A couple of years ago we had a flight from Gatwick Airport in London, England to Los Angeles. To set the stage, the flight was supposed to take off at (let's say) noon. Our connecting flight brought us to that airport at about 9:00 AM, so we were there in plenty of time. We stopped to have some breakfast in a lounge that was probably two hundred yards from our gate when suddenly I see from the electronic board that our flight is not only loading, but the doors are about to close. What??? It's only 10:30 AM!!!
Needless to say, we grab our stuff and start RUNNING for the gate, and I do mean running. As we get closer, we see that lots of other people are running, too. We arrive at the gate only to find that not only are the doors not about to close, but our plane hadn't even arrived. Several of us stood at the check-in desk to find out what happened. The poor gate agent was at a loss - she apologized for the error and inconvenience while explaining that she had nothing to do with the board, and that obviously whoever entered that information had made a mistake.
One passenger became quite irate, raised his voice and demanded that he be reimbursed for a breakfast that he'd abandoned in a restaurant because of the error. The gate agent explained that he could take it up with the airport and gave him the contact info, but said she was powerless to reimburse him. He became increasingly agitated and unpleasant. The gate agent was quite taken aback and said, "You're going to have to calm down, Sir."
The man snapped back, "I AM calm!"
My husband leaned in to him and said quietly, "Not airport calm, you're not."
The gate agent looked at my husband and mouthed, "Thank you."
Next thing we knew there were two security agents at the desk asking the gate agent if there was a problem. The passenger settled down in a hurry.
Bottom line - yes, there was an error and he probably should have been reimbursed for his abandoned meal, but getting rowdy at an airport over a $15 breakfast could have cost him a whole lot more than that. Temper tantrums in an airport, on a plane or at any kind of public venue will bring out security double quick.