Legos ROCK!

I hate the airline industry.

I'd say they all need a swift kick in the pants, but I have a feeling the executives and management are so hopelessly oblivious they wouldn't even notice it.

I guess I'm confused. Instead of having an "exchange" with the gate agent, why didn't he just put on his shoes? If he was actually working on getting his shoes on, I'm hoping they would have waited for him. Feels like something was left out of this story.

...and why don't we have high speed rail yet?

After we bail out all the financial failures, lets bail out the airline industries again and give the CEO's giant severance packages to get them to leave.

Thats the way that America works right? If you fail and must quit your job, you should get enough money to feed an entire starving nation for a year as a reward right?

Were both legs of the journey on Southwest?
Typically when making connecting flights on the same airline you are already behind the security gates. Is San Diego different?

San Diego Terminal Maps:
[www.san.org]

Just sue them.

Southwest is just showing it's dominance. Bearing that in mind, and using Yoda and KMFDM as refrences, "A constant realization of dominance results in fear." Followed by, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering."

By the transative property of quotes, we can determine that Southwest Airlines is trying to make us suffer...I might have made a mistake in my logic somerwhere int here though.

that's BS. I fly SW all the time and they have the flight times listed...maybe he booked through orbitz or travelocity, in which case it's not the airline's fault...

I do have a question about the below quote. Especially with the "After an exchange" part. What was the exchange and how was the agent hostile?

Upon arriving, a hostile gate agent told me I could not board without first putting on my shoes. After an exchange with this gate agent, she denied me boarding altogether, and I watched my flight (and my bags) leave without me.

Also, if you are dealing with someone that is hostile from the get go the best policy is to do what they say. Especially when the person you are dealing with can easily disrupt your timetable.

@ianmac47: Why, when a chargeback is faster, requires no filing fee, and can be done over the phone.

Just as an FYI, most airports, if you have a connecting flight to make, will rush you through the security checkpoint. Just politely explain the situation to the TSA agents, and they should be human enough to help you out.
Southwest, of course, should have seen the issue and helped rush you through security so you wouldn't have an issue. And, of course, they should have let you board with your shoes off, or, you know, let you put your shoes and board.

@dmolavi: Taking the OP at face value (or, using the information at hand), how would it be the fault of Orbitz/Travelocity/Expedia/etc. that the airline denied him entry to the plane "because they felt like it?"

@valarmorghulis: i meant the ridiculously short layover was the fault of the booking agent (orbitz, travelocity, etc who don't show times prior to payment). the boarding denial may or may not have been justified, depending on what the "exchange" with the gate agent entailed.

Also, if you are dealing with someone that is hostile from the get go the best policy is to do what they say. Especially when the person you are dealing with can easily disrupt your timetable.

Your training has been completed. You may now re-integrate with society.

not that i'm defending the airline, but rock sandals when you fly for this reason among others.

"Southwest doesn't give you your flight times until you've booked."

Wrong. They're not Priceline, Palin.

"Southwest doesn't give you your flight times until you've booked"

Huh? They definitely do tell you the connection time before you book. The first page (once you say Sacramento to Baltimore on X date) shows you the total time and connections. Once you choose a flight (but several steps before you pay) it shows you that the flights are:

Sacramento-San Diego, flight 951, arrives 12:00PM
San Diego-Baltimore, flight 130, leaves 12:25PM

Also, it's weird that they were in separate buildings - today, for example, the Sacramento-San Diego flight arrives into gate 6, and the San Diego-Baltimore flight leaves out of gate 8, so practically right next to each other.

@dieselman8: Because most distances make this a less cost effective method?
But then, I'm in Nebraska. It'd be even less cost effective in Montana. But, if you want to start up a high speed rail system, go for it.

@valarmorghulis:

I'm no Logician, but I think your logic was sound.

I also wonder about that exchange. I fly Southwest regularly (about once a month) and I've seen them hold the plane for 10-15 minutes because they know a passenger is on the way but just not there yet. I would imagine those were layovers like this one, but of course there may be special circumstances in those cases that I don't know about.

I question the accuracy of Brandon's story. You can access a list of all of the arriving and departing Southwest flights at San Diego by going here:
[www.san.org]

Every Southwest flight listed for today is arriving and departing from gates 3-10, which are all in the same area behind the same security checkpoint. The only way he'd have to go through security is if he were changing airlines, or decided to tempt fate, leave the concourse for some reason, and then got stuck at security while trying to re-enter. Brandon, what gate did you arrive at and what gate did you depart from?

@IfThenElvis: The only way to get direct from SMF to SAN is on WN, so it had to be.

Mea culpa...I lied. I see that a couple flights come into or depart from gates 1 & 2, which could be behind a separate security area. (the secure areas aren't marked on the map.)

@dmolavi: I don't think orbitz or travelocity can book Southwest flights.

I'm trying to book a flight to LA and they don't list the transfer times. I only have the boarding time of my first flight and the arrival time for the last flight. They don't give you that info until you move to page 3.

I smell a fish to be honest, this guy doesnt tell us a damn thing about the altercation he had with the gate attendant.

@dmolavi: Not an option. Southwest doesn't sell through the aggregators.

Upon arriving, a hostile gate agent told me I could not board without first putting on my shoes. After an exchange with this gate agent, she denied me boarding altogether...

Forgive me for blaming the victim right off the bat with the following comments. But it sounds like it is mostly your fault, despite the short connection time.

1. How long would it have taken to put your shoes on, and not even tie them, but have them on your feet? Are you saying you ran through the airport quite a distance to the gate without any shoes on? I cannot imagine that saving you any appreciable time, and not to mention gross-ness of running through an airport with bare feet.

