Suppose you have your flight booked and you head to the airport with plenty of time to spare. However, once you get there you’re randomly subject to a very thorough security screening and by the time you’re done, you’ve missed the flight.
Does the airline honor your ticket, even though it’s for a flight that has already left?
If you’re put on the next flight, does someone else get bumped off it? I’ve heard of flights deliberately overbooking which seems to me would result in an endless queue of pissed-off pax waiting for the next flight and the next and so on…
Are there extra fees involved? If so, does the TSA (or local equivalent) owe you for this extra expense?
Suppose this happens late at night and there are no more flights until the morning. The airline doesn’t owe you anything so they probably won’t spring for a hotel for you. Does TSA put you up somewhere?
The TSA owes you nothing. The airline will try its best to put you on an available flight, and unless you’re a premier flyer, you’re not going to get any special priority. Overbooking occurs, but there is generally a call for volunteers to give up their seats for some kind of reward like a free round trip flight. I’ve never seen an overbooked flight that was not resolved that way. As to extra expenses for rebooking, that will depend on the airline.
I travel pretty often, and I’ve never missed a plane due to a security screening (and I’ve been through a lot of them). When you check in (on-site - don’t know how this applies to the 24-hour advance online check-in), you’re confirming that you’re going to be on the flight. I’ve had security screeners call ahead to my gate and say I’m passing through security, and I’ve gotten to the gate as the last passenger and an attendant is waiting there with the door open (yeah, I’m THAT guy).
BTW - generally the only time I’ve ever been pulled out of line and had a “thorough screening” is when I’ve been booked for a later flight and change my flight at the kiosk or online for an earlier one.
I missed a flight once by coming internationally, where you have to get your luggage, go through customs, check your bag back, and go through security again. I still hate Newark.
Technically, you are supposed to fly with your luggage (barring airline screw–ups). Airlines hate this situation because you have checked you bags, they are in the system somewhere and headed for the plane. When you are a no-show at the gate, they have to go through the luggage to find and remove your bags just in case you are trying to ship a “bee oh emm bee” without flying with it.
I fly fairly often. I’ve been pulled aside for additional screening 3 times. Each time I felt like I actually got through security quicker, because they pulled me from the middle of the line, meaning I actually skipped ahead of a bunch of people. I did miss the last flight of the night once because I had to recheck after coming from an international flight, but the flight that I came in on was behind schedule a little bit as well. Airline put me up in a hotel and flew me out the next day (flew in on KLM, but ticket was issued by Delta as was the continuing flight).
You are lucky. I have been pulled aside for extra screening about 10 times. Each time the extra screening was announced as I got to the head of the line. That said the extra screening was only 2 or three minutes extra. If that is causing you to miss your flight you are cutting things mighty fine.
I have been in security lines where they were putting people on a soon to be departing flight to the head of the line.
IIRC the only time an airline has to get you there ASAP (even on a different airline I believe) at their expense is if the delay is their fault, i.e. something is wrong with the plane or the pilot is drunk. Any other reason (mainly weather) and they will try but you may end up with a chair for a bed.
When we travel we always leave lots of spare time on the travel days. My wife and I took a bump on the way to our honeymoon since we had nothing scheduled at all. We got there 2 hours late and got 2 free round-trip tickets.
That was the rule after 9/11 but has not been the case since the advent of in-line screening of baggage. If a passenger shows intent to fly and misses a flight the bags, having been in-line screened flies without you.
The rules for accommodating people who checked in before “established” cut-off but still missed the flight vary not only from airline to airline, but staff member to staff member at each airline and each flight.
There *are * rules, but circumstances dictate the situation.
For example, when I worked for an airline (up until 2/1/11) if you missed your flight through no fault of the airline, you go on the stand-by list.
I always instructed my staff to put a passenger on a list, and then clear you off the list into a seat if the flight was less than 90% full. Other managers didn’t care for this, because it prevented us from capturing potential revenue form other airline rebooking passengers into our empty seats or last minute sales which were always high dollar…
In my experience this happened so infrequently that it was 1) less stress and better customer service oriented to my guests, and 2) one thing less my staff had to do when trying to get a flight out on time and provide good service to the next flights passengers.
I considered it a win-win. Unfortunately, my Company was sold off and the concept of “do what’s right for the customer” concept was replaced by a get every dollar you can concept.