When you show up late to board your flight, you cannot expect a seat on it. An American Airlines Executive Platinum member plus a companion and child lost their seats after showing up late to board a flight in Miami, but have only themselves to blame.
American Airlines Passengers Shows Up Late To Board, Get Upset When Denied Boarding
Video streamed on Instagram shows a couple berating an American Airlines gate agent in Miami for denying them boarding on a flight. The agent, who remains calm, confirms the offloading, telling the passengers that departure time is 12.5 minutes away and they should know better as Executive Platinum members (AA’s top published elite tier).
The passengers, traveling with a child, push back, arguing that they are at the gate and the door is open, so they should be allowed to board. But standbys had already been cleared into their seats and the gate agent refused to reconsider and turned away to walk down the jetbridge and close the aircraft door.
While the police were summoned and sympathetic to the passenger, they also admonished her that creating a disturbance was not permitted.
In my opinion, the passenger comes off looking very entitled and very bad.
It’s Not A Perfect System, Though…
What I don’t like about the interaction above is the sense of entitlement and the poor language. There is no “right” to a seat on a flight once you are within 15 minutes of departure…the AA rules are clear.
I think there’s a difference between stepping off a delayed flight and running to make your connection and just showing up late to the airport or spending too much time in the lounge.
The 15-minute cutoff is reasonable to ensure an on-time departure and so my sympathy to this couple would extend only to a situation in which the delay to the boarding gate was not her own fault.
But if that were the case, they should have very calmly explained what was going on. The outcome may have been no different, but the result would have been sympathy, not scorn.
CONCLUSION
An entitled pair of American Airlines passengers thought they came across as the victims by shaming a gate agent who denied her boarding for showing up late to board her flight, but actually came across looking entitled and foolish.
The technology at American Airlines is also not as advanced as other carriers, making it all the more important to get to the gate on-time or early.
This isn’t Japan: you show up early to board your flight or you do risk missing it…
I would say white privilege but I’m not sure they were. Either way, thank you AA for following the rules and the agent for handling it professionally.
And F her for the “you are live on Instagram” garbage. Again showing not all flyers with status are decent people for the ten thousandth time.
Found the racist.
Did you look in the mirror?
I’m not the one using a racial pejorative.
Correct!
As an older white woman, let me assure you that racism does indeed exist, on each side of the black/white division. Even though we all share the SAME Creator, according to our nation’s many “Christians”. (Quote marks included 9n that words, b/c many are just faking faith).
The main difference between the 2 groups – black & white – is that 1 side is still understandably sore. For centuries, their ancestors were kidnapped, enslaved & brutalized. Then, even after being declared “free”, they were continually tormented, for NO reason that Jesus would find in any way acceptable.
The other side’s main reasons for feeling disdain are far less excusable. They reveal an utter lack of compassion, which Christ must find quite distressing. Seemingly, these folks resent other humans for refusing to be slaves. They also resent them for not being able to climb out of the financial pit into which they were intentionally thrown (aka “ghettos”).
The solution? Let’s NOT allow racists to scrap the DoED so that Billionaires can enslave us ALL. Let’s fund Public Ed FAIRLY, via a set amount *per enrolled student.* The outcome would benefit society FAR MORE than defunding education for so many by basing support on the relative wealth/poverty of the surrounding neighborhoods.
Those who cannot get behind such fair measures are bonified bigots, even if they don’t wear white hoods. Want a “great” nation? Be willing to help build it, by using both Logic & Reason to find workable solutions. Trusting the Richest & most spoiled is helping NO one but the Greed Monsters themselves.
Racist
OK, this is a wonderful Friday post because comments about “privilege” of ANY kind on this blog are hyper ironic but also invite insights into the perception of privilege and what it means.
Privilege means you get access to things others don’t such as a lounge or better class of travel. Usually, however, it doesn’t mean breaking The Rules but, well, sometimes it does such as the wealthy can afford to hire lawyers to get them out of many jams.
Dave brought up race, so I’d like to take the opportunity to observe that if a white trailer park resident is hassled by the police or airport authorities seemingly unjustifiably, will that create as much a stir than if a non-white is subjected to it? Is lack of law enforcement for shoplifting a “privilege” (or in the long run, a curse?) such as 7-11 announcing recent store closures.
