Hoping someone here can sanity check what happened because the explanation I got doesn’t fully add up to me.
I had a flight at midnight, about a 2 hour flight, a couple days ago. I arrived on time, checked my luggage, went through security, everything normal. Flight was delayed about 20 minutes. During that delay, a rep asked for volunteers to give up their seat for €100. No one volunteered.
I was pretty exhausted and didn’t rush to line up early for boarding. I ended up being among the last ~10 people in the queue. Suddenly the gate was closed and we were told to wait.
After about 10 minutes, agents told us to go to customer care to rebook because we would not be boarding the flight. The plane eventually departed without us.
About an hour later, the explanation given was that the aircraft was at risk of not being able to land safely due to weight, so they had to reduce weight and remove passengers. They also said all of our checked luggage was left behind as well.
Is this actually a thing that happens? Can airlines really deny boarding to people who are already at the gate and queued because of last minute weight and balance issues? Or does this sound like a cover for an oversell or operational issue they didn’t want to admit?
Route was ESB to YKO, flight VF4316 (AJET), Jan 31, 2026.
Would really appreciate insight from anyone familiar with airline ops or similar experiences.
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