3 ms·

>Yeah we close the doors once 95% of people show up So they are essentially scamming 5% of passengers out of their tickets?

by sb057 5y ago

vel0city 5y ago
I mean, you're supposed to be at the gate when boarding starts. For all practical purposes if you miss boarding you've missed your flight even if the plane hasn't left the ground due to safety rules about letting passengers go after the door is considered closed. There's a bit of a checklist of things that need to be completed after the door gets closed and the gate pulls away. They're often incentivized to try and speed things up, so if there's nobody at the gate anymore to board they might assume those passengers decided not to go on the flight. Especially with people now checking into flights the day before, the airline may not even know if the passenger is even at the airport and would realistically show up to the gate anytime soon as checking in means pretty much nothing these days. They're not scamming anyone. Your ticket said you were supposed to be at the gate to board at a certain time. You weren't there, so you missed the flight.
- xmprt 5y ago
  I get that rule. But why does the door close at boarding time and not at the flight time or some predetermined time like 10 minutes before flight time or when boarding completes, whichever is later.
  - vel0city 5y ago
    The door closes when it seems like there's no more passengers so they can hurry up and start working on the checklist. They do this so they can potentially get going sooner in case there are delays elsewhere in the many steps that goes from passenger boarding to plane in the air. Theoretically they could be more rigid about having a time for the door closing, but that could potentially mean there are more actual delays as now they no longer have a chance to gain some time in their schedule to make up for potential delays elsewhere. If the door closed at flight time then the plane wouldn't be leaving at flight time, it would be leaving at flight time + the time it takes to go from boarding to getting in the air. Flight time is the time the plane is scheduled to take off, which means the flight time would diverge from the boarding time, and then you'd once again be asking why the boarding time is different from the flight time and why they don't let you board until the flight time, rinse and repeat.
    - IshKebab 5y ago
      Sounds like you're describing some impossible system but that is how it works in the rest of the world. There's a time at which the gates close, and if you're at the gate before then then you can go on the flight. If not then they might wait for you for a bit if you've already checked in but nothing is guaranteed. They can still go early if all of the passengers have boarded. I got to Dublin airport once at the time that the gates were supposed to close and they said they would wait for us if we were fast... Got to the concourse and it was the furthest gate possible - the sign said to allow a 15 minute walk! Had to run all the way but we made it.
      - vel0city 5y ago
        > There's a time at which the gates close And there's a time in the US as well, that's called the boarding time. Those there at the boarding time get on the plane, those aren't there at the boarding time missed their flight. Banking on getting on 5-10 minutes after boarding time is gambling that they're running behind schedule.
        xmprt 5y ago
        In that case, every single airline in the US doesn't care about their passengers' time because I can't remember the first time that boarding actually started at boarding time. And when it does, I'm stuck waiting an extra 15 minutes so all the priority and higher class passengers can board first.
        larrybud 5y ago
        Um, no. Read the thread about 2-4 parents up. United’s contract of carriage says 15 min before departure for domestic flights.
- wrggwwr 5y ago
  Luckily, common air carriers do not run on anarchy and made-up rules. United, like every airline, has a Contract of Carriage, which clearly requires being at the gate only 15 minutes before a scheduled domestic flight: > All Passengers must be present at the loading gate for boarding at least 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure. The OP was clearly involuntarily denied boarding even if it was an international flight, and is eligible for that compensation. https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.html#rule-5 https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.html#r...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - tedunangst 5y ago
    OP showed up five minutes late, not fifteen minutes early.
    - nopzor 5y ago
      op was more than fifteen minutes early to the departure time. boarding time is irrelevant to the clause in the coc.
      - tedunangst 5y ago
        Oh! I should read more carefully.
  - ricardobeat 5y ago
    There is a boarding time on every ticket. Anyone who has flown more than once knows this is not optional - closing the gate and departing early is at the airline’s discretion. Once they started boarding and the queue is empty, they will continue with the procedures for the flight, they have an incentive to keep their on-time stats. It’s not like a train where you can simply step in a minute before it leaves.
    - dlubarov 5y ago

>Yeah we close the doors once 95% of people show up So they are essentially scamming 5% of passengers out of their tickets?

