[leeandbeau]

I checked in for a 6:45 flight with my 10 year old son on 12/28. I was 4 hours early. I had rebooked due to bad weather the previous day. We were travelling first class and waited in the Crown Room for our flight. We showed up for boarding at 6:15 and saw on the board that the flight had been delayed and would take off at 7:17. We went back to the Crown Room where they scanned our passes again and waited until 6:45. We arrived at the gat at 6:50 and found the place aboandoned except for several dismayed passengers. Some bystanders said our flight had been moved. The board now showed the flight leaveing at 7:10. We tried to find and employee to help. Finally a tio of women emerged having a personal conversation - whooping it up and literally turning their backs to the waiting passengers. When I asked them to stop the conversation and deal with us, one employee said snidley that our plane had left. I asked if she had announced that the plane was leaving early or if she had notified the Crown Room, and she sneered back that she never calls the Crown Room and said we should have been there earlier because it was a maintenance problem and it was solved early. I demanded to speak to a supervisor and she said F--you get out of my face. I'm not going to do anything for you." I went to another counter and asked the attendant to call a supervisor to our gate. I was told to go back to the gate and a supervisor would meet me there. When I returned to the gate, the attendent got on the phone, called the Atlanta police and told them that I hit her in the face. (which I did not) The supervisor and the police showed up, threw my son and I in a police car, refunded our ticket, and dumped us on a sidewalk at 10PM with no way to get home. It took us two planes and three days to get back to LA during holiday travel. We still don't have our luggage. I am considering filing charges against the woman for false accusations to the police. This is a crime apparently. Any suggestions on how I should deal with this? My son is mortified and depressed after being locked in a police car. I feel I need to do something to stop the airlines from having indiscrimate power over customers (first class ones) that they don't want to deal with. Thanks for any suggestions.