A passenger flying American Airlines out of Orlando Melbourne International Airport says he was effectively removed from his flight thanks to understaffed and unresponsive employees. “Rules are rules.”
- He arrived at the airport roughly 50 minutes before departure—within American’s published 45-minute cutoff for checked bags at most airports.
- There was no one at the check-in counter. Eventually, an employee emerged from the back – he says that she was eating food as she came out.
- After handing over his ID, she told him he had missed the baggage cutoff by two minutes and could not check his golf clubs.
American Airlines Check-In Counter
Thinking quickly, the customer handed his golf club bag to his friend that had taken him to the airport to ship them separately and headed to TSA. But his mobile boarding pass had been deactivated. His electronic check-in was canceled.
He rushed back to the check-in counter, but once again there was nobody there. A TSA screener tried to help, taking his ID to the gate to try to get his boarding pass reinstated so he could clear security and fly – but he says the agent there refused. (Sidenote: screen shot your mobile boarding passes.)
Security Checkpoint
The passenger called American but they directed him to… airport staff. The flight was boarding at this point, but he went back to the hceck-in counter and the agent had since returned carrying Dunkin’ Donuts and a coffee, ignored him, and went straight into the back office.
Ultimately, he was rebooked onto a later flight. He had been flying first class, but was downgraded to coach since no first class seats were available.
- It seems to me that this is an involuntary denied boarding, entitled to cash compensation of 400% of the one-way fare up to $2,150 under Department of Transportation Rules.
- American would probably say that he failed to present himself at the gate 15 minutes prior to departure and therefore was a no show and not entitled to compensation.
He was checked in and at the airport in time – American is the one that cancelled his check-in because he tried to check bags in at what appears to have been 43 minutes to departure (which American’s systems will actually allow, even though it’s after the published cutoff).
Cancelling a boarding pass to prevent a customer from reaching the gate isn’t supposed to be an end-run around paying involuntary denied boarding compensation. American involuntarily bumps more passengers than most other U.S. airlines combined.
At small airports, check-in counters aren’t robustly staffed and where flights aren’t run throughout the day they won’t be staffed all day long. Agents may also juggle ticket counter, gate, and operations duties. American only operates 3 peak daily flights to Charlotte via their subsidiary PSA.
American Airlines Regional Jet
Still, if the passenger was present before check-in cutoff, leaving the counter unmanned was a failure on American’s part. And so was cancelling his check-in.
While the passenger tried to check bags ‘too late’ that’s also only because the check-in counter wasn’t properly staffed. He reports being in line waiting for an agent more than 45 minutes prior to departure. The correct answer here, since American seems to be ignoring the complaint, is to file with the Department of Transportation which at least should escalate the response that the airline provides.
Also be aware that American’s actual check-in cutoff times are more generous than what they publish on their website, and three years ago they finally programmed kiosks to be able to do what agents could do.
If you’re taking a domestic connection to an international flight, self-service kiosks will apply the international cut-off for bags. So if you show up for your domestic flight and try to check bags 50 minutes prior to departure, you’ll still need to see an agent.
If you miss the baggage cut-off time for your flight, think up a good excuse, be nice, and generate sympathy from the agent you’re talking to. It’s actually still possible to override even these minimums, but only “by a supervisor with a 7 sine in QIK.”
Dude needs to get to the airport earlier.
The SIDA badge office at BHM (Birmingham AL) airport used to play these exact games.
Fun fact; dishonest employees don’t like it when you loudly tell their supervisor about it in the next room.
At least they did it for donuts, usually, spite alone is enough of a reason… *sigh*
The real question: What kind? …Boston cream? Apple fritter? Homer Simpson style?
If he was already online checked in and still had time to board sans golf clubs why would his BP get deactivated? Security in small airports like that take maybe 5 minutes, 2 minutes with PreCheck.
No he was late. He arrived with a 5 min buffer, lots of other things could have also gone wrong. He should have managed his time better
That’s a pretty crappy way to treat a well-behaved, 1st class ticket holder who follows rules and has contingency plans – that would cost him a lot of money, but obviously that wasn’t a concern. Why wouldn’t you do everything to keep a customer that isn’t price-sensitive or an asshole to agents? This is why we’re all quick to pull out our cameras and record this crap – even those of us who don’t want to be annoying.
She should have shared her donuts with him at the very least.
@Katie gets it… sharing is caring.
Anyway, back to what matters… jelly donut? Old fashioned? Cruller?
Richard nailed it
A video of standing at the empty counter calling out for a service representative posted to social media might light a fire under someone at American.
Or not…
The lesson I learned by reading this. Make a video and video the time on the kiosk, if that has a clock. If not, the airport clock or departure board’s clock.
As a teeny share holder of many years with AA (ie. never a profit/check seen) this story sickens me, because to me this is NOT how we treat our customers, let alone someone paying a first class fare. The excessive imo gate check in/baggage check in times are clearly totally in the airline’s best interests to keep things moving and to strive for on time, which helps everyone in general, but we all know “stuff” happens to delay us and there was still plenty of time to help this person. I suspect, per the story that this is an airport where nonticketed individuals are allowed to go to the gates…since the passenger handed it off to his friend…but I wonder why (small aircraft?) it couldn’t just simply be gate checked? As for staffing, that issue was addressed. It’s possible I imagine that the staff didn’t get a break, maybe had low blood sugar, for whatever reason needed to eat SOMEthing to keep going and staying on the job since no one else was showing up or available….but one also has to be aware of the image being projected to customers. Or for crying out loud, offer the poor distressed customer a doughnut! Apologize, offer a reason for why you’re eating in public view. But wiping out the ticket? Not nice. Was this customer nice and the wipeout done out of spite? I don’t know. Where’s Uncle Bob? (Crandall)
By a few minutes? For a first-class passenger? Oh, hell no.
