American Airlines Check-In Time Class Action Lawsuit Dismissed

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

American Airlines passengers have lost a class action lawsuit alleging that the airline’s unwritten check-in policies leads to missed trips and lost money.

Lead plaintiff Lucas Huddleston alleges in the class action lawsuit that American Airline’s “arbitrary” check-in policy that bumped passengers who were late to board their flight.

The plaintiff claims that he attempted to check-in 50 minutes before the scheduled departure of his international flight and, despite having no luggage to check, was denied admittance.

The American Airlines class action lawsuit claims that the informal AA policy of requiring passengers to check-in an hour before international flights or 45 minutes before domestic flights is unfair and a violation of the ticketing contract.

However, U.S. District Court Judge Andrea R. Wood determined that a class action lawsuit was not a suitable path for the litigation, noting that there is a written policy requiring passengers to be at the gate at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure of the flight.

“One of the provisions of the [International General Tariff] requires passengers travelling to or from an international destination to present themselves at the departure gate thirty minutes before the departure time; otherwise their reservations will be cancelled,” noted the American Airlines class action order.

“It is plainly obvious that a passenger who checks in thirty­-one minutes prior to departure will not be able to reach his or her departure gate in time. Yet, such individuals are included in [the] proposed class,” pointed out the judge in the order dismissing the American Airlines check-in time class action lawsuit.

“While certain passengers might be damaged by the breach because they could have made their flight on time, others would suffer no damage from the breach because there was no chance for them to timely reach their departure gate.”

Judge Wood also noted in the order dismissing the American Airlines check-in time class action lawsuit that the airline potentially had a unique defense to the class action plaintiff himself.

“American Airlines points out that there is an additional detail specific to Huddleston that gave it further reason to anticipate he would not make his flight: Huddleston was randomly selected for additional security screening by the Department of Homeland Security,” notes the order.

“According to American Airlines, that screening would have added at least thirty minutes to the time he had to pass through security, customs, and make it to his departure gate. This raises the possibility that American Airlines will have a unique defense as to Huddleston that is not applicable to the vast majority of the class.”

On this basis, Judge Wood determined that there would be too many individual factors to consider during the trial, specifically noting that ascertaining the Class might well be impossible given “the hundreds or thousands of delayed flights that occur in any given year.”

Huddleston is represented by Michael J. Boni, John E. Sindoni and Joshua David Snyder of Boni, Zach & Snyder LLC, Benjamin Gordon Edelman; Oren S. Giskan of Giskan Solotaroff & Anderson LLP and James L. Thompson of Lynch Thompson LLP.

The American Airlines Check-In Time Class Action Lawsuit is Lucas Huddleston v. American Airlines Inc., Case No. 1:16-cv-09100, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.