Odd: Man Pulled Off Delta Air Lines Flight, But No One Would Tell Him Why…

By

I want to dig a little bit deeper into a perplexing incident that happened on a Delta Air Lines flight in Atlanta. I think I have an idea what occured, but it is still not totally clear and in any case, it was not handled correctly.

A Perplexing Incident On Delta Air Lines In Atlanta…

A man was flying from San José, Costa Rica (SJO) to Washington (DCA) via Atlanta (ATL). Here’s how he tells his story:

Everything totally normal but after all passengers on board they don’t close boarding door. 10-15 min passes and pilot says something about sorry for the delay.

Then a gate agent comes in board and comes to me and asks what seat am I supposed to be sitting in. I’m like “this one.”. He questions again and I tell him I would be glad to show my boarding pass.

5 min later he comes back and asks if I came from Costa Rica and I said yes. He says well I do need to see you boarding pass and passport. I give it and he takes it off the plane. Another 6-8 minutes passes and I’m getting nervous about what the hell is going on and why did he take my passport.

Finally he comes back and says i need to get my bags and come to the gate to “sort it out.”. I’m like “sort what out.”. He wouldn’t answer directly with what the problem is.

He said I was not flying and pulled me off the plane and held my passport. The guy said “I don’t even know how you got on the plane”. I said I scanned my pass, computer beeped and I got on.

After I got off they closed and locked the boarding door.

They told me I would be booked for tomorrow and to see lady at gate counter. I pushed for an explanation and he said she will explain. I went to desk and lady ignored me for like 2-3 min and I was getting pretty annoyed that they took my passport and were not telling me what was going on. I forced her to talk to me and she said “I’m working on it”. I said I needed to know what is going on and she just kept pecking her keyboard and not looking at me.

Then the guy came back and I told both of them more sternly that they needed to tell me what the hell is going in. Then guy told me to calm down they are working on it. I’m like working on what?!? What is the problem? You have to start telling me what is going on. The lady finally stops pecking at keyboard and the guy says ok let’s go and takes me back down the jet bridge and he literally knocked on the pilot’s window and had them reopen the boarding door and I board. Pushing back from gate now. Still no real explanation of what the problem was. Passengers all curious what I am doing and likely annoyed that I held up the whole flight.

I still have no idea what happened.

What a strange incident, at least at face value. It certainly was not a behavioral issue and blaming it on a tech issue seems odd considering he had no issues boarding in Costa Rica AND in Atlanta (so probably not simply a failure to properly scan in Costa Rica and then being marked as a no-show and having his second segment canceled).

When he reached National Airport, he asked a gate agent there what could have happened. She suggested it had something to do with scanning his passport.

So I asked the gate agents just now in DC what they thought. I explained the story and they said “oh I bet your passport was never scanned in Costa Rica.”. I explained that I did not have checked bags, that I used the Delta app to self scan my passport when checking in, that I got docs confirmation and a boarding pass and that I never saw an agent at all in Costa Rica because I didn’t need to.

They said “oh yeah that’s the problem.”. They should not have allowed you on board in Costa Rica without scanning your passport. So the computer did not have you cleared for 2nd flight. They said that the boarding scanner probably beeped for a problem when I scanned my boarding pass but they missed it. They said it happens all the time.

Let me pause for a moment. Really?

Regular readers know I fly United all the time and I have not had to scan my passport in several years…the app take a picture of it (once) and then stores it. When you check in, you can choose which passport you are flying on if you have multiple passports. Boarding passes are generated and you can board without seeing an agent if you are traveling with carry-on items only.

Maybe the world’s most premium airline does not have the world’s most premium backend technology?

They think that the gate agents were trying to solve this problem but it was taking too much time for some reason and they could not close the flight with me on board. But maybe by the time they pulled me off they figured out a way to solve the problem and so they put me back on.

They should have explained what was going on but didn’t. The gate agent was frazzled and clearly was under pressure to close the delayed flight. This is a plausible reason for not explaining but not an excuse.

Strange night.

Yes, this is probably the problem. And maybe regular Delta flyers can chime in below to confirm how often you must scan your passport.

But it’s a strange problem for Detla to have considering he had to go through US immigration and customs upon his arrival in Atlanta.

I also find the conduct of the gate agents totally unacceptable. I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they were very frazzled and just trying to get the flight out on time, but even so the customer is owned an explanation if you pull him off the flight…especially before it is done. He had a reasonable right to be upset.

CONCLUSION

It seems this is a Delta-specific issue rather than a US CBP one. I’m curious now, though. Is this sort of thing common? (this from another commenter)

I fly internationally all the time. I think online check-in is fine but just make sure you find a Delta agent and tell them to verify your passport in the system. I usually check-in online and just go to the club and have them do this. In places where there isn’t a sky club I walk up to the gate agent when they arrive and have them do it.

Verify a passport every trip? Sounds dreadfully inefficient…

image: Delta