2. The reason they insist on shoes is because of safety/regulations that require people to wear shoes on planes. Or at least board the plane wearing shoes.

3. Here is where you went really wrong. It sounds like you pissed off the gate agent with your "exchange", and were instantly labeled as a non-cooperative passenger, which gate agents and crew have broad discretion to deny boarding to. And often times (though sometimes incorrectly) rightfully so. Someone who is agitated and uncooperative on the ground is even more of a problem in the air in an enclosed space.

It sounds like you could have gotten on that plane ("you can board if you have shoes on") if you had just taken a moment to calm down, and listen to what was being told to you. Sure, the connection time was tight, but you turned a marginal situation into a disaster. From the bits you left out, I can only assume that the argument you had with the agent did yourself no favors.

@dmolavi:
As far as I know, Southwest does not allow booking through third party sites.

@SniDa: You're correct. My bad.

"C'mon, Southwest, you couldn't have held things for 30 seconds so the guy could put on his shoes?"

I have worked for Frontier, United, and JetBlue, and we did not hold flights EVER for passengers! Massive tie-up on the insterstate? Backlog at security? Sorry, pal! If I don't get this bird out of here on time, then I have to fill out paperwork, catch heck from my supervisor and General Manager, and submit a report to Corporate.

We have been known to ask the ramp (ground crew) for a fast push in order to INTENTIONALLY leave passengers behind. Also, we will hang out in the jetbridge until the plane has pulled away from the terminal, then head back out to the concourse to face the teeming masses.

@JustThatGuy3: Glad someone else called BS on this before me. I went through the same steps, faking a SW booking, just to see if it told me the flight times before booking. It definitely does, and I know I wouldn't book a flight with a 25 minute turnaround, whether I knew I had to go through security or not.
Belated edit before I hit submit: Apparently there are some flights that only say the number of stops and do not give a specific schedule, so I guess the story is still plausible.

Yet another reason not to fly SW... have they stopped their whole cattle call, no assigned seat thing? If so, I might give them another chance.

@dieselman8: Hell, I would settle for effective conventional-speed rail.

Somewhat off-topic: I remember that Miami (MIA) used to be like this - you'd have to transfer from one flight to another, and you'd have to leave the secure zone, then come back in. I flew EWR-MIA-KIN, then the same trip back - when transferring in Miami, I had to leave the secure area and go through security again...twice. Gah!

I think a healthy amount of process analysis could really benefit the airports. I realize there are international concerns (arriving passengers who haven't gone through customs yet shouldn't mix with domestic passengers), but that can be worked around - don't make someone get re-security-checked when going from terminal A to terminal B. (Granted, this might involve constructing new skyways or passageways...but this is something that should have been thought of a while ago!)

he must have been really rude! SAS held a flight 15 minutes for me out of paris of all places - you just have to be nice to them!

@JustThatGuy3: Cincinatti is that way with ComAir in having to change terminals. But no need to go through security again. When I flew to Amsterdam I had to go through security at Heathrow when changing planes. On the way back we had to pass through a metal detector even though the gates were right next to each other.

@dieselman8: High speed rail goes about 125 mph. The distance from Sacramento to Baltimore is about 2,700 miles. So it would take him 21.6 hours (with no stops) on a high speed train to get to Baltimore.

@kepler11: It definately seems like the 'exchange' is the problem here, if he just taken the 30 seconds to put on his shoes (I assume they were untied, as he took them off) like the attendant asked, I'm sure he would have been able to board.

Regardless, how hostile can you be when you say something similar to "You need to be wearing your shoes before you board the plane". Aside from screaming it, or being physical, I can't think of a way that someone telling me that would be.

What I think happened is he took out his anger on the short layover on the first person in a south west uniform he saw, and paid the price for it.

@B: That is a terrible idea. Anyone asking to be rushed through security should be checked out more.

Based on this and the doctor story (just in the last 2 days!), it sounds like Southwest is becoming just as shitty and worthless as the rest of the airlines...

Delta it is...

I agree with you, but be wary - my flip flop broke in the Dallas airport and I boarded two flights with only one sandal.

Thankfully, no one noticed.

I'm curious why he says "After an exchange with this gate agent, she denied me boarding altogether," and not "After failing to put my shoes on before the plane departed..."

It sounds like he made it to the gate in time, but he argued with the gate attendant. He never claims he missed his flight because he couldn't make it to the gate fast enough. It's clear from the rest of the article that he didn't fail to make it in time, he was denied boarding.

C'mon consumerist, learn to read the complaints your readers send you.

@ecwis: maybe we should buy our trains from the Japanese then; Shinkansen trains there run nearly 190 mph.

This is a problem at many airports. I wouldn't be too quick to blame just the airline, though they handled it poorly. ANC has different sections, and you must leave the sterile area if another leg is in the other terminal. That's just silly. SEA does it right and has a tram running underneath it so you never have to leave the sterile area.

@Corporate_guy: I suspect that you would show your boarding pass and they would see that your flight leaves in 20 minutes. Not necessarily a security threat,

@stargazerlily: I was on a transatlantic Delta flight last year that was held for 15 passengers whose connecting flight was coming in late..... while we waited for them, thunderstorms happened and we 'lost our place in line.' 7 hours later we finally left. So I'm not a fan of holding flights, but for someone who is obviously there (and not en route), I wouldn't begrudge the gate agent from giving him some slack.

@Corporate_guy: I've seen this done quite often, actually

@djsyndrome:

It's not the trains, it's the track. In the Northeast Corridor (the only part of the Amtrak system, with a couple of small exceptions, that actually makes logical sense), the Acela trains could go far faster than they do, but the railbed doesn't allow for it.