I did ask to speak to a manager. I assumed it was the station manager. I just disembarked a 14 hour flight. Wanted to get home an hour earlier. Did the exact same thing on the exact same flight the week prior. Priority hotline also said wait until you land in DFW to do it and it would be no problem. When arriving after customs, was told I couldn't do it as my bags wouldn't make it. I said no problem, I'd pick my bags top the next day. Then told it was under 45 minutes . However, there was a lady at the baggage claim was on the same earlier flight home. Finally was told that it's not possible to do so since I was coming from an international flight. Turns out that that is the actual policy. I was confused and told them that I had been allowed to do it the week before and that another agent(phone) had told me possible. When I said I said I didn't think the inconsistency was the right way to treat their priority costumers, an agent 5 kiosks down yelled to me to "go fly another airline then". I approached him and said I was reporting his comment and was taking a picture of his ID. He said if I did he would cancel my flight. When I started to do so, he lunged across the scale, knocked my bags down and removed my tags. When I went to get new ones, they said my flight was canceled. Asked to speak to the manager. Did so and asked under what grounds my ticket was canceled. Said he couldn't tell me. Manager obviously stuck by his colleague. The Twitter team said they stand by their decision. They should only be able to cancel my ticket if I'm a threat to myself or someone else. If I was a threat why would they openly and willingly tell me I was welcome to buy a ticket on the same flight they just canceled?

If readers didn't already know that foisting a phone to film airline employees is generally never a good idea, the comments by some posters might prove helpful in avoiding similar situations. That seems to accomplish something...

Genuinely curious because it's been quite some time since flying through PHL, why is it getting such a bad rap?

Unless you are on-board their aircraft or at their HQ, airline photography policies do not apply to public areas of the airport.

Because grabbing a customer's phone and smashing it/throwing it at them doesn't come as a surprise to PHL regulars, given the observed/experienced behavior of US/AA PHL employees over many years.

I.e It gets a bad rap because it's very bad.

1.) The first manager you request at any airport is never the Station Manager. Ever. They are usually difficult to get a hold of, and require at least 2 levels of managerial escalation. The handful of managers I've interacted with, and had to request the SM, always replied to my question of "Are you the Station Manager?" with "I am a Manager." Not the same thing. The SM will be the ultimate managerial authority present at the airport for that carrier.

2.) The lady at baggage claim may have been originally ticketed on the earlier flight, thus she was already checked in all the way through and the 45 minute rule didn't apply to her.

3.) I've never witnessed or personally experienced a situation where a check in counter agent 5 counters down could hear me/the passenger. Someone's voice in the original AAgent interaction was likely raised if they could hear either of you 5 counters down.

4.) There was no reason to engage the yelling agent. Maybe take note of their name, and ask for a Manager (I would have asked specifically for the SM on an unexplained, cancelled ticket, as well as the actions of the violent AAgent you mentioned; taking your property via bag tags would have made me immediately disengage the agent and engage Airport Police). The SM of a mega hub for AA like DFW isn't always available, but a direct report at least will be, and will have much greater authority than the first two levels of agents/supervisors at the ticket counter.

Online complaints are pointless for issues like this; bad actors need to be addressed on the spot, by local management. The best way to do this is to calmly and professionally escalate and report to those supervisors on duty at the airport. This likely would have also prevented cancellation of your ticket [by the way, how did an AAgent who didn't have your reservation pulled up find your ticket to cancel it?]; engaging with an unprofessional employee directly without requesting immediate management intervention is unnecessary.

Whether or not the photography policy applies to "public areas of the airport" is obviously not the issue here; rather the issue is what how to avoid these types of situations either when pax or GAs behave badly. Personally, I would have just paid the fee and walked away to seek resolution elsewhere and not pulled out a cell phone.

But, I was curious to see how others have dealt with this because as someone who unfortunately connects through PHL rather often, the level of customer service is abysmal, and I would prefer to avoid outcomes perhaps from insight on these types of threads.

Well I can agree with you in that sense. While I don't mainly connect through PHL, I do find myself going through there from time to time. When dealing with CS agents/gate agents at PHL, I either don't try to interact with them at all or if I have to, I make it short and all business, and if I don't get a satisfactory result I end the conversation and either wait until I'm at the next airport (for me CLT) or on the phone.

Bag tags have your PNR.

Another reason not to give away one's personal property to a random stranger, employee or otherwise.

Sounds like in this instance, the employee ripped the tags off, themselves.

Good to know....now. I haven't had the need to engage in a manager or station manager in the nearly 30 years of being in the AA program. I understand these folks deal with all kinds of people and let whatever attitude I may get roll off me.

She absolutely was. My point was it wasn't impossible. The main point of the extended conversation was that I had been given the previous flight upon traversing the same routing the week prior. They even delivered my bag to my home when it didn't make it. It took far too long for them to eventually state that it was against policy (even setting precedent the week before). If they had said that initially then the results would've been different, I'm sure.


Well, sir, if you had flown AA 262 ex PEK-DFW on May 8 you would've found, upon clearing immigration and collecting your bag, an empty set of check in counters occupied by 3 agents on the far right and one gentleman, named Kirk, all the way 30' away at the counter own the left.

Again, hindsight is awesome. I did not have a grand plan going into this. I was simply trying to get home after a 14 hour flight. I wanted to make a report and I attempted to get a picture of his ID. I was surprised he did what he did. My immediate concern was getting home. Having someone rip off your bag tags presents a new set of problems. I went outside to check in to re-check my begs and , when told my ticket was canceled, asked for a manager. Never heard of or knew there was a position called 'station manager' until I heard back from Twitter.


Yes, they were useless online. Yet a majority of responders on this site say to reach out on Twitter, that the response is usually positive.

BYW, while you feel you seem to have all the right answers, I'm baffled that you , the expert, has no idea that your flight information and name are on your bag tags.

Philly is my home town and my home airport. It really is a great place to live but I completely understand the frustrations outsiders have. The attitude does defy logic and it's not confined to the airport. And in the airport, it isn't confined to GA's. Many people get their jobs based on who they know. It's also how the vendors land their contracts at PHL. It is far from being a meritocracy. The good thing about being based in PHL is that I'm sort of desensitized to most things that happen at other airports.....except a flight I had through DFW once......