This Flight is Closed

"This flight is closed."
"What?!"
"This flight is closed. It closes an hour before departure. No puedo ayudarte, has perdido tu vuelo."


I had just asked for my boarding pass at the Miami gate, to which I arrived after walking an unnecessary terminal over and back. They're serious about their Spanish on LAN Ecuador, it comes before English in every conversation. But in either language, I wasn't leaving that counter without a boarding pass.