I want to dig a little bit deeper into a perplexing incident that happened on a Delta Air Lines flight in Atlanta. I think I have an idea what occured, but it is still not totally clear and in any case, it was not handled correctly.
A Perplexing Incident On Delta Air Lines In Atlanta…
A man was flying from San José, Costa Rica (SJO) to Washington (DCA) via Atlanta (ATL). Here’s how he tells his story:
Everything totally normal but after all passengers on board they don’t close boarding door. 10-15 min passes and pilot says something about sorry for the delay.
Then a gate agent comes in board and comes to me and asks what seat am I supposed to be sitting in. I’m like “this one.”. He questions again and I tell him I would be glad to show my boarding pass.
5 min later he comes back and asks if I came from Costa Rica and I said yes. He says well I do need to see you boarding pass and passport. I give it and he takes it off the plane. Another 6-8 minutes passes and I’m getting nervous about what the hell is going on and why did he take my passport.
Finally he comes back and says i need to get my bags and come to the gate to “sort it out.”. I’m like “sort what out.”. He wouldn’t answer directly with what the problem is.
He said I was not flying and pulled me off the plane and held my passport. The guy said “I don’t even know how you got on the plane”. I said I scanned my pass, computer beeped and I got on.
After I got off they closed and locked the boarding door.
They told me I would be booked for tomorrow and to see lady at gate counter. I pushed for an explanation and he said she will explain. I went to desk and lady ignored me for like 2-3 min and I was getting pretty annoyed that they took my passport and were not telling me what was going on. I forced her to talk to me and she said “I’m working on it”. I said I needed to know what is going on and she just kept pecking her keyboard and not looking at me.
Then the guy came back and I told both of them more sternly that they needed to tell me what the hell is going in. Then guy told me to calm down they are working on it. I’m like working on what?!? What is the problem? You have to start telling me what is going on. The lady finally stops pecking at keyboard and the guy says ok let’s go and takes me back down the jet bridge and he literally knocked on the pilot’s window and had them reopen the boarding door and I board. Pushing back from gate now. Still no real explanation of what the problem was. Passengers all curious what I am doing and likely annoyed that I held up the whole flight.
I still have no idea what happened.
What a strange incident, at least at face value. It certainly was not a behavioral issue and blaming it on a tech issue seems odd considering he had no issues boarding in Costa Rica AND in Atlanta (so probably not simply a failure to properly scan in Costa Rica and then being marked as a no-show and having his second segment canceled).
When he reached National Airport, he asked a gate agent there what could have happened. She suggested it had something to do with scanning his passport.
So I asked the gate agents just now in DC what they thought. I explained the story and they said “oh I bet your passport was never scanned in Costa Rica.”. I explained that I did not have checked bags, that I used the Delta app to self scan my passport when checking in, that I got docs confirmation and a boarding pass and that I never saw an agent at all in Costa Rica because I didn’t need to.
They said “oh yeah that’s the problem.”. They should not have allowed you on board in Costa Rica without scanning your passport. So the computer did not have you cleared for 2nd flight. They said that the boarding scanner probably beeped for a problem when I scanned my boarding pass but they missed it. They said it happens all the time.
Let me pause for a moment. Really?
Regular readers know I fly United all the time and I have not had to scan my passport in several years…the app take a picture of it (once) and then stores it. When you check in, you can choose which passport you are flying on if you have multiple passports. Boarding passes are generated and you can board without seeing an agent if you are traveling with carry-on items only.
Maybe the world’s most premium airline does not have the world’s most premium backend technology? 😉
They think that the gate agents were trying to solve this problem but it was taking too much time for some reason and they could not close the flight with me on board. But maybe by the time they pulled me off they figured out a way to solve the problem and so they put me back on.
They should have explained what was going on but didn’t. The gate agent was frazzled and clearly was under pressure to close the delayed flight. This is a plausible reason for not explaining but not an excuse.
Strange night.
Yes, this is probably the problem. And maybe regular Delta flyers can chime in below to confirm how often you must scan your passport.
But it’s a strange problem for Detla to have considering he had to go through US immigration and customs upon his arrival in Atlanta.
I also find the conduct of the gate agents totally unacceptable. I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they were very frazzled and just trying to get the flight out on time, but even so the customer is owned an explanation if you pull him off the flight…especially before it is done. He had a reasonable right to be upset.
CONCLUSION
It seems this is a Delta-specific issue rather than a US CBP one. I’m curious now, though. Is this sort of thing common? (this from another commenter)
I fly internationally all the time. I think online check-in is fine but just make sure you find a Delta agent and tell them to verify your passport in the system. I usually check-in online and just go to the club and have them do this. In places where there isn’t a sky club I walk up to the gate agent when they arrive and have them do it.
Verify a passport every trip? Sounds dreadfully inefficient…
image: Delta
The agents realized it was Tim Dunn and decided the country would be better off without him.
Can’t really argue with that.
Im eternally confused why all airlines don’t have United’s system of just scanning the passport once in the app and being good from there. But whenever I ask an agent for another airline or point out that this passport should be in their system, they give me a blank look and never have a good explanation. Similarly they never have an explanation of why they don’t trust their codeshare partners to verify travel documents.
I need to do passport verification via an agent on every outbound intl Delta trip, despite having scanned the passport previously. But recently on a return from LHR my boarding pass was labeled “flyready” and I didn’t need to show the passport to anyone the entire journey, neither in LHR nor ATL.
I’m shocked. Hopefully, Delta is finally catching up.
Obviously caught flying while black (FWB)
Delta is the iphone of airlines. Marketed as top of the line but with decade-old technology, yet somehow has a cult following.
I’ve used both and the iPhone system is a lot more capable and robust, particularly in safety. If that doesn’t matter to you then Samsung makes some decent phones.
