I’m just going to come out and say it here: no, a family was not denied boarding on American Airlines because they were Jewish. Shame on this family for–who arrived late to the gate–for trying to blame their tardiness on antisemitism, a very serious and unfounded charge.
Rude American Airlines Passenger Claims He Was Denied Boarding Because He Was Jewish, But He Was Really Just Late…The Gate Agents Were Rude Too
Let’s review what happened and then I’ll offer my thoughts:
- The incident occurred on April 21, 2025, involving American Airlines Flight AA1011 from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA).
- A Jewish family—comprising a father, mother, and three children—was traveling from Cancun, Mexico, connecting through DFW to LGA.
- Upon arrival at the gate, the family was last in line to board. The passenger immediately ahead of them was allowed to board, but the family was denied boarding.
- A supervisor informed the family that the boarding door closes 10 minutes before departure (“D minus 10”) and that they had arrived too late, despite the door still being physically open.
- The father did not accept that explanation and questioned whether their denial of boarding was due to their Jewish identity, claiming, “We didn’t get any other valid reasons for it.”
- Per the father, the family was on “legitimate tickets” and not flying standby.
- The father recorded a video of the incident, which was shared on social media and garnered significant attention, with millions of views across various platforms.
I’ve personally seen situations like this many times over the years…Airlines generally close flights 10-15 minutes before the scheduled departure time to finalize paperwork and prepare for departure, which can result in passengers being denied boarding if they arrive after the cutoff time. AA’s “Automated Reaccommodation Tool” (AURA) likely rebooked them before they even reached the gate after they stepped off their Cancun flight late…a separate issue AA must fix if it wants to be a leading carrier. Many have suggested that the passenger allowed to board ahead of the family might have been on standby and was cleared at the last minute, just before the flight was closed out. I see no other possible explanation in this case.
You can see in the video that the “flight closed” signs were already on display in gate area monitors. It’s only after the final boarding cutoff that passengers who have not shown up in time are unseated and standby passengers who were hoping for a seat are seated.
Folks, this is what happened here. And it’s disgusting that this guy would try to blame antisemitism for it… especially when there is so much real antisemitism, prejudice, and racism that exists in this world (like when American Airlines removed all the black passengers from a plane because one of them reportedly smelled, even though they were all unrelated).
I think the gate agent could have explained it better (most folks don’t know what “D minus 10” is) and holding a flight for late-arriving connecting passengers is a great customer-service move if it does not delay the arrival of the flight (airlines generally pad schedules). The gate agent also should have helped to rebook them…the customer service was poor.
But please…in a deeply-divided country full of mistrust, please don’t cry wolf. Shame on this very rude man. Shame.
Absolutely agree with your take.
This was a systems and procedures issue, compounded by poor customer service and a jerk of an entitled customer.
This sort of thing creates noise that keeps us from being properly outraged by real bigotry.
Trio of unpredictable : Cancun , Dallas , and AA . Cancun likely was the most unpredictable of all three .
They ought to be relieved they fled Cancun .
I’m not sure how anybody can tell what happened here from our limited vantage point and any conclusion is just wild speculation. I have no idea whether they were denied boarding merely because they were late, or because they were visibly Jewish and otherwise would have been allowed some leniency to board – and neither does anybody except the gate agent. I will only say that it hardly seems inconceivable to me, particularly given that we know not only the very high level of antisemitism against American Jews in the United States at the moment, but because of actual cases of discrimination in aviation that have been proven in the fullness of time after review of all available evidence – including but not limited to at least two instances of proven antisemitic discrimination at Lufthansa within recent memory.
@Mak … The Lufthansa contretemps with the haredim escalated because (a) the haradim’s behaviour was unusual in the eyes of the German crew , who tried to establish rules ; (b) the German manager’s decision to ban them from their connecting flight was unusual in the eyes of the Haredim , as they were being themselves .
Two perceived unusuals do not an understanding make .
They were not denied boarding because they were jewish. They were denied boarding because they were assholes.
Treat other people like shit, then don’t expect them to bend any rules for you. It’s not complicated.
Well, the dad certainly projects “asshole deluxe”. Posting images of the standby passenger’s face is evidence enough of that. I’ll wager he’s the type whose neighbours cross the street to avoid him, and gets banned from local businesses because of his obnoxious behaviour, which is no mean feat in New York.
Problems with automatic changes is the computer does not know if you are a fast person who gets off the plane quickly then runs to the gate or someone who is slow. The difference can be 3 minutes or even 10-15 minutes. Once I was on a business trip and the colleague was a slow person. We missed the connecting flight but if I would have ran and not have to wait for the colleague to use the rest room, I would have probably made it.
The AA policy of bAAning gate agents from re-booking flights but forcing online changes is bAAd.
Correct. I agree.