To bring the topic back to travel: When we travel to other countries, we observe the effects of different societies’ attitudes on policing and manners including in infrastructure. Well ordered societies tend to have more mass transit, for instance, resulting in convenience. When people are afraid to ride on public transit, they sit in a car for 2 hours. When I lived in Los Angeles back 25 years ago, the metro cars usually were almost entirely men.
To close: It’s a privilege, particularly a 1st world one, to experience travel to make these observations. The majority of people live in their home cities and don’t know any better other than what they see on filtered TV but as we know, that’s not the same.
I don’t think you twigged onto what type of privilege they are talking about…
STFU Aaron
I am thankful for United for re-opening the aircraft door to let me aboard. The gate agent forgot to close the jetway door and was about to start moving the jetway back. This was quite a few years ago. Thank you, United.
United made me miss my connection twice because their incoming flight was late. Both times they texted me saying they were holding the plane for my connection, I ran like a maniac on Denver airport to arrive at the gate and the door was closed but the plane still there and attached to the jet bridge. Obnoxious gate agent ignored me and 10 other passengers that arrived at the gate in the same situation. That was the last flight from Denver to Vail and I had to find ground transportation to get to Vail. Absolutely disgusting that it happened twice and both times it was United’s fault with an incoming late flight and a stupid gate agent not opening the door for the connecting flight with the plane still there.
Same situation from Denver to Vail with the husband and kids. Add big snow at the Continental Divide. A corporate sponsor sent a Suburban with driver to make this nightmare journey. So when I heard mrs. entitled say ” but we have a kid and everything ” in the video, I wanted to throw my phone. Who uses their child as a reason for special treatment?
Avoid United and AA at all costs. Problem solved.
@Maryland: Do you want to know about my nightmare journey from Denver to Vail after UA screwed up? I mentioned it was the last flight so it was already late evening. When I knew I could not fly to Vail I had to figure out a way to get there as I had next day meetings in the morning there and I could not miss it. See the summary of my nightmare journey below:
1) Tried to rent a car but zero cars were available at DEN at that day and time. Seriously, zero cars.
2) Tried to get a Blacklane driver but it was too late
3) Tried Uber Black. First driver accepted a $450 ride to then cancel it. Second driver accepted the $450 ride, showed up, I put my bag in his car, sat down and as he started driving he said “Oh, you going to Vail?” I said yes. He stopped the car and told me to leave and there was no way he was taking me there. This after he had accepted the ride.
4) Went to the taxi line. Asked 3 taxi drivers if they would take me to Vail. They all said no. The 4th driver accepted it. Well, it was raining, he was new to the US and had never been to Vail and it was the scariest road trip of my life where many times I had to tell him to slow down since he had no idea how to drive through the Vail Pass at night and with rain.
Thank you United for this memorable journey.
Completely feel your pain! If you hadn’t posted your adventure I would have buried my memories. Probably why I shy from all late day connections, if they can be avoided. ; )
So… you left me hanging (I hope you’re happy). Did it cost you $450 for the taxi ride or more?
Who uses their child as a reason for special treatment.
In my experience, only people who breathe oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide are guilty of that.
When everyone with children manages to get there on time, I am hopeful you wouldn’t want others to wait thinking the privilege of having a child ” and everything” is an excuse? But you be you.
An increasing number of people use their kids to get preferential treatment. In my experience they try to avoid waiting, bring excessive amounts of hand luggage, occupy seats in the gate area reserved for elderly or disabled passengers and feel they are entitled to get other passengers to change seats in the cabin.
That probably shows that the old United was better than the recent United.
If there were seats for that party and only one party seeking to board, I see no reason why 12.5 minutes is not enough time to board them. In fact, if seats available and one party seeking to board should have a published cut off of 15 minutes but allowance up to 7 minutes.
Well, I am an Ex Plat and I think I am pretty informed. But I did not know that rule.
And given that AA routinely sells tickets with 25 or 30 minute connection times at CLT, this is an aggressive rule.
Minimum connection time in CLT is 40 minutes for domestic to domestic.
And even THAT is too short a connection…CLT should have a MCT of 60 minutes
Only connected through CLT once and that was traumatic enough for me to never do it again. The engineer that projected that airport should have his/her license revoked.
