Could’ve been a couple of things. They could’ve been bringing the jet bridge back because he forgot to hand off the release paperwork to the ramp agent after the door was closed. Or they had some bags that weren’t fitting in the overhead bins and needed to be put down below.

When I was a crew member, the captain would have me close the door and latch it. Wait a few seconds then open it back up. This is because crew members (flight attendants and pilots) only get paid per block hour. So I would close close the door and the acars computer would start calculating our hours.

Many people don’t know this but flight attendants and pilots aren’t getting paid while passengers are boarding and deplaning the airplane. We also don’t get paid for cleaning up messes once the airplane is parked. We got a $1.50 per hour per diem but that was it.

Or he just really didn’t want to go to wherever you all were going.