AA Skycaps Caught in Baggage Scam at MIA

 
Old Nov 18, 2010, 9:47 am
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AA Skycaps Caught in Baggage Scam at MIA

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_spoint...tional-airport

Police arrested 15 baggage handlers at Miami International Airport yesterday for allegedly accepting cash from travelers to secretly check in extra or overweight bags, The Associated Press reported. The scam created a possible security risk and added unrecorded weight to planes.

Skycaps at MIA can waive fees for wheelchairs, strollers and bags belonging to military personnel. But to make extra money, the suspects allegedly used those exceptions to check in unreported bags or boxes and pocketed the cash instead of giving it to the airline. In some cases, unaccompanied bags were shipped to Latin America, in apparent violation of federal transportation regulations for international flights.

A nine-month investigation, spearheaded by Miami-Dade police airport district detectives, American Airlines security and state prosecutors, led to the arrests. According to The Miami Herald, most of the baggage handlers were charged with participating in an organized scheme to defraud and grand theft.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 9:52 am
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This sure isn't going to improve the opinion that many here have about MIA

Cheers.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 9:54 am
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I dunno, I'd be more worried if it truly was a skyPaps scam at MIA.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 12:27 pm
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It's been happening for years, at many airports. Apparently, they are cracking down on it. There are lots of older threads here that advise doing just this.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 12:50 pm
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This was common, at least pre-9/11. The baggage was not weighed by the ticket agent, but was presumably weighed before takeoff as gross weight.

The skycaps would take $20 for overweight or oversized luggage, tag it, and put it onto the conveyor belt.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 2:32 pm
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Now, with a la carte fees and baggage fees and overweight limits, AA has reason to pay more attention to the somewhat common practice. I wonder who initiated the complaint?
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 2:54 pm
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Originally Posted by wildaboutmovies
The scam created a possible security risk and added unrecorded weight to planes.
This assertion strikes me as total BS. Am I missing something? The bags had to be tagged and had to clear security, even if systems were manipulated so the extra bag fee did not have to be collected.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 2:57 pm
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Apparently, AA management determined that it's now a "security risk". Therefore, they had to crack down on this "illegal" practice.

This has been done as long as skycaps have existed. I remember my parents doing this when I was a child in the 70's. Why is it now a "security risk"?

I am frankly getting tired of everything being blamed on security. If we want to be totally safe, then we would have to put up with the same security that El Al does on their flights.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 3:01 pm
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Originally Posted by brp
This sure isn't going to improve the opinion that many here have about MIA

Cheers.
For me not really, could happen anywhere. Personally, I hope I'm never that feeble that I can't schlep my bags to the check in agent and moreover I hope that checking a bag continues to be a very rare situation for me.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 3:09 pm
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Originally Posted by formeraa
Apparently, AA management determined that it's now a "security risk". Therefore, they had to crack down on this "illegal" practice.
No, AA decided it's a revenue risk. It's also employee theft. Why shouldn't they crack down on it?
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 3:34 pm
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Originally Posted by Blumie
This assertion strikes me as total BS. Am I missing something? The bags had to be tagged and had to clear security, even if systems were manipulated so the extra bag fee did not have to be collected.
+1 And no one is weighing all the bags and adding it up either. It's entirely about the bag check fees.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 3:43 pm
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Originally Posted by formeraa
Apparently, AA management determined that it's now a "security risk". Therefore, they had to crack down on this "illegal" practice.
How is it not a security risk? When excess/overweight bags get accepted off the books, their weight doesn't get counted. This could lead to a erroneous input of total take off weight which could lead to the wrong take-off settings being input in the plane's computers. There HAVE been airline accidents precisely because of this.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 3:45 pm
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Originally Posted by i_fly_AA
How is it not a security risk? When excess/overweight bags get accepted off the books, their weight doesn't get counted.
No bags are getting loaded without being tagged. They're just tagged in a way that doesn't subject them to the excess baggage fee.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 3:51 pm
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Originally Posted by i_fly_AA
How is it not a security risk? When excess/overweight bags get accepted off the books, their weight doesn't get counted. This could lead to a erroneous input of total take off weight which could lead to the wrong take-off settings being input in the plane's computers. There HAVE been airline accidents precisely because of this.
for small regional jets, yes. For large Boeing 777s, highly doubt it.
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Old Nov 18, 2010, 6:41 pm
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interesting. Just a couple of months ago at MIA a skycap refused to check my 51 pound bag without extra charges. I called a supervisor over who agreed it couldnt be checked for free. According to him it might create the impression that any tips were for the "favor" of allowing me one extra pound. I thought it was odd to be making such a big deal out of one extra pound. I took the bag inside (they made no offer to wheel it in for me) where it weighed less than 50 lbs and the ticket agent checked it with no problem (I have no doubt she would have checked it even if it would have weighed in at 51 lbs). This thread makes me wonder if the skycap was going to try to charge me excess luggage and pocket it. The conversation didn't get as far as where and how much I needed to pay, as I wasn't about to pay for a measly pound. Obviously, I didn't even tip them.
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