Airlines denying boarding / rebooking passengers who are actually on time — no clear path to recourse

Pain point

Carriers preemptively cancel/resell connecting seats; passengers arrive on time, are denied boarding, and don't know how to claim compensation (EU261, DOT) or fight back.

Signal

Strongest. 12.9K upvotes; top comment explicitly asks **"Is there some sort of agency you can file a complaint with?"** (1.1K) — a near-verbatim "does this exist?" signal. Reinforced by independent anecdotes: "Classic Iberia… same thing 8 years ago" (259) and "same thing happen to me with Frontier" (390) — i.e., recurring across airlines, not a one-off.

Opportunity

Mobile app that (a) detects your flight/connection status from a boarding pass scan, (b) when a rebooking or denied boarding occurs, instantly generates the exact legal citation (EU261 Art. 4/7, DOT 14 CFR 250) with the airline's own contact and a gate-agent script, (c) auto-files the complaint + national enforcement body report, (d) optional escalation to a claims partner for a cut. Feasibility: **medium** — rules engine + flight data API (AeroDataBox/Cirium) is quick; agent/legal content is the moat. B2C freemium or white-label for travel insurers and corporate travel.

Evidence

• Iberia rebooking post