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.”