So are we sure they weren’t connecting? Because AA is notorious for scheduling 40-50 minute connection times. And even the slightest delay on the first leg would screw up that connection.
Certainly an Exec Plat would know better than to book such a tight connection, wouldn’t they? Even I’ve learned that lesson the hard way.
If they were connecting, they should have brought it up that it wasn’t their fault for being late.
They would have held it for a ConciergeKey member.
Actually, flights are not held for CK. I will get on the next flight, but the original flight will not be held because of my status. That said, perhaps the person filming is a new EP or one that earned status with a credit card. An experienced flyer knows the rules regarding closure times.
Had a little sympathy for the pax given they were traveling with what looked to be a 4 or 5 year old and that would suck for a kid that young.
But, strike 1 was messing up the rules, strike 2 was being incredibly rude and entitled to the gate agent and strike 3 was traveling with a shitty little yapper dog. Planes aren’t zoos, people! If I were on that departing flight, I would’ve thanked my lucky stars that this passenger didn’t get to board.
This is actually an incident from April, fwiw https://viewfromthewing.com/executive-platinum-but-seats-given-to-someone-else-inside-the-american-airlines-decision-that-left-a-family-grounded/
Disagree a bit. Slippery slope to go down about why someone is late.
The “why” is irrelevant. Doesn’t matter if your dog died or your Mom died.
This looks wrong to me. Having to catch a flight which is leaving on time and turning up with my boarding pass 14 minutes before departure to find the gate open but my seat gone would seriously annoy me too. Surely the agent could have explained to the standby people that they were out of luck as opposed to throwing the book at someone who literally was one minute late.
Respectfully disagree – once the “you have to be here” time has passed, then the system is for the standbys to board. You cannot be pulling off the plane the already boarded standbys (and their luggage) just because of people who are late, sorry.
When I saw the dog at the end it said it all for me, assuming it’s theirs, I would be OK with them not flying on any flight !…..
Was that their dog too???
If it were, it should have been inside its kennel. Well, perhaps not if it were a service animal which would explain some things….
Agree, but then we you arrive early you are described as “gate fleas” by many gate agents.
I feel sorry for the dog having to live with the entitled idiots.
Yeah. I’m sorry for the dog, the child and the gate agent. Mr & Ms. Entitled are just sorry humans.
Matthew…I chuckled when I read your conclusion “This isn’t Japan”. As a domestic frequent flier here in Japan I can attest that showing up for flights 15 minutes before takeoff is perfectly fine. I was even rushed in a car to the parked aircraft on occasion…late due to traffic.
Status doesn’t change rules subject to Federal regulation, and denied seats is under Federal purview. Then no dog kennel, no service animal indication, just a loud mouth narcissistic hose-bag with her obnoxious kid and dog. And an alleged husband, who thought better than to support little Erica Entitlement here. At the very least they lose a couple of rungs of loyalty, a public shaming would not be out of m
I’m an EP with American. A agent in Miami actually held a plane for me because we were late coming through customs two years ago and I was very grateful. That being said, I think having status with the airline is a privilege and you should treat the staff on the airline with even more respect because of it. I go out of my way to do as such and many of the staff remember me and you get rewarded for it
The problem is that some of the standbys are AA employees and that’s why they want to hook their “Pal’s” with seats. So instead of being customer service friendly they look out for their own first…
> This isn’t Japan: you show up early to board your flight or you do risk missing it…
In Japan, would it have been different?
@Alex L: Boarding STARTS at 15 minutes before deparure and is orderly and quick.
As a frequent AA flyer out of my home MIA airport, I can tell everyone that this crap happens all the time. Skin color doesn’t matter. Kudos to the AA team.
Probably was an AA employee on standby who got the seats! I’m not saying the bumped passenger was correct, but far far more often, the airlines – especially AA – are late waiting for a crew or whatever. In years past, I’ve had United and Delta (and TWA and PanAm for those old enough to remember) hold a plane because my connecting flight was late. One time I told the United front ticket agent I was stuck in traffic and was late, she called down to the gate to let them know, and I was allowed to board. Now I am retired, so I drive everywhere except when going to Brazil, so I don’t have to endure people from either side of the counter any more HAHA