arollins

I think OP has been NEW to AA for well over 1.5 years based on his previous postings.

cestmoi123

Yeah, but anybody who flew that much on US would presumably view any check-in experience where the staff didn't insult his/her spouse and children and immediately sell all their baggage on eBay as a pleasant surprise.

MrAndy1369

Haha, wow. I mean, my interactions with pmUS staff weren't always completely positive, but there were many employees who were friendly, helpful, and did what they could. The way some people paint pmUS staff here makes it sound like US had the worst staff possible out there out of all airlines.

FWIW, I've had some negative interactions with pmAA employees, way before the merger was even a twinkle in the collective eye. Remember Helen (orange juice incident in 2009)? I didn't experience it firsthand, but that's an example.

And, to be fair, I had some excellent pmAA interactions and some negative pmUS interactions. In the end, it was all a wash.

cestmoi123

Yeah, I was largely kidding. I had a series of bad experiences with pmpmUS (i.e. US Air), most of which weren't staff being unpleasant, but disorganization/not being hugely competent, and that's colored my view ever since.

scnzzz

Mostly T2, at least ever since AA moved there. Also a fair bit of international, both UA and other carriers. I use T3 occasionally when flying UA, and T1 once before US moved to T2. So I suppose all of them.

About the supervisor, afraid I don't know - I've never had to ask for one. Sorry!

no2chem

I would suggest this (and this is my plan going on):

1) Avoid check-in agent, if at all possible. The only three cases you should have to see a check-in agent is if you have a bag or if you have an international flight, or if you managed to miss your flight and the electronic bp on AA app won't show any more.

2) If you have a bag, attempt to use express bag drop-off (I think this is there at SFO).

3) If flying internationally, the kiosks can scan your passport now, so this works for most visa-free countries.

4) If you don't have bags and have missed your flight or have a complicated international itinerary, consider buying a refundable ticket from either AA or VX (which also flies out of that terminal) to bypass the check-in counter and get through security, and canceling that ticket after.

5) In the unfortunate case that you have to see a check-in agent (for example, you are not flying to a visa-free country), go to the agent and nod your head and accept any fees until they print a boarding pass and accept your bags. If you have a complicated international itinerary, insist that you are permitted to travel there until they give up hassling you (may take up to 30 minutes or more). You might also try to convince them to just tag your bags to your intermediate connection point in the US (since AA doesn't fly internationally out of SFO).

6) Deal with everything at the lounge - which will quickly get anything broken fixed. If they charged you, chargeback. Probably this is the only way to get AA to reeducate the agents.

scnzzz

Clearly, YMMV, but I strongly disagree with #1 and #2. I've had nothing but positive experiences thus far. I do hope your future experiences are better than what you appear to have run into thus far.

Separately, some, myself included, would consider #4 to be borderline fraudulent. Not something I'd recommend or endorse.

no2chem

I don't think #4 is borderline fradulent at all (or anywhere near), surely many here have bought a ticket and cancelled within 24 hours, I don't think this is any different. It's not like I'm suggesting buy a first class ticket and going into the lounge with it. It's not like you don't have a valid ticket to enter the secure area _already_, you just can't get a bp because of the check-in agent (well, it's more like... getting a bp from the check-in agent will take 30 mins worth of stupidity...) I wouldn't suggest doing it regularly either, only in cases of extreme emergency: for example: you missed your SFO-ORD flight and there is a SFO-LAX-ORD flight with availability, that flight is BOARDING, and you don't have a boarding pass for whatever reason.

If you go to the check-in desk, you (1) most definitely will not make it, (2) probably you will have to beg them just to put you on standby SFO-ORD.

Though, I would suggest not doing it with AA since they seem to take forever to ticket reservations.

In addition, maybe you've been really lucky, but it only takes one bad apple to hold you up long enough that you almost miss your flight. I also happen to fly out of SFO about 3-4x a week, and in the early evenings, so maybe that's increased my odds. I guess it also depends a lot on your interactions with them. If you're just doing a simple domestic or international itinerary, probably there won't be an issue. Anything else, well, YMMV --- which is not good if time is a factor.

JonNYC

While it can be definitely argued what the chances are of getting in trouble for it (very, very low if done a single time, for sure,) it can -not- be argued that it's not explicitly against AA's T&C's to buy a ticket one has no intention of using-- it absolutely is.

no2chem

Ah yes, why the AA CoC specifically does prohibit purchasing a ticket solely to access airport facilities, it appears that the VX CoC has no such provision. So I would suggest going with VX. And obviously only if you really have to.

JonNYC

and goes on to prohibit "...to circumvent any of American Airlines' fare rules or policies" (lest anyone make the claim that this scheme doesn't technically violate the "access airport facilities" portion.)

swy

I don't understand this part. Are you saying that AAngels can reverse the fees that you accepted earlier and change the destination of the bags even though they are already checked in? I never had the need for either of these two, but I surely will keep this in mind if this is true.

corncob

#4) seems like extreme overkill. If you're flying 3-4x a week out of SFO, you're surely EXP and will be rebooked on a connection or could simply call the EXP line on the way to the airport.

#5) Try to convince them to tag your bags to some arbitrary intermediate point, especially if you're showing less than a few hour layover? I would think that doing so would indicate to them that you're trying to do something sketchy or circumvent the system, and maybe question you more? Do you take this creative workaround approach anytime you run into problems? If so, perhaps that contributes to your bad experiences

corncob

OP, can you shed some light on this one? If I recall correctly, you were asking in another thread about booking separate tickets for you on AA vs your wife and kids on QF.

In the rare combination of booking that you
1) booked the domestic legs for your wife & kids separately from yours,
2) booked their domestic legs separately from the int'l legs, and
3) your wife and kids aren't at least AA Gold,
then being charged for 3 bags would have been correct (you could have done 4 of the 7 if on a TPAC ticket yourself)...

sfoflyer12

My own theory is that the AC agents generally aren't so burnt out by the stuff the regular checkin / gate agents deal with.

The AC agents also seem to last longer in one place - has anyone noticed this?

Bottom line they are more familiar / know more about the common issues at their airport = distinctly better service.

I don't understand why the computers cannot just tell agents what to charge though when they put in the number of bags to check. Mostly an issue with non AA staff entirely on partner flights - but be great if if the computers could talk to each other. F ticket on connecting overwater flight, elite, credit card - whatever, just automate it.