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An American Airlines Executive Platinum member, their spouse, and child were denied boarding at Miami International Airport (MIA) after they arrived at the gate with less than 15 minutes to departure time. The couple argues with the agent, but she is not buying it and informs them that they should know the rules since they are holding one of American’s highest levels of elite status.
The couple continues to berate the gate agent and she eventually calls the police. The agent calmly tells the couple that she has given away their seats since the flight’s departure time is 12.5 minutes away. The police arrive and work to diffuse the situation. The couple comes across as entitled and I give the gate agent credit for how well she handled the situation. I’m sure that they were accommodated on a later flight and had they been polite the agent would have likely been glad to help. The agents are pressed to get flights out on time and American (like all airlines) has clear guidelines around the time that you need to be in the boarding area.
Anthony’s Take: This entitled couple was too aggressive with the agent. I get that they were frustrated, but they were not getting on the flight once a decision was made to give away “their seats.”
(Featured Image Credit: @TheManager_1 via Reddit.)
(H/T: Live and Let’s Fly.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
5 comments
Snooze you lose
Was it a connection? If so, American sucks for this
He should know better. Get to the gate 30 min. before boarding or else. Most flights seem to get overbooked nowadays and they will definitely give sell your seats to standby passengers. Acting like an entitled a-hole doesn’t help too..
He should know better. Get to the gate 30 min. before boarding or else. Most flights seem to get overbooked nowadays and they will definitely give sell your seats to standby passengers. Acting like an entitled a-hole doesn’t help too..
My family had a related problem occur with American Airlines. We landed in Dallas, grabbed lunch to take to the gate. While we were eating at our gate, one of the gate agents said that the gate for our flight had been changed from B39 to B2. She repeated this twice over the intercom. We had 15 minutes before the flight was to start boarding so we hustled to gate B2. When we got to B2, no one was boarding and the gate sign said another destination. We asked the gate agent if this was the correct gate for our flight and she looked it up and said it was the gate we were originally at. That gate agent told the agent at our original gate that we were on our way, but that they couldn’t hold the flight. So we ran back, but when we arrive the flight was closed, but the plane was still at the gate. I told the gate agent what happened (they changed agents so this was not the one who made the original announcement) and she said there was nothing they could do for us and we were not allowed to board. I usually fly United for business, and I fly all over the world, multiple times a year, and I have never had this happen to me before. The last flight I took with United, we waited an extra 15 to 20 minutes in San Francisco because they knew there were passengers coming from another gate, in a different terminal. Does American Airlines usually close the flight even if they know passengers are on their way?