in some cases i've seen fastboot command return error on console but actually succeed in executing the wanted behavior, so it might be the case here that our boot.img did successfully boot.
by 'device reboots and trying to start android', do you mean the device actually rebooted again to bootloader stage (e.g. vibrate and show manufacturer logo), or just boot android without that step? an easy way to confirm this is by holding fastboot or recovery hotkey right after fastboot command. if it did reboot and start again from bootloader it will enter fastboot/recovery, but if it didn't and actually booted our new boot.img it would just boot android