lokijuh

dls25

Short-checking is literally not an option for gate agents. They scan the bp and generate a tag and there is no way for them to manipulate the system to remove flights from the tag. The supervisor valet tagged the bag to get around this but that is against company policy.
​​​​​

omaralt

Uzzar

Yes I am sure. You are not gate checking your stoller, you are valet checking it. Note the terminology on the valet tag.

LAX_Esq

You're either an AApologist, or you totally misread the entire OP. If someone has to kick and scream and put up a huge fight and get aggravated and deal with a nasty/rude AAgent making up his own policies, that isn't "getting what he wants" even if the supervisor ultimately resolved the dispute in his favor.

And AA management as well as the general public (i.e., the FlyerTalk community) ought to know about what happened, not that AA will care one lick or do a darn thing about it.

DCP2016

Man I wish I became a gate agent because that is job security for life, nothing, and I mean NOTHING will get them fired. Corporate individuals, ground crew, and even FA's and pilots in the right circumstances can and will be fired. I've never heard of a gate agent being fired though, and boy there are some who shouldn't be in any customer service role, and AA employs about 97% of them.

Antarius

I know that short checking is not allowed, but certain things like wheelchairs, walkers, carseats etc are tagged, stowed in the hold and delivered at the jet bridge on landing .

Given a bag of baby food and diapers etc. Isnt that conceptually far off from the reason for a getting a car seat or booster seat back, why could this not be tagged as such?

Exactly. I had a GA tell me i couldnt standby for a flight later. Another GA said since FC was "full" he wouldnt put me on the upgrade list.

The former was resolved by having to find another GA (ran out of time on the latter and voila, 2 pax misconnected), but expecting the pax to just shrug and accept making extra effort for basic, easily avoidable problems is not right.

ryan182

Maybe I'm wrong but I thought the FC valet tags were for CRJs to give priority to FC bags given pretty much everyone needs to gate check/valet their carry ons on those flights and the idea (which seldom worked) was they would be put in the jetway first. Also, while it's thankfully been a while since I've had the displeasure of being on a CRJ, I also recall that experiment was ended (though again I may be incorrect on that) and note your tag is from 2016.

Regardless, I don't think the OP was unreasonable in their request and clearly it was possible to accommodate them, but even if it was not it doesn't sound like the GA handled the customer interaction in a way I'd want anyone I employ to do so.

flyinggum

OP, you must not be a frequent flyer... rule #1 you never confront an airline employee

ryan182

and yet the OP did and it worked out...so clearly not a rule . That said, probably lucky this was TPA and not MIA as I could see it ending very differently there.

LAX_Esq

This is why OP deserves a medal. If we had more brave souls like OP and Dr Dao -- who have the chutzpah to stand up for what's right and and confront an airline employee who can play the 9/11 card and haul them off to jail (and beat them up along the way) -- we wouldn't have rule #1 anymore.

btonkid12345

OP deserves a medal? For not knowing policies, starting a thread that rants, and saying he isn't violent but wanted to knock someone's teeth in?

I disagree. There are many cases when standing up to airline employees is legit. This is not one. Causing a scene at the gate because you have a child/children and couldn't plan ahead to take a few scoops of formula and a diaper out of a rollerboard into an under-seat carry on is just over the top.

s0ssos

I think I can summarize your response quite well:
"I disagree. Because you have children."

omaralt

lol i definitely dont deserve a medal.

I"m going to assume that the policy is that you gate check the bag to the final destination (but i would love to see this in writing somewhere). now had the agent said "i'm sorry sir, but we cannot check your carry on to charlotte. here is a plastic bag, please put your diapers and formula in this so you can carry it on the plane. again i really apologize but there is no room left" i would have probable went for it. however he was a huge <redacted by moderator>. blaming me for being late; even though he knew why (the ticket agent called ahead to let them know we were on the way" and honestly he seemed to take pleasure in knowing how much he was inconveniencing us; the smirk on his face said it all..

having said that i find it absurd that there are a decent amount of people who are ok with this policy. the only thing that i can think is you guys have a case of stockholm syndrome...

i mean think logically for a second. you have one carry on bag (forget the fact that there is a baby involved with diapers and formula) on an international trip. you have a 3 hour connection somewhere followed by an 8 hour flight. you think it's ok for AA to take your carry on and give it to you 10-12 hours later? headphones? toothbrush? all the things you expected to have in the next 12 hours or so will now be delivered to your final destination simply because they dont want to gate check it, even though they are perfectly capable of it?? if you think this is ok then you have been abused for far too long and need to seek therapy

and i completely understand that they want to get rid of hidden city ticketing; but how hard is it to log on and see your ticket? do you really think a family of 5 on an international trip is going to walk away in charlotte? lol

and again i really want to see this policy in writing

no1cub17

I'm still confused as to what the issue was with the infant ticket. OP, did AA tell you any more about this? I'm going to guess they just blamed travelocity. Sounds like if you could have checked in normally, you could've entirely avoided this brouhaha. Lesson learned though, always keep some formula and diapers in your personal item!