Could Not Board The Plane

[Simply Newt 10]

Well here goes the story:

 

My vacation to the Philippines was supposed to be from October 9th through the 25th. The first part of the journey went as expected. A Delta flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. I had only been in San Fran once before coming home from the Philippines last year. I arrived around 9:30pm and found my gate first thing. I looked at the time and I seen that I had at least two hours before my flight takes off at 11:55pm. I was hungry so I searched for food. By the time I made it back to the gate, I read a message on the monitor concerning the weight of my personal bag and my carry on bag. 7kg for one and 2kg for the other. I bought my scale with me so I weighed each and one was 7kg and the other was 5kg. 10:30pm. I have an hour to lighten the load. I went to the bathroom and changed footwear and took a  few things out of my bags. I was still overweight. I remember the message saying that it will cost $200.00 for being overweight. I thought screw it, Ill pay the fine. When I got back it was 10:50 and I read the message on the monitor again and it actually said that I could avoid the $200.00 fee by checking one of my bag. So I went up to the desk to check in one of my carry on bags and they told me that I could not board the plane. I asked them why and they told me that I did not check in so my seat was given to someone else. I could not believe it. I told them that I purchased this seat back in March and asked how they could sell a seat that was already purchased. On my last flight to the Philippines last year, I did not have to "check in" so I did not think that I had to do this here. The next flight to the Philippines would be tomorrow at the same time. With nowhere to stay and looking at my immediate future, I opted to catch a flight back to where I came from and think about what I should do next. 

 

Bottom line is that I learned a lesson from this experience and that is to check in at the desk at the gate prior to doing any roaming around the airport. I will be heading back to the Philippines next month during the week of Thanksgiving. At least thats the plan. 

[milimelo 4,911]

You always, always check in (ONLINE!) as soon as it's open for your flight - some places 24 hrs prior to departure, some 36, depends on airline. Otherwise you get what you've been through. 

[JeanneAdil 7,355]

so sorry your trip was ruined 

airlines very often overbook and have passengers on stand by

 

this can happen  when the flights (often bought online )   say change of airlines and the ticket bought is in 2 parts 
a ticket to sf with check in at atlanta
and another ticket from SF to Phillipines 

its actually 2 tickets not 1 

 

happened to friends parents from Moroc as they were not allowed to board 

they thought changing planes (with US visa and its allowed) but the ticket from Moroc would take them to Paris only

it was not just a layover 

they needed to check in and pick  up new boarding pass to fly onto US   gathering bags from the 1st plane and all 

they would have needed a french visa 

 

just be careful when booking 

[widude 38]

 Sorry about all that. Sometimes there are hoops put out to jump through, instructions can be fuzzy. 
 

 Airline??

Edited November 1 by widude

[appleblossom 5,391]

On 10/13/2025 at 10:32 AM, Simply Newt said:

On my last flight to the Philippines last year, I did not have to "check in" so I did not think that I had to do this here.

You may not have remember it, but you will have checked in. There’s no way to board an international flight without doing so. 

[spicynujac 100]

So sorry to hear this.  Did you have a seat assignment?  If you have a specific seat number, you ARE checked in.

 

The thing confusing me in this story is that you traveled on a 16 day international fight halfway across the world without any checked luggage?  Only a 7kg carryon bag plus your personal item?  I am a carryon-only guy when flying domestically but can't imagine doing an international flight without checking luggage.  If you check any bags, you are "checked in." 

 

Also, if you didn't check luggage, the gate agents will typically call your name over the intercom so that the gate crew can check your passport, since the luggage checkin crew didn't do it.  Are you sure they didn't do this?

 

Finally, didn't you need to show your boarding pass to go through the TSA security checkpoint?

 

I'm a former airline employee and I'm a bit confused how this happened.. I've seen an error with any one of the above, but all three at the same time is hard to fathom.  It's most likely you WERE checked in and I'm not sure why you were told you were not.  If you still have your travel documents, I would contact Delta about a refund or re-issuing your ticket, if not more.

 

FYI International bags are always free of charge to check (to Asia anyway).  It's nice to have the airline take care of your bag for the 24 hour trip.  And you don't really save any time like you can domestically by carrying on bags. 

Another tip, I do often pick the cheapest carrier, but foreign carriers are MUCH nicer to fly on than the USA airlines.  

 

The only other thing I can think of is if you were using multiple airlines to travel, like Delta from NYC to LAX and then Philippine Airlines from LAX to Manila, there could be some problems there.  Otherwise I think someone wasn't being honest with you or we are missing some details.