Was airline wrong to deny boarding?

Q I have just read your article about a woman being bounced off an easyJet flight. Two years ago we checked in our luggage at Orlando airport in Florida, but due to unforeseen circumstances arrived at the departure gate one minute after the gate closed. We were refused boarding by an obnoxious member of airline staff and had to rebook our departure.

My wife, who had become ill on holiday, had her prescription medicines in the hold luggage. We asked for the bags to be removed as she would need extra medicines due to the delay. But the plane left with our luggage on board, which we could not recover until we arrived back in the UK.

Clearly the fight had been overbooked. Despite trying to claim compensation the airline refused. After several rebuttals I gave up. Can you advise if the airline broke any aviation rules and if there is anything we can do by way of redress?

Anthony D

A Your experience sounds stressful and upsetting. Airlines are increasingly strict about deadlines, and passengers who fail to reach the gate by the stated time may be denied boarding. The aim is generally to try to ensure the plane departs on time, but it can also be used as an instrument to deal with overbooking: I have fallen foul of this policy after an unfeasibly long hike to the gate in Denver airport, where I was told I was too late and that someone else had taken my seat.

When airlines choose to overbook, they will have plenty of historical evidence of passenger behaviour to work with – including the proportion of people, like you in Orlando and me in Denver, who arrive at the gate too late.

There is no excuse for any obnoxious behaviour at an airport, by passengers or staff. But if the airline says “turn up at the gate by 20 minutes before departure” and the passenger fails to comply, staff have every right to assign those seats to other travellers.

I infer that you were rebooked on the next-available flight without penalty, which suggests that there may have been some cause such as extreme queues for security. While airport holdups are not the responsibility of the airline, it could explain why you were treated leniently – though I’m sure it didn’t feel like leniency at the time.

Had you arrived by the deadline and been denied boarding, then you would be in line for compensation. But I am afraid I am not surprised that your claim has been rejected.

Finally, as you will have learned from this most unfortunate episode, it is unusual, but not unknown, for flights to depart with bags that have been checked in but whose owners are not on board. That is one reason essential medicine should never be consigned to checked baggage.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder