cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/travelti … index.html
This is an interesting concept…people being treated like people instead of commodities. Hell we may as well call every airline in the US a “Package carrier” these days. Bring back the FIM!!!
My reading of the article indicates that it was the fault of American Airlines that caused Fumiko Seguchi to miss her flight. So because it was American’s fault they punished the passenger. Am I missing something?
You read it correctly David. She apparently missed her flight because there weren’t enough agents available to handle the passengers checking in.
Looks like American has found a great way to boost revenues! I’ll bet the supervisor in charge of scheduling staff for the check-in counter in Orlando will be promoted to a VP job somewhere in the company! 
Why didn’t she check in online? Why did she even have to see an agent? She wouldn’t have been waiting at any counter had she actually done everything “by the book”.
Every airline I know of lets pax who miss their flight standby for the next one.
You can’t check in online for an international flight in the USA, you must present yourself in person to show your travel documents. She did everything “by the book” in confirming her reservation online and securing a seat assignment.
Really? On international flights? Best you can hope for nowadays is a refund of as much of your money as possible and a (normally futile) hope to book another flight for the same amount.
Wrong, you can check in online for an international flight. I’ve done it. Millions of pax do it every day.
For international you would be allowed to standby if there were multiple flights, but since there were likely no other standby options, she had to wait for the next day.
I theorize she was traveling on AA1531 MCO-ORD then AA153 ORD-NRT.
If she missed 1531, which was the first flight of the day, the next flight, 1696 leaves 4.5 hours later and doesn’t get to ORD in time for even the latest NRT flight on any airline.
She should’ve been rebooked for those flights the next day or have been offered to fly standby to ORD, spend the night there (at her cost) and fly out on 153 the next day.
They could’ve also tried to rebook her through DFW, but there might not have been availability.
That’s the point of the article, isn’t it? What they did vs. what they should have done.
Sure you can, I did it last month.
I sit corrected Mark.
You can even OLCI for international flights to the US from many countries. But not from Singapore. 