The passengers were actually there at D-10.
However, the American Airlines rule is you can lose seats at D-15. And that’s what happened here, even though the gate agent said the rule was D-10 and that boarding had ended which it had not. Their seats were given to standby passengers.
“it’s disgusting that this guy would try to blame antisemitism for it…I think the gate agent could have explained it better”
It’s a normal passenger trying to make sense of something that clearly did not make sense to them. Their inbound connecting flight was late, they rushed to make their connection AND THEY MADE IT before doors closed and before boarding ended. So they could not understand – and the gate agents did not explain to them – why they were being denied boarding.
I think ‘what about me could be causing this otherwise absurd situation’ is a natural reaction, though in this case clearly not a correct one.
And I think you understate the extent to which this was terrible customer service by the gate agents. They should have explained the 15 minute rule, that the seats were given to other passengers as a result. They didn’t do this and that’s why things escalated.
I would have much more sympathy for the family if dad had not acted so uppity and rude.
They’re frustrated, they think they are getting hosed, and they’re being treated rudely by the gate agents.
This is not the textbook way to respond! But I get it. Family travel is stressful as it is. Layer this on top and the dad wasn’t maintaining composure.
Do you realize how ridiculous you sound you don’t have sympathy for children because you didn’t like the way their father acted. This is not unusual Jewish children have been dehumanized for millennia including the Holocaust and 10/7. Many posters with the Bibas babies were ripped down across the world. But you should be ashamed of yourself Matthew Klint for having the audacity to say that you don’t have sympathy for Jewish children.
That is a huge stretch. This has nothing to do with tbr kids being Jewish. Matthew would’ve probably felt this way regardless of the race, religion, ethnicity, and nationality of the people involved.
David, you are out of line. Aaron is correct.
My assessment has nothing to do with this family being Jewish.
For the record, I’ve been called a genocidal colonial oppressor for my support of Israel’s campaign to permanently destroy Hamas, no matter the cost. Don’t even try to infer what you are inferring.
Your intro says they were denied boarding for being Jewish. A “not” is missing
It does not seem it’s related to anti-Semitism; I wasn’t there for the whole interaction. But I will say this for certain, if that plane had room for that passenger and his family, then the gate agent is a dope. It would have been ENTIRELY possible to put them on the plane. It would have meant a delay of 0 minutes.
Crappy CS, American.
Flight had closed, and the passenger manifest had been finalised. Read the note under the tweet. The line must be drawn somewhere.
I beg to differ…. From my personal gate experience, “that flight will leave ON-TIME’ is the mantra, otherwise I”d have some ‘splaining’ to do. Anything else (customer service, etc. ) is secondary to say the least. It may not be pretty but that’s the reality that management sets up.
LOL- You’re saying a zero minute delay ? Come on, with a FAMILY trying to seat themselves with children and already full overhead bins precluding storage of their excessive carry-ons, necessitating gate checked bags or further antisemitism complaints when the A-hole arrives @ LGA without said bags. These things have a way of blowing up in one’s face. Ever heard of the expression ‘no good deed goes unpunished ‘ ? His fate was sealed with his A-hole attitude and deserved what he got, even though I personally would like to just get his arse on the plane to not have to incur his ranting aftermath … Too bad.
They should be more educated about identity politics rules.
If they were Black, Brown, Native American, follow a non-Judeo-Christian religion, or anywhere on the LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum, they could certainly blame the denial on discrimination, and any enlightened person would agree that the agent was bigoted and oppressive.
But Jews are not considered a marginalized group, and denying them boarding after the cutoff time is clearly justified.
“If they were Black, Brown, Native American, follow a non-Judeo-Christian religion, or anywhere on the LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum, they could certainly blame the denial on discrimination, and any enlightened person would agree that the agent was bigoted and oppressive.”
Can that be proven though with statistics involving similar cases and incidents witb people from tbe groups you have mentioned?
Also as you can see from his own video that he posted, context has been added:
His own video has the following attached:
“Readers added context
The woman in front was likely pre-cleared on the flight from standby. The family arriving late (board says “Flight Closed”) missed the manifest lock.
Federal Rules: FAA/TSA require a final manifest before takeoff; adding passengers after that is not allowed.”
The only thing that could have been handled differrntly was maybe for the AA staff to try explaining it along those lines.
@Brother Uri … unrelated or irrelevant fearfulness exists among groups of humans , regardless of the situation .
At the same time , all humans ought to exercise cautionary thought before accusations are leveled .
I’ve seen plenty of visible minorities turned away by airlines because boarding, check-in, or other cut-off times were missed by the travelers. Most normal travelers — family in tow or not on the way home — just don’t assume it’s because of bigotry even when the airline employees are discourteous and failing to give them a reasonable explanation for why this happens; but sometimes there is bigotry involved whether properly recognized or ignored by the travelers.
