May. NWA at DTW.

Yes, I was thinking about that situation too. But my thought today was: do we *really* know the door was closed and the jet bridge moved before they got there? I can't remember how certain it was that it happened. They do a lot of creative editing with that show. There might have been something in there that made it a certainty that I'm forgetting. Maybe someone else remembers more clearly.

I think it was Amazing Race 7, the one right before the family watered down edition....

Not once, but twice, for the same flight
 

Not for me, but saw it happen twice on the same flight before pushback. EWR-MAN this May. First time it happened - six pax got in at the last minute. Second time - they had to offload a ground personnel that was still on the a/c beyond the departure time - I must say her manager looked pretty ticked off at her.... lol

Reopened so I could get OUT
 

It was with BUZZ (the defunct BA subsidiary) at some horrid satellite terminal they bus you into at Stansted I've never been to again since.

Unlike everywhere else in the airport, all the gates at this satellite have the same number, it's the accompanying letter that's different. I arrived late with just hand luggage and managed to catch up with the last stragglers, hand in my boarding pass and get into the plane. Only to find out it was going to Venice and not Milan. They opened the door for me and I joined the end of the other queue for my flight which was leaving about 10 minutes later.

When I was in college, I did study abroad in London. On my way home, I flew LGW-IAH-LAX. We were late leaving London and by the time I cleared customs in Houston, I only had a few minutes to get to my connecting flight. I ran as fast as I could, passing a few other people running to catch the LAX flight. I ran up to the gate as they were closing the door and yelled for them to wait. They quickly escorted me on and I got some dirty looks from the first class passengers. Apparently there were about 10 people coming off my LGW flight scheduled to be on this flight and they were waiting for us. I was the last person allowed on and they closed door behind me. Of course my seat was in the back so I had to walk down the aisle of shame... with people whispering, that's the person we are delayed for!

One time in the eighties, we were late to LAX.

From the flight deck, the captain could see into the terminal. The captain took one look at the motley crew I was with...

We had been up all night partying...

The door was still open as we walked down the jetway.

The captain made the decision to close the door and not allow our party to board.

In hindsight, it was the right call.

We were in no condition to travel.

(And we were going LAX-MIA and then on to bermuda for the wedding.)

But the groom was with us and took it hard -- he burst into tears -- begging to get on the flight. pounding on the side of the plane until they pulled him away...

He never ended up marrying that girl...and I think he ended up paying about 20 grand in lost deposits for wedding stuff.

Not to go into too many details, but once in the early 90's in Sao Paolo upon landing and taxiing short of the pier, the plane stopped, I was rushed down some stairs thrown in a van, raced back out to the active taxiway where my connecting planes door was opened the internal ladder was extended and I climbed aboard, the door was closed and wthin two minutes we were airborne again. Both were commercial jets (flights) and it was the best transfer that I've ever had.

Just once for me too. The first flight went to pot. First a major power outage at the airport so we sat in the dark for hours while the a/c refuelled manually and so very late at the start, then at the transit in SYD we had an aborted landing due to another a/c on the runway so circle round and rejoin the queue. The same plane transit was also longer than expected since this was just after 9/11 and they hadn't yet set up decent screening for transit pax and we had lengthy walks to temporary screening station and back (previously there was no need to deplane so all involved not really used to the new situation and what it meant in time to transit). So arrive at BKK hours late thinking no hope of making connection on to MAD via FCO. We stop on the tarmac, stairs pull up and they start reading out lots of names of pax in groups. Each group went down the stairs to waiting bus to be driven across to one of the lined up waiting a/c also on the tarmac. Open doors to let pax in and close before immediately taxiing. (We then had further delays at FCO - transit security an even longer trek out and back then one hour on the taxiway waiting to take off.)

Besides this, I've had several times the door has been kept open for me and close in behind as I board.