AA Agent and PHL Passenger Get Into Major Tussle
#16
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 499
Whatever is right or wrong, photographing people in the middle of disputes is guaranteed escalation. Sometimes it is exactly what is needed but other times it is exactly what is not needed.
Would a customer that wanted to file a complaint about something need to do this? With place and time/date the airline pretty well knows who was there. If necessary one can add a physical description to the complaint. I think photographing an employee of a business in response to a dispute can only be interpreted as a personal threat. What do others think? Do people think that doing this is going to suddenly persuade the TA, GA, or FA to back down and change their approach? The normal process to get that to happen is supposed to be calling a supervisor (who will also know exactly who on his side is causing a problem if anyone is.)
Also, if it is really true that the change was to the name of a different person rather than to correct an error, do they do that for a change fee? I thought you couldn't do that.
Would a customer that wanted to file a complaint about something need to do this? With place and time/date the airline pretty well knows who was there. If necessary one can add a physical description to the complaint. I think photographing an employee of a business in response to a dispute can only be interpreted as a personal threat. What do others think? Do people think that doing this is going to suddenly persuade the TA, GA, or FA to back down and change their approach? The normal process to get that to happen is supposed to be calling a supervisor (who will also know exactly who on his side is causing a problem if anyone is.)
Also, if it is really true that the change was to the name of a different person rather than to correct an error, do they do that for a change fee? I thought you couldn't do that.
#17
Join Date: Aug 2013
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#18
Join Date: Dec 2012
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#20
Join Date: Feb 2002
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Not unique to Philly. I had a ticket cancelled on me at DFW in May when I was told to "fly another airline" by an agent. I told him i was taking a pic of his ID and writing a letter to customer service. He came at me, ripped my tags off of my bag (I was transferring from a TPAC to domestic flight, trying to get an earlier connection) and told me he was canceling my ticket. He did. Station agent wouldn't tell me why it was canceled but said I could buy a new ticket on the same flight. $600 later I got home. Twitter was no help. No there isn't anything sordid to the story. I'm still in shock two months later.
#21
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: FIND ME ON TWITTER FOR THE LATEST
Posts: 27,730
Whatever is right or wrong, photographing people in the middle of disputes is guaranteed escalation. Sometimes it is exactly what is needed but other times it is exactly what is not needed.
Would a customer that wanted to file a complaint about something need to do this? With place and time/date the airline pretty well knows who was there. If necessary one can add a physical description to the complaint. I think photographing an employee of a business in response to a dispute can only be interpreted as a personal threat. What do others think? Do people think that doing this is going to suddenly persuade the TA, GA, or FA to back down and change their approach? The normal process to get that to happen is supposed to be calling a supervisor (who will also know exactly who on his side is causing a problem if anyone is.)
Would a customer that wanted to file a complaint about something need to do this? With place and time/date the airline pretty well knows who was there. If necessary one can add a physical description to the complaint. I think photographing an employee of a business in response to a dispute can only be interpreted as a personal threat. What do others think? Do people think that doing this is going to suddenly persuade the TA, GA, or FA to back down and change their approach? The normal process to get that to happen is supposed to be calling a supervisor (who will also know exactly who on his side is causing a problem if anyone is.)
Probably a last-ditch effort to try and just get the thing over with-- a waste of effort as it turns out.
#22
Join Date: Dec 2017
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So true. When they know it's on record and their a-- could be on the line, anyone in the same position will usually get their adrenaline going..
#23
Join Date: Aug 2013
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Posts: 287
I assumed that it was indeed tight, but I just checked in with the reader about this. He said T-15 and passengers were still boarding. So, the flight wasn't closed yet.
#24
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Posts: 2,988
Not unique to Philly. I had a ticket cancelled on me at DFW in May when I was told to "fly another airline" by an agent. I told him i was taking a pic of his ID and writing a letter to customer service. He came at me, ripped my tags off of my bag (I was transferring from a TPAC to domestic flight, trying to get an earlier connection) and told me he was canceling my ticket. He did. Station agent wouldn't tell me why it was canceled but said I could buy a new ticket on the same flight. $600 later I got home. Twitter was no help. No there isn't anything sordid to the story. I'm still in shock two months later.
#25
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Starting point here was that the passenger was participating in a scam, a key fact which the commercial blogger who is paid for product placements, omitted. This was not a missing letter or somesuch, nor was it an error. Rather, it was a ticket issued for some other person and passive agressive Photo Guy thought he could pull a fast one. He could not.
