My bf got detained at LA airport and missed his flight

[ninz 14]

My american bf was returning to Baltimore from Thailand where he completed 2 yrs job assignment. He already had 20hrs of travel time. In LA he had 4 hrs gap between connecting flights. Homeland Security detained him for no reason and it took them so long, that he missed his connecting flight.

Although they were polite and admitted that it was just a routine check and picked him randomly. Also, they were aware that he's about to miss the connecting flight, they didn't wanted to speed up the interrogation process. He waited a lot too and they didn't cared about he will lose the ticked or not. As a result he arrived at checkin too late. He never did anything criminal and now he has to spend another night in LA, pay for hotel and buy another ticket while he had already some appointments and important stuff to do at home. Over the top.

So people, buy an extra insurance. Nobody will reimburse the time you lose but at least you can reimburse your ticket in case like this one if you have some insurance. I don't think you can sue HS.

Edited April 7, 2016 by vesnaodna

[Lemonslice 4,968]

If they cared about connecting flights and duration of the layover, someone with bad intention would only have to book a tight connection...

Sorry it happened to him, must have been stressful.

[ninz 14]

Thanks! 2 hours is a tight connection time, he had more than 4 hrs so this is not a tight connection for domestic routes, booked by agency.

[Shauneg 762]

If they cared about connecting flights and duration of the layover, someone with bad intention would only have to book a tight connection...

Sorry it happened to him, must have been stressful.

As so true if they did things based on transfer times than bad people would just do as you said.

[Ortolan 381]

That's awful; I don't think they intentionally delayed him, though...why would they? If this is the biggest bump in your lives ahead, then it wasn't that bad, was it? Good luck!

[ninz 14]

iIt's fine, this is just a warning to memebers

[rutabaga 209]

Thanks! 2 hours is a tight connection time, he had more than 4 hrs so this is not a tight connection for domestic routes, booked by agency.

In principle, I'd agree (and 4 hrs are generally plenty for going through a POE), but since LAX seems to have been his POE into the States that's not quite the same as taking a regular domestic flight. I once got stuck at JFK for over three hours when arriving from Europe just waiting to even talk to a CBP officer and be admitted (so no secondary or anything, I literally stood in line waiting to get my passport stamped for over three hours). Anyway, wouldn't this have fallen under being rescheduled for free since it wasn't his fault (if both his flights were on the same ticket)? Unless it was one of those separate tickets itineraries.