The whole “but it’s extra stressful with family travel” excuse doesn’t fly for me. Parents should be good examples to their kids, and exploiting stress from family vacation travel as a justification for being obnoxious toward the very people best suited to help is not only setting a bad example, it also risks being counterproductive.
What a stupid article in which you passed in judgement on an incident that you did not witness first hand nor did you interview anyone there. What the he’ll does this have to do with points.
Hell doesn’t have an apostrophe in it.
(and I watched the video, read his rant, and made an assessment, which, of course, I can do)
There are plenty of non-stops between JFK/EWR and Cancun. Those are always preferable to connecting flights, even if they cost more.
Yelling discrimination and not paying attention to the truth of this matter (while recording) makes me very unsympathetic. Forgive me but he appeared to be playing to to enhance his allegation of discrimination. I get he was tired ( and under better circumstances likely a nice person) but we have to know, we are best remembered for grace in our lowest moments. However many views he has received will never alter that.
Claims of antisemitism are rampant these days, and it seems often it’s a tool to advance some other issue. Criticize the Netanyahu government? Anti semite! Attend a protest calling for humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza? Anti semite! Have an open discussion about a controversial issue on a college campus that makes you uncomfortable? Anti semite!
It’s sad because it desensitizes people to actual antisemitism which is still a problem in some circumstances and among white nationalists.
As usual, leave it to the Jews to play the victim. With the amount of whining they do there would be enough hot air to provide heating in winter.
Clearly the gate agent was from Palestine and was doing jihad against these Jews
“ Upon arrival at the gate, the family was last in line to board. The passenger immediately ahead of them was allowed to board, but the family was denied boarding.”
Anyone could understand that these set of circumstances would be extremely frustrating. You have no way of knowing if these agents would have bent the rules had they not been visibly Jewish and although you claim you have seen the same thing 10-15 times I’m sure you have seen rules bent 10-15 times. This is not the forum that I want to see this debated. Stick to non controversial airplane stuff this makes you look really bad to me.
NO, YOU WEREN’T DENIED BOARDING FOR BEING JEWISH. YOU WERE JUST LATE.
You don’t know this is true. Nobody but the gate agents do. So I think this is a horrendous choice of topics to not only weigh in on but to have such a strong opinion. Certainly not a balanced narrative. You must think it’s easy being visibly Jewish in 2025 where folks are being attacked and murdered on the streets of the U.S. Yes you may be right. But you also may be completely and utterly wrong. Imagine if that was a non rev friend of the agents, how hard would it be to let them on whilst they hadn’t completed boarding. Again if you can’t be sure of something don’t bring it to press. This is not journalism this is speculation with the facade of accuracy because you state your case so strongly.
I’m confused – they rushed to the gate but the girl had time to go to Starbucks and get a drink?
“The girl” was a standby passenger waiting for a seat.
You’re absolutely right with this post. We shouldn’t cry discrimination when we’re not following the rules. I often tell my friends this when they blame anti-Semitism for every inconvenience.
As Jews, we’re not trapped in the past. We’ve endured immense hardship, but we continue to move forward. Yes, we remember our history, but our focus is on the future.
So when the flight attendants ask you to sit down and not hold a minyan Mincha in the middle of the cabin—especially when it’s right as they’re starting the service—that’s not anti-Semitism. Some airlines do allow in-flight prayer groups, but that doesn’t mean every airline must do so.
Calling something discrimination when it’s really just enforcement of reasonable rules—rules that apply to everyone—is irresponsible. It undermines real instances of prejudice and weakens the fight against genuine discrimination.
P.S. I also noticed the name of the account making this claim doesn’t strongly suggest they’re part of the visibly Jewish community, which makes me wonder whether this is a genuine concern or just an attempt to create drama.
I agree it’s unlikely this is religious discrimination.
But “because you were late” isn’t quite accurate and antagonistic with the word “you” in there. American Airlines was late transporting this party from CUN-DFW. That’s why they arrived at the gate late. Not of their own fault other than following AA’s published schedule.
Fortunately they were rebooked only an hour late, but who knows if they received comparable seating together.
Several years ago, I got myself out of Iraq and to Kuwait City, making my overnight Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. Late out of Frankfurt on United, arriving in Chicago two hours late. Cleared customs/ immigration at ORD after heavy scrutiny (likely because of my origin and the shooting war. I’m civilian, not military). Re-checked two bags. Changed terminals and got to the United gate where the plane was about to leave for my final destination. The door closed just as I got to the gate. I pretty much collapsed into a chair and the gate agent checked out my situation. Know what? They opened the door and let me board. Gate agents can make thing happen if they’re so inclined.
Flying is a combination of psychology, politics, and social problems.