That alone was good reason to cancel the tickets and let the AA anti-fraud people deal with this. However, the better practice here would have been to allow AA security folks (PHL is staffed) deal with the crook.
No need to take pictures of peoples' name tags. Just write it down and leave it at that. Same thing after the second agent made the change and collected the $275. Leave it alone and file a complaint if you want.
Hopefully AA will figure this out when it gets to the bottom of the fraud. Perhaps Photo Guy has done this before.
That alone was good reason to cancel the tickets and let the AA anti-fraud people deal with this. However, the better practice here would have been to allow AA security folks (PHL is staffed) deal with the crook.
No need to take pictures of peoples' name tags. Just write it down and leave it at that. Same thing after the second agent made the change and collected the $275. Leave it alone and file a complaint if you want.
Hopefully AA will figure this out when it gets to the bottom of the fraud. Perhaps Photo Guy has done this before.
#26
Join Date: Apr 2012
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TPG author here glad to explain this situation. When I turned in the piece, that sentence noted that the "last name was wrong on the ticket". My editor misunderstood this and changed it to "last name was spelled incorrectly on the ticket." Unfortunately he didn't check with me before publishing the story, so it wasn't caught until after publishing.
This is passenger error made worse by PHL GA hostility. The rest, especially, the title, is sensationalist clickbait. But hey, it worked.
#27
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Austin, TX
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Two wrongs don't make a right. At least that's what I was taught. Once AA agreed to process a change fee, and the passenger agreed to pay it, the scam incident was over. AA chose not to pursue action against what some have called (probably correctly) a scam. At that point, the passenger was a regular customer who deserved to be treated as such. Breaking the phone is bad enough, but waiting until the customer leaves then canceling the tickets? Woo-boy. That's serious power-tripping.
But I'm not surprised. PHL is a miserable airport staffed by miserable workers who have to deal with miserable flyers every day. PHL exists to make EWR look good.
But I'm not surprised. PHL is a miserable airport staffed by miserable workers who have to deal with miserable flyers every day. PHL exists to make EWR look good.
#28
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: DC Suburbs
Programs: DL Gold, Hilton Gold, Carnival VIFP Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 459
Two wrongs don't make a right. At least that's what I was taught. Once AA agreed to process a change fee, and the passenger agreed to pay it, the scam incident was over. AA chose not to pursue action against what some have called (probably correctly) a scam. At that point, the passenger was a regular customer who deserved to be treated as such. Breaking the phone is bad enough, but waiting until the customer leaves then canceling the tickets? Woo-boy. That's serious power-tripping.
But I'm not surprised. PHL is a miserable airport staffed by miserable workers who have to deal with miserable flyers every day. PHL exists to make EWR look good.
But I'm not surprised. PHL is a miserable airport staffed by miserable workers who have to deal with miserable flyers every day. PHL exists to make EWR look good.
Last edited by aoumd; Jul 1, 2018 at 7:05 pm
#29
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This stroy is confusing. Did the gate agent cancel this guy's ticket? Or was it cancelled by someone else prior to his arriving at the gate? I also don't understand the agents at the check-in counter allowing him to pay the change fee in order ot change the name on the ticket. It should be the person who it was originally ticketed for to be the one to change the ticket, not someone else.
#30
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Rolling Lakes Yacht Club
Posts: 4,985
Let me summarize how all these threads go, for those watching at home:
1) people will feign all sort of reactions based on a forum or blog posting
2) a slurry of folks will offer how it should have been handled differently
3) a different group of legal and DOT rule “experts” will come forth with cockamamie advise
4)the why fly AA borish peanut gallery weighs in
5) it goes sideways (not that it was ever right ways up)
6) the thread will be closed without any accomplishment
Caveat: the 6 stages above are not likely chronological
1) people will feign all sort of reactions based on a forum or blog posting
2) a slurry of folks will offer how it should have been handled differently
3) a different group of legal and DOT rule “experts” will come forth with cockamamie advise
4)the why fly AA borish peanut gallery weighs in
5) it goes sideways (not that it was ever right ways up)
6) the thread will be closed without any accomplishment
Caveat: the 6 stages above are not likely chronological
Last edited by DataPlumber; Jul 1, 2018 at 6:02 pm