Every time a story like this is seen in *any* media, AA loses customers. The other majors are, in general, just better at running business.
The MLB airport Menzies staff that ground handles AA is just awful – rude, does things wrong all the time, and just lazy. I’ve seen the upgrade list cleared incorrectly a few times I’ve been there – skipping over #1 because #2 was at the gate asking if they could be upgraded, skipping over parties of two rather than asking them if they want to split. On the other hand, the Delta agents (employees, not contractors) are wonderful. That Menzies staff needs to get fired or trained to be professional!
50/50. I wouldn’t be a huge complainer in this scenario. Certainly wouldn’t be looking for national attention. If you travel with sports gear like I do, you miss some flights because of it
Should have bought a ticket on another later flight out of MCO, gone to AA gate and demanded to get on plane. AA agents would be in obvious IDB position at that point.
And, for those of you who blame him, you are part of reason we get crappy customer service and ridiculous rules.
Next time fly any other airline but American.
“Dude needs to get to the airport earlier.”
“If you’ve never missed a flight, you’re getting to the airport too early.” Gary Leff
Years ago I had a connectioning flight inAtlanta on Delta. My incoming flight was late, and the airline assumed I couldn’t make the 15 minute cut-off for boarding my connecting flight. I hustled and made it….but the aircraft had closed the door early and wouldn’t re-open it. It was the last flight of the evening. I requested denied boarding compensation and was denied. I asked for the contract of carraige and to speak to a supervisor, who was sympathetic but stated the airline would never honor the request. He pointed me to the passages of the contract that grant the airline broad discretion to alter the schedule. I could have made a court claim, but likely would have lost. Essentially, without an aggressive FAA or legislation protecting passenger rights, we’re all at the mercy of the carrier. The only rights we have are those that are enforcible.
He was blued, screwed, an tatooed by AA
There should be someone at the Ticket Counter as long as there is a Flight at the gate. That employee abandoned his/her position, which is wrong, and in my mind should be a matter for the Airline’s management to become involved. Each traveler is important, regardless of the cabin they will occupy. I would also suggest they speak with the gate agent to question why this traveler’s F/C seat was released prior to boarding. Ticket Agents are on the front line and as such, they have the ability and responsibility to make sure the customer’s experience begins on the right foot. It would have made a big difference if this employee had contacted the gate agent to alert them that the passenger was in the airport and on his way to the gate. Granted, things have changed in air travel, and the time posted and required for gate arrival and check-in are set for a reason. But, again the ticket counter should not be unmanned if a flight is still at the gate! This was unacceptable customer service from the start. The Airline should own up to this fact and offer some renumeration.
The actual quote from Reddit is “Finally, she walks back – yet she is holding a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts and a coffee, sees me and goes straight to the back. I’m sure ALL of this is on camera.” That’s different from “American Airlines First Class Passenger Shows Up On-Time, Gets Kicked Off Flight When Agent Vanishes For Donuts” Nowhere in the original story from Reddit indicates that the person had donuts in the bag. Not sure how can even state what was inside the bag. In general, I wonder if bloggers are purposefully inaccurate for SEO purposes.
As Mike P points out, this blog commonly promotes the “if you’ve never missed a flight, you’re spending too much time in airports “ mantra. So no problem, right? He’s avoided wasting his time. All good.
@No Aloha – “she’s holding a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts”
Thanks for the advice that we should be nice to them in order to be permitted to board our flight.
Show up to the airport two hours or more before your flight. Always print your boarding pass.
We seem to be only getting one side of this story. We have no idea if he really showed up on time (ROUGHLY 50 minutes?). We have no idea if he was nice or a complete jerk. Really no idea if any of what he said happened the way he said it happened. And, Gary, you want him to waste the department of transportation’s time on a situation that was at least as much his fault as the airline’s? AA does a lot of bad crap, this is the least of it, if it happened
Sorry, American… ya blew it.
Why have cut-off times if you’re not going to honor them? The passenger played by the rules, but you did not.. and then have the nerve to defend the incompetence?? This is why I don’t fly anymore.
I love that Gary takes this guy 100% at his word. No way he is lying to cover a mess up. Has to be true, right? Only reason someone would do that is if they advocate arriving to the airport as late as poss……:wait…..oh……now I get why you believe him.
@No Aloha – it was a Dunkin’ Donuts bag. I guess it could have contained her knitting or a portal into another dimension, but my guess is donuts.
Always print a boarding pass. Things can happen to your phone.
Maybe AA isn’t paying their agents for service after the cutoff time like the FA’s getting paid when they close the door?
That’s what happens when you fly American and show up to the airport with not much time to spare.
The deactivated BP is a problem here. Even if the customer “didn’t present themselves on time”, the fact that it was because the agent overrode their OLCI is a real problem and I’d argue that’s on AA.
That being said, AA has a real problem with that checked baggage threshold combined with undermanned desks. My brother got stuck in this situation once – they got to the airport in plenty of time but then got stuck with a massive check-in line for the first flight bank – which is itself often a problem if AA doesn’t open well in advance of the first flights (e.g. if the first flight is at 0500, a nominal 0330 opening time with a big line – even one or two flights that go luggage-heavy can get backed up – can be nerve-wracking).
As to the customer cutting it fine? That can happen for all sorts of reasons, some of which are entirely outside of a customer’s control. Traffic is the most obvious, but other things can happen as well.
Ten bucks we can guess the color and size of the AA person.