The significance of closing the door and plane boarding

[dansolo]

I keep seeing it mentioned that passengers are not boarded until the door is closed. That is a complete misunderstanding. It is true that boarding is complete when the doors are closed. What this means is that once the door is closed, no one else may board the plane. It does NOT mean that anyone who is already on the plane is not considered boarded. Once you have entered the plane, you have boarded it, and a different set of rules apply.

[SFnomad]

1. Do you have a link to any regulations that say that?

I have never heard of anything official that "a different set of rules apply" and that you are "considered boarded".

[COLGATE4]

2. I suspect you're going to be waiting quite a while for

those 'regulations'. They seem to pop up whenever someone wants to argue against the facts.

[rsdsharp]

3. "What this means is that once the door is closed, no one else may board the plane."

Maybe the "regulations have changed in the last several years, but the last time I flew was in July 2001. We had just pushed back from the jet way at JFK on our way to Chicago, when a flight attendant ran up the aisle screaming for them to wait. "We have an empty seat."

We moved back to the jet way, the door was opened and someone else boarded. God forbid some luck passenger should have an empty seat next to him.