I witnessed one of the wildest boarding situations I have ever seen on a flight with American Airlines.
Boarding was nearly complete and the aircraft was close to closing the door when Passenger A attempted to board. The gate agent told him to sit down instead of letting him on.
A minute later, just before boarding closed, the gate agent called Passenger B from the standby list. After only waiting a few seconds without a response, she called Passenger C instead. Passenger C arrived first, but then Passenger B showed up as well. The gate agent told Passenger C to sit back down and issued the boarding pass to Passenger B, who boarded the aircraft.
The doors closed and the flight pushed back.
Meanwhile, Passenger A, who had originally been denied boarding, got in line to be rebooked. Another gate agent looked at the reservation and said something like, “You actually had a confirmed seat on that flight.” Passenger A explained that he had been told to sit down and not board.
Eventually, a supervisor got involved. The aircraft had already taxied toward the runway, but then turned around and returned to the gate. Passenger B was removed from the plane and Passenger A was boarded instead.
The whole situation delayed the flight by around an hour in the end.
I have never seen an aircraft return to the gate because of a boarding error like this before.
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