Well, I'm not saying that agents are infallible. They're "supposed" to know who's in which seats and have some idea of who's going down the jetbridge, including crewmembers. But I noticed that United has a current opening for a part-time customer service rep in AUS. The agents are certainly overworked and underpaid. That opening specifies that the agent must be capable of lifting boxes, etc weighing 70 pounds. It's not unheard of that a single agent might be working a narrowbody flight, and if the door was open, this captain could have simply walked down the jetbridge without the agent noticing. So I'm not trying to blame the agent; just saying that the agent should have had some clue that the captain didn't look like a "normal" captain (no pun).
Last edited by Murexway; 13th Feb 2017 at 23:58.