jmayo

I know I'm not the only one to witness this, but I was amused in a particularly disgusting way when I sat in the SEA BR upper level and spent 30 minutes watching the Menzies crew unload and then load bags on a -700 with the precision of those old Samsonite commercials from the '80's. I witnessed bag after bag get thrown on the belt only to fall to ground and then get rethrown over the belt to the tarmac below. There were times when they would literally slam the bag down to make sure it "stayed there". I was only just as surprised to watch the back wheel of the Harlan tug run over a small garment bag.

Actually...my concern with all of this was the fact that clearly, at gate D1...these guys know that they are being watched. What goes on in the belly of SEA where we can't see?

jddssc121

Don't worry, they don't toss your bags in the belly. They're too busy breaking the locks and stealin' stuff

sea_jeff

And some folks wonder why I'm so averse to checking my bags.

Interesting that at the recent Gold lunch a big topic for AS was improving baggage...

warmstor

I have a love/hate relationship with those window business carrells in the SEA BR: I like that I have my laptop at a roughly appropriate height rather than on a finished tree stump, but I too have watched the horrors of Menzies luggage abuse dozens of times.

Somewhat scarier was a few months ago, when I watched a Menzies ground worker clearly forget to go wave an inbound plane in. He was standing there, chatting with a pal, then looked over (or his pal said something) at the 737 rolling in to D1. He grabbed his orange sticks, and literally *sprinted* to get into position (on the starboard wing position, so the closer side to the C concourse, near that underground ramp that vehicles are regularly shooting up and down.)

I e-mailed AS customer care to mention it, and got perfect silence in return.

AlaskaSoCal

My favorite Menzies story would have to be when we were pushed back from the gate, the guys disconnected the tow bar, and then just dissapared on us without giving the clear to start engine signal. The pilots ended up having to call operations and tell them to send the workers back in order to clear us to start, all while blocking the alley (between C and D concourses) for an inbound MD80. Good times

tony2x

I worked for BAA some time ago and spent a lot of time at both LHR and LGW in the underbelly of the airport and since then I am fanatical about ensuring there is nothing breakable in my luggage.

Having said that, if you pack well enough (full bags = safer bags) you really don't suffer that much damage to the contents. But yes the adage of pay peanuts, get monkeys holds true. If you are paying someone minimum wage to throw bags in and out of planes, provide zero employee benefits then you aren't exactly going to foster good care of the bags.

Oh and I know several baggage handlers that would spy the word "FRAGILE" on a bag and make extra extra sure they treated the bag as bad was was humanly possible!

BLI-Flyer

Nest time take a video with your cell phone and post it on YouTube, then send the link to AS and post the link here.

Duckouttahere

I had some buddies who worked at one of the major overnight carriers out of high school and they said the same thing. I'm always careful how I pack for items I send in the mail or items I'm bringing home from a vacation. If you don't think it'll be safe in the luggage, bring it on board!

Another note related to this, a long time ago when visiting Seattle from the Bay Area, I tried and fell in love with Alaskan Amber. I decided I was going to bring a case of it home with me on Alaska. There were no problems and the beer arrived at the baggage claim safe and sound. I guess there's an unwritten rule with baggage handler's that beer gets extra care ,

sltlyamusd

Well, that's because the plane cannot and will not pull into the gate without ground crew to marshall it in. Obviously, you have never had to wait 10 minutes short of the gate waiting for the ground crew to show up. The fact that the Menzies worker actually *sprinted* into position as you say should be seen as encouraging!

warmstor

That's a very optimistic approach. I don't mean to be snarky, but I have indeed waited ten and twenty and more minutes short of the gate on a number of occasions, for whatever possible set of reasons.

In the case that I'm describing, I'm not terribly reassured: the 737 never slowed, never paused, except enough to make that fairly tight left turn into the gate. Mister Menzies was running the whole time until he got into position. Apparently the ground to flight deck communication didn't get across the fact that the starboard ground (flagger?) crew wasn't in position.

JPat

Excellent idea BLIf;

Better yet send it along to the local (SEA) TV news stations It's been awhile since they've had a chance to lean on Mr. Menzies et al.

My biggest Menzies irritation is waiting for an hour to get our bags and watching five or six of the crew stand around near the bag drop fussing about with a supervisor as the shift changes. It is easily the single most irritating part of coming home to SEA these days...