Passmethesickbag

+1. It is quite out of proportion to the bad impression created on high-value customers who are accused individually or as a group. One of my friends was unjustly and aggressively accused of having nicked a headset on his first business class flight on AA. He's never set foot on an AA plane again.

Doc Savage

I was sitting in the back of Y once when an FA couldn't find his art sketch book mid flight, and started searching all over.

Some other nosey FA took it upon herself to begin making increasingly accusatory announcements, clearly implying a pax had stolen it, until finally the embarrassed initial FA made her stop.

I almost reported the accusatory one, but didn't want to get the other poor guy in trouble, too.

Really weird.

nrr

When they distribute IFE (including headphones), they usually make a notation on paper of who received them (some pax don't want them). For many bc flights I've flown, (an hour) before landing they collect what was distributed--they rarely check off the return at that moment, that's done (I guess(?)) in the galley. I've always been uncomfortable with that procedure--am I being "credited" with my return?

pewpew

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BB10; Touch) AppleWebKit/537.35+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.3.1.2576 Mobile Safari/537.35+)

I thought you always sat in F

cbn42

They certainly can't hold you there indefinitely, but I think they could justify searching your carryons on the way out if they really wanted to.

Doc Savage

I really doubt it. Maybe police could, but the airline would open itself up to lawsuits.

arollins

This is where the problem starts with. They never checked off the paper. It clearly shows seat assignment, and right under it HEADSET, TABLET, ADAPTER. As they are handed out, they get marked, but not checked o cross-referenced when collected. I have my own pair of Bose, and have experienced the double checking and FA asking if those are the AA headphones.

Dr. HFH

I agree, the same as in a department store.

Phasers

Was on a flight NRT-DFW (777-200) in December and a nose headset went missing.

First announcement was along the lines of "We're missing a few Bose headsets, please check and make sure you don't have one."

Second announcement was more "We're still missing one Bose headset, we need them all to be accounted for so please double check around you and make sure it hasn't fallen beside your seat"

Third announcement was a bit more forceful and was more "Ladies and gentlemen we really need all Bose headsets returned, so whoever has the headset please return it."

And finally, the final announcement was along the lines of "Ok guys we are still missing the final Bose headset. I guess some people just want bad Karma in their lives. The headphones are not yours to keep and this is stealing."

(Obviously I am paraphrasing the announcements).

It appears whoever refused to return the headphones kept them and deplaned with them. No threats were made and no one was prevented from deplaning.

flatlander

Maybe it works out even in the end; some people take the AA Boses, some people leave their personal Boses, other headsets, iPads, iPhones, Kindles, etc, etc onboard

Hokie Gator Flyer

I haven't flown business on an AA 777-300 (was US flyer)...do regular/personal headphones work with the ife? Just asking because I'll have personal kid sized headphones for DD (5 years old). I'm afraid the Bose ones provided might be too large for her so I thought she'd probably just use hers.

JetAway

The FAs should do everything reasonable and consistent with good customer service to retrieve headsets. But inevitably some will be lost to "spoilage." In the end, we pay for that in ticket prices.

Mark_T

You just need to use one of the two-prong adapters shown earlier in this thread.

They used to carry a few on the plane for passengers to borrow, not sure if they still do though so probably best to bring your own.

Microwave

Criminal jurisdiction would be a fascinating question; I would wonder where the criminal line would fall holding passengers against their will to find a set of headphones in England. In any event, I would imagine that it's not well defined in law, like many topics in England (though I'm not a solicitor, I only play one on TV). At least in the US, the only jurisdiction that would really matter is federal, since a commercial aircraft on the ground in the US with the doors closed are federal jurisdiction... Is it your suggestion that, were this to happen in the US, holding passengers on a plane would constitute a federal crime?

I would imagine, though I have no American lawyer hat to wear either, that there are carveouts in the USC and FARs that would allow airlines to get away with a lot worse than this, though I'd also imagine reasonableness and proportion would enter in at some point... I'm genuinely curious though, as this is an interesting question. ^ I'd also be curious about tort is handled in such situations: are commercial aircraft with their doors closed subject to state tort laws, or would such a suit have to be brought in federal court, under federal laws?

rjw242

I figured that whenever you set foot on an AA aircraft, you're magically transported to the legal landscape of Fort Worth (at least with regard to civil cases):