For William Dzurilla, traveling to Europe to spend time with his grandparents is a gift.
"I was very excited," he said.
He booked his tickets weeks in advance and on the day of his scheduled departure, he says he left early for Miami International Airport.
"I do live about an hour away from the airport so ... I left almost four hours ahead," he said.
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But when he checked in at an airport kiosk, he became concerned by what he saw on his boarding pass.
"I immediately noticed that there was something wrong because it said see the representative at the front desk," he said.
Without an actual seat assigned, William made his way to the gate to speak with a representative.
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"I have to get into the line," he said. "As the departure of the plane came closer and closer, it became more chaotic and people just started coming up to the representative."
He says he asked if he could get his seat.
"He says no, you're on standby," William said he was told. "He doesn't even check the computer or anything."
The flight eventually left without him. The airline, he said, marked him as a no show.
"They didn't want to help me at all," he said. "They basically said that I missed my flight."
The airline told NBC 6 they looked into William's case and his boarding pass read "see agent" for a seat assignment, adding "...we cannot confirm that the customer checked in with an agent at the time of boarding."
"If you have on your boarding pass the note to see gate agent or get your seat assigned through the gate agent, as soon as you get through security, just go ahead and go, head to the gate and check in with the gate agent," said Scott Keyes of Scott's Cheap Flights.
Keyes said checking in with the gate agent early will ensure you get your seat assigned and help avoid any headaches.
"It was just very stressful until I finally knew I had a seat secured," William said.
William ended up having to book another flight to make it to his grandparents.
"Because of the situation where I just needed to see my grandparents," William said. "I said, ok with purchasing this ticket just so I could get there and then I went and tried to resolve the issue afterwards."
After the emailed the airline several times, they gave him 15,000 miles and $1,500 in electronic travel certificates for his troubles.
"At the end of the day, the situation did get resolved," William said. "That is positive so I'm glad."
"I just wished it was a little bit smoother," he said.
If you run into issues with an airline, the Department of Transportation recently launched a new airline customer service dashboard. You can access it by clicking here.
