There are many people who travel with symptoms that may mimic the effects of being intoxicated. People so affected often carry documentation that explains their behaviour. Not doing so makes them vulnerable to being denied boarding. But in this case, it appears that these crew members may have misunderstood the person standing in front of them. But if you present yourself as if you have been dragged through a hedge backwards, are last on board, fall over, have luggage problems etc. you are ‘pinging’ their radar. In 20 years I have denied boarding to only a dozen or so people. I can even remember the names of some of these people. And it’s also very rare for normal people to ping cabin crew’s radar. Typically they will meet in excess of 100,000 people a year and deny boarding to nobody. And accepting that denying boarding is a complete pain in the arse, what else happened?
PM