[Elwood_98034]

They did exactly the same thing to me and my family at JFK in Feb 2010. The outside ticket agent simply walked away from a long line of people and never came back. Then we were 1 minute (!) late getting to the inside gate once we realised what was going on, and they refused to let us board. Again $200 and a flight seven hours later after having to leave the terminal and go check into a local airport hotel for $400. We overheard the supervisor telling the agent that they had a group of VIP's coming through, and they needed to clear the way for them as they were running late and couldn't miss their (our) flight. When I told the supervisor about the outside agent walking away, he said "I know". Then he walked away too. We were talking to the people at the hotel, and they were like 'happens all the time'. Funny that. Trim down an overbooked flight, make $200, but not technically bump anyone and have to pay them compensation, as they were late. We were late. Because of Delta. By 1 minute.