Bastian doesn’t seem real big on spending money on infrastructure projects that he can’t see direct results from.
Air Canada does this as well – the passport needs to be scanned at a kiosk, by an agent at check-in, or at MLL – online check-in is insufficient.
And in fact, for airports that require a physical BP, UA does not allow online check-in, and you need to scan your passport at the check-in desk to get your boarding pass.
This is going to be a bigger issue after November if all the conservatives that say they are moving to CR if the c#cks$cking duo win the election decide to ever come back to visit.
And yes, many rumors that may or may not be true going around about Walz being closeted. He maybe even gave it away the other night with his story about how his wife became pregnant. Note it wasn’t IVF but actually was intrauterine insemination which is used by guys who are offended by sex with a woman and can’t perform. There was nothing wrong with his wife from an ability to get pregnant.
Dave, I’m confused by this non-response to the relevant topic of this article. Next time, maybe try using ALL CAPS and the rest of us might understand better where you are coming from..
And people like you think they are important to companies.
The synopsis is Walz is an Aaron and Costa Rica is going to get very busy if he and the ‘ho win.
And f#ck the Dodgers!
You really are a useless disgusting piece of dribblepiss.
Just as useless as you and the other perverted freaks are to the continuation of the human race.
Damn shame your father wasn’t an a## pirate. Or maybe he was another Tim Walz.
You really are obsessed with gay people. Maybe a bit of projection mixed with some self-hatred going on there, who knows.
Either way, you are a disgusting excuse for a human being.
Among the 3 people running for President and VP, not including Trump, Walz is the weirdest. He had a high paying job as Congressman and Governor and he can’t even keep his own financial house in order. He is the least qualified to be President. Vance is much better.
Likely in SJO they didn’t close the flight and it departed anyway (at some places especially where the gate may be common use this function is done from a back office computer, not necessarily before the plane leaves). Or they didn’t transmit complete APIS information meaning this passenger was missing. ATL CBP recognized the issue perhaps when they see a passport scanned in to the US saying off a certain flight but didn’t match what the airline had transmitted and flagged it to Delta. Delta had to resolve it lest it get fined.
Not saying this is exactly it but it’s something I’ve seen before. Any which way, it isn’t the customer’s fault and appears to have been handled poorly. Probably a message down to the gate that they need this guy’s passport verified or something. It’s near departure time so they pull passenger off. Resolved issue and ta-da all is well, so back on the plane. Still, a little explanation would be in order (unless the agent had nothing but “Customs needs this guy’s passport info” – in which case literally the guidance from the government just like with TSA watch list stuff is “there’s a problem with your reservation I’m working to resolve” and prohibits sharing what… it’s always awkward)
How did get cleared on Immigration of his passport was never scanned in Costa Rica? Isn’t the system supposed to inform immigration someone is flying into the US?
I only fly Delta but because I have 3 different passports I never used the app to confirm my passport details. When flying internationally I prefer to check in with an agent at the airport to avoid any issues.
@Santastico … +1 . Exactly .
Just another case of the customer/passenger having to DO ALL THE WORK. We’re supposed to second guess everything and assume things can and will go wrong ? Can’t wait till AI takes over every function with maybe one human backup, if that, when something goes wrong. We are at the mercy of computers with humans in the back-ground that can’t think out of the box or have no methods of solution or troubleshooting – just silence or vague answers. Heaven help us.
@Right … +1 .
Probably related to Tulsi.
The Dept of Homeland Security may have been involved. The government won’t tell you why. Citizens and non-citizens alike are now further investigated for any abnormalities in their lifestyle, etc.
Not sure what Delta app y’all are using. Fly Delta internationally several times per month and last time I scanned the passport (on the app) was over a year ago. Have never been asked to re-scan at gate, even US bound on the return legs.
Maybe he had dual citizenship.
US Customs prefers that you use your American passport when traveling into the US.
If it was the Dept of Homeland Security that pulled you aside, the immigration officer is not obligated to tell you why. You have to go to the website to file a request to get an answer by the ‘freedom of information act’ but you may never get a response back.
The gate agents didn’t want to explain what was going on which caused mental anguish on the part of the passenger but it appears, from what I know of systems, that sometimes you can’t clear a flight for takeoff or something such as that without the “checklist” getting cleared and his passport hadn’t been marked as checked somehow.
You all may be wondering: “Well, why didn’t the software that stored his passport in his check in work?” Well, these systems often don’t fully speak to each other such as the manual ones at an airport that need to see it was checked and weren’t “pinged” or notified by the web/app check-in software.
The gate-agent gets paid to ensure the checklist is complete and may not have the authority to clear a flight for takeoff without it.
My Ukrainian father-in-law flew here and back from Poland and despite my best efforts, I couldn’t check him in online. They NEEDED to see his passport and that’s ok. I found the web check-in functions asked for me to add documents but had no system in place to upload it so that was that.
I remember back 20 years ago, we had departments filled with highly qualified IT staff, hundreds, to write code to deal with these situations. Now, much of them have been laid off or outsourced and although you may THINK your web app is working great, it may not. Oh, memories figuring out how to get mainframes to talk to microcomputer servers often via modem and making sure the handshaking happened.
Remember Crowdstrike? That was caused ENTIRELY by executive management practices to cut costs and “hack” things through without concern for the implications that, say, badly written software could crash systems across critical infrastructure around the world. What happened? The CEO had to cancel a few golf games and that’s that. Unless one of THEM gets some hard time, don’t expect much change in the system.
All that said, the gate agent did a SPECTACULAR job getting this fixed and him back on the plane. When such matters happened to me due to paperwork confusion, I kissed their arse (not literally) and was quite happy about it. They could have just phoned-it-in and left him to catch a later flight.