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If you miss a flight because of a long check in line it can cost you money
If you're one of those people who scoff at the two-hour a head of time check-in schedule recommended by airlines, check out this story that Christopher Elliot posted on his website, Elliot.org. A woman showed up on Jan. 5, two hours and twenty minutes before her American Airlines flight from Orlando back to Japan, but the line was so slow that she was denied boarding by the time it was her turn. It cost her $2,600 more to get back to Japan because American Airlines originally said it was her problem, not theirs.
Since this happened, American Airlines, according to Elliot has agreed to send the woman a voucher for $2,600 for air travel. Although this a decent gesture, still she's out the money.
While reading Elliot's recounting of the woman's tale where she describes telling the agent that she was afraid of missing her flight and the agent brushed her off, I'm wondering if getting riled up might have helped. After all, it seems as if the airline was not keeping up with their part of the bargain. About an hour before the flight, I might have really started to get pushy--a bit forceful. By that time, being sweetly polite would have been brushed aside.
I might be wrong, but from the way the situation was described, I'm picturing a mild, nice woman who is trying to be heard in a crowd. Depending on the nature of the staff person you're dealing with, such a person often gets ignored. The person in the business suit with the no nonsense voice gets further.
There's a balance between being forceful and going so far that you might have security on top of you, but if the airline doesn't staff enough people to handle the volume, one has to have a voice loud enough to be reckoned with.
After reading the comments left on Elliot's post, it seems that this is not an isolated instance. Some have suggested folks should arrive three hours before a flight to be safe, particularly on high volume travel days. I still don't get why she just wasn't put on the next available flight without any charges. Too bad there isn't a time-card punch so you can prove exactly what time you arrived. Maybe that's the next step.
By the way, because she was flying internationally, she couldn't check in on her own at a kiosk so that wouldn't have been a solution.
Filed under: Stories, Airlines, Books, Consumer Activism
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Craig Jan 18th 2009 12:48PM
The entire process of flying needs to be redone. All the classes, ticket types, different levels of checking in, etc are so confusing it's no wonder this happened. I only fly once a year and even that's enough to put me off the whole thing. I know it's very different, but perhaps they should look out (western European-style) train transportation for how to handle ticketing and passengers.
ghina Feb 3rd 2009 1:19PM
A couple of years ago we arrived at the Delhi airport 4 hours before flight takeoff. The airport was so slow with multiple lines for checkin, baggage screening, exit visa etc. We were given tsk tsks for being the last ones on the plane -- and they tried to steal my dad's passport just before boarding.
Another family that sat next to us arrived an hour before take-off and were expedited.
This does not even cover the VIP entrance that you take when driving to the airport, which I assume is also faster (for 1st class passengers I believe).
Nycole Feb 23rd 2009 3:29PM
At Christmas this year my boyfriend and I round tripped BWI-Dayton, Oh on Air Tran. At both airports we arrived over 2 hours early (for VERY early AM flights) and those who showed up only 45 minutes before their flight (at the end of the line) were run up ahead of us. Needless to say, we (any many others around us) were very frustrated at almost missing our flight due to the irresponsibility of the other passengers. It should not be the problem of responsible fliers when others think that they are somehow special and don't have to arrive so early (especially on the Saturday before Christmas). After standing in the SAME SPOT for over 45 minutes, we got forceful and pushed ourselves up to the counter before the ticket agents had a chance to call more poeple from the back of the line. Coincidentally, we saw many of those late arriving passengers standing in the same long TSA security line as everyone else and consequently, still missed their flight. The ticketing agents were rude and unaccommodating. At the point where they were processing passengers for flights leaving in less than 30 minutes the agents should have known that those passengers would never have gotten through TSA and to the gate before the doors closed anyhow. It was slightly consoling to watch those same irresponsible travellers at the gate whining because they missed their flight.