by sb057 5y ago

>Yeah we close the doors once 95% of people show up So they are essentially scamming 5% of passengers out of their tickets?

vel0city 5y ago

I mean, you're supposed to be at the gate when boarding starts. For all practical purposes if you miss boarding you've missed your flight even if the plane hasn't left the ground due to safety rules about letting passengers go after the door is considered closed. There's a bit of a checklist of things that need to be completed after the door gets closed and the gate pulls away. They're often incentivized to try and speed things up, so if there's nobody at the gate anymore to board they might assume those passengers decided not to go on the flight. Especially with people now checking into flights the day before, the airline may not even know if the passenger is even at the airport and would realistically show up to the gate anytime soon as checking in means pretty much nothing these days. They're not scamming anyone. Your ticket said you were supposed to be at the gate to board at a certain time. You weren't there, so you missed the flight.

xmprt 5y ago
I get that rule. But why does the door close at boarding time and not at the flight time or some predetermined time like 10 minutes before flight time or when boarding completes, whichever is later.
- vel0city 5y ago
  The door closes when it seems like there's no more passengers so they can hurry up and start working on the checklist. They do this so they can potentially get going sooner in case there are delays elsewhere in the many steps that goes from passenger boarding to plane in the air. Theoretically they could be more rigid about having a time for the door closing, but that could potentially mean there are more actual delays as now they no longer have a chance to gain some time in their schedule to make up for potential delays elsewhere. If the door closed at flight time then the plane wouldn't be leaving at flight time, it would be leaving at flight time + the time it takes to go from boarding to getting in the air. Flight time is the time the plane is scheduled to take off, which means the flight time would diverge from the boarding time, and then you'd once again be asking why the boarding time is different from the flight time and why they don't let you board until the flight time, rinse and repeat.
  - IshKebab 5y ago
    Sounds like you're describing some impossible system but that is how it works in the rest of the world. There's a time at which the gates close, and if you're at the gate before then then you can go on the flight. If not then they might wait for you for a bit if you've already checked in but nothing is guaranteed. They can still go early if all of the passengers have boarded. I got to Dublin airport once at the time that the gates were supposed to close and they said they would wait for us if we were fast... Got to the concourse and it was the furthest gate possible - the sign said to allow a 15 minute walk! Had to run all the way but we made it.
    - vel0city 5y ago
      > There's a time at which the gates close And there's a time in the US as well, that's called the boarding time. Those there at the boarding time get on the plane, those aren't there at the boarding time missed their flight. Banking on getting on 5-10 minutes after boarding time is gambling that they're running behind schedule.
      - xmprt 5y ago
        In that case, every single airline in the US doesn't care about their passengers' time because I can't remember the first time that boarding actually started at boarding time. And when it does, I'm stuck waiting an extra 15 minutes so all the priority and higher class passengers can board first.
      - larrybud 5y ago
        Um, no. Read the thread about 2-4 parents up. United’s contract of carriage says 15 min before departure for domestic flights.
wrggwwr 5y ago
Luckily, common air carriers do not run on anarchy and made-up rules. United, like every airline, has a Contract of Carriage, which clearly requires being at the gate only 15 minutes before a scheduled domestic flight: > All Passengers must be present at the loading gate for boarding at least 15 minutes prior to scheduled departure. The OP was clearly involuntarily denied boarding even if it was an international flight, and is eligible for that compensation. https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.html#rule-5 https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/contract-of-carriage.html#r...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- tedunangst 5y ago
  OP showed up five minutes late, not fifteen minutes early.
  - nopzor 5y ago
    op was more than fifteen minutes early to the departure time. boarding time is irrelevant to the clause in the coc.
    - tedunangst 5y ago
      Oh! I should read more carefully.
- ricardobeat 5y ago
  There is a boarding time on every ticket. Anyone who has flown more than once knows this is not optional - closing the gate and departing early is at the airline’s discretion. Once they started boarding and the queue is empty, they will continue with the procedures for the flight, they have an incentive to keep their on-time stats. It’s not like a train where you can simply step in a minute before it leaves.
  - dlubarov 5y ago