FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Inconsistent carry on baggage policy or just gate agent having a bad day?
Old Dec 17, 2015 | 6:39 pm
  #58  
greg99
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Originally Posted by FlyingNone
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We do have clear objectives in place. It's basic, simple.....the bag just has to fit into the sizer, not have to be CRAMMED into it. There's a big difference between actually fitting and FORCING an item into something.
To paraphrase one of my favorite movies, you keep using the word "fit" - I do not think it means what you think it means.

So, I haven't followed you/your posts, but I'm guessing that you're in a customer facing role for UA. If not, I apologize.

If so, your comment illustrates why passengers frequently get frustrated with you and your colleagues, and regularly (including in this thread) accuse UA gate agents (and other customer service personnel) of making up rules.

Merriam-Webster defines the verb "fit" as:

2
a : to conform correctly to the shape or size of <it doesn't fit me anymore>
b (1) : to insert or adjust until correctly in place <fit the mechanism into the box> (2) : to make or adjust to the right shape and size <fitting the jacket to the customer> (3) : to measure for determining the specifications of something to be worn by <fitted him for a new suit>
c : to make a place or room for

[the other meanings of "fit" aren't relevant in this discussion]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fit
You'll notice that nowhere in that definition is the concept of "ease" or "difficulty" or "slide" or "force" discussed in there - it certainly doesn't suggest that it is somehow antonymic of "cramming." In fact, to the contrary, definition b(1) of "fit" explicitly says that that something fits when it is inserted or adjusted until correctly in place.

With all due respect, may I suggest that if a customer service representative (in any position, not just at an airline), in the process of interacting with customers, decides that a definitional analysis of a particular word is relevant to how they interact with those customers (e.g., "fit"), that representative should consider whether there's an entirely different way of handling that interaction.

Particularly if that representative doesn't necessarily fully comprehend the dictionary definition of the word in question.

Greg
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