DannyJohnson

moderators: I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, if its not could you please move it to the appropriate forum, thank you.

Yesterday morning my girlfriend and I had an 8am flight from Honolulu to Chicago w/ a layover in LAX for 2 hours. We arrive at the airport and check in and make it to my gate by 6:45 am. Now I am a Hawaiian Airlines Premier club member, I pay $150 a year to get better treatment and added benefits. I checked 2 bags and now have with me a backpack and 2 small duffel bags as carry-on.



As I approach the gate to board the plane I am stopped by a 50-60 year old man who tells me that "we have a problem" and I'm going to need to get out of line and go with him. I tell my girlfriend to stay in line and board, I would meet her on the plane. He walks me over to the ticket counter at the gate and begins to tell me that I am breaking the rules and not being fair to everyone else by having 3 carryons. I tell him that I only have 2 small carry ons and a backpack, much like a purse, is only a personal item and I didn't see it as being a carryon. He gets upset with me and tells me I have 3 options:



1) check the bag with him, pay $100, go to baggage claim at LAX, get the bag, recheck it through to Chicago and pay another $100, so this small bag that is no bigger then 8lbs and 10 inches tall was gonna cost me $200.

2)go back through security to the main ticket check in and check my bag through to Chicago fro $100 (about 1000 yards away), if I did this I would likely miss the plane because he wasn't going to hold it for me and there was only ~20 people left to board and 15 minutes till takeoff.

3)miss the plane entirely



I then asked him if I could gate check the bag like they do with strollers and he laughingly told me it wasn't an option and the only options I had were the 3 I listed, this is ........ I have gate checked carryons before without a problem.

I then asked if i could have my girlfriend come off the plane and take it as her carry one but he tells me no I cant because he saw he board the plane with 3 bags: a purse, laptop bag, and a camera bag. which then led me to question why I was singled out if he had observed her with too many bags also.

Because I didn't want to miss the plane and my girlfriend had already boarded I chose option 2 and ran my ... off to get my bag checked.



I arrive at the ticket counter and explain my situation to three ticket agents who were with other customers, one of them put the people she was with on hold to quickly assist me. She took care of everything in a record 5 minutes. So I run back through security and on to the gate where everyone else has boarded and all that remains is the dbag who made me do all this is waiting at the gate accepting boarding passes. Before handing him mine I take a piece of paper and ask him to write his name and info on it so I could file a formal complaint due to his unfair treatment and lack of cooperation. He fills out the information on a gate check form and hands it to me.



At this time the woman who helped check my bag through has come to the gate to make sure I get on the flight and remind me to keep my baggage claim ticket. I thank her for her help, tell her that I couldn't have made the flight without her and I appreciate it. This gate agent mockingly thanks her also (it was obvious he was doing everything he could to make me miss my flight). I give him my boarding pass and as he returns it to me I say to him "honestly you've been no help at all, you can go [expletive deleted] yourself". As I turn and enter the tunnel he grabs me by the front of the shirt and the straps of my back pack and pushes me up against the wall of the tunnel and says to me "how about I just keep you here and you miss your flight" I tell him that’s not gonna happen and ask him what hes doing. At which point he uses his body weight as leverage to throw me to the ground.



At this point I'm in shock like ... just happened I get up and just rush onto the plane so I didn’t miss the flight. I'm visibly shaken up and I immediately inform the flight crew of what just happens and my intentions to file a report.



To make matters worse, I had microfracture knee surgery in December, when he threw me to the ground I landed on my knee and the combination of the two caused me considerable amounts of pain during the course of both flights and since. I filed a report on the plane and emailed Hawaiian Airlines about the incident. However I have been unable to reach them by phone, all of their offices are closed on the weekends.


I realize that telling him to go [expletive deleted] himself was rude and a dick move but I felt overwhelmed and provoked and wanted to let him know that I didn't appreciate him in anyway for going above and beyond to make my day difficult. in retrospect I regret saying it. but in no way does it justify him laying hands on and assaulting me, there is no amount of verbal provocation that justifies this action in an industry where your dealing with customers on a regular basis.

just to be clear this man was a gate agent working for Hawaiian Airlines. he was NOT a security guard, TSA agent, or any person with authority to detain, search, or any other action that requires physical contact.

Rambuster

Unbelievable story !
If you really want to take legal action, I would recommend to edit your post and remove the pieces of information which could be used against you in court ...

Welcome to FT DannyJohnson !

GITU

Wow, unbelievable. Do these things not make the news anymore?

Why didn't you contact the police the second this happened and you were free?

LAX

Just curious about how far into the tunnel was the OP when this happened? Any potential witnesses? If not, it's going be OP's words against the GA's words.

LAX

DannyJohnson

I was maybe 3 feet into the tunnel, I am not sure if anyone saw it because I wasnt looking as soon as I got up I just rushed onto the plane to get away from the situation because I was in shock, I think the woman who helped me at the ticket counter could see it because she was 15 feet away making sure I got on the flight and I had just thanked her seconds before.
several flight attendants told me the heard the commotion but didn't see anything, they could see I was visibly very shaken up and were very helpful the entire flight.

something this made me think of is if it is my word vs his and he claims that I assaulted him or did something to him I think its a very safe bet to assume that the plane would have been stopped, I would have been escorted out by security and then arrested. however since this didn't happen I think it plays to my advantage it if becomes a he said she said argument.

orlandodlplat

Let me get this straight.

You tried to break the rules regarding carry-on bag allowance.

You tried to justify this by acting like you deserved it, since you paid to be a member of the lounge. I know of no airline that makes carry-on exceptions for lounge membership.

The GA was taking your boarding pass... you were about to get on the plane, you were home free... and you CURSE AT HIM?

DannyJohnson

I've never had anything remotely similar to this happen to me before, I'm not sure what the procedure with this sort of this is. when I got on the plane they were ready for take off and the cabin door closed behind me. I was so visibly shaken and upset that I was sobbing due to embarrasment and humiliation by being tackled by this old man (I'm 23), I felt humiliated. I was just rambling almost incoherently about what had happened in shock the flight attendants calmed me down and asked me to remain calm in order to take off because I was scaring the other passengers. I told them I would and asked if they would give me paper to write the report. at this time cell phones were required to be turned off and when I got to LAX I wasn't sure if it was appropriate to call the police there as its not their jurisdiction. I thought filing a report and seeking legal action would be enough.

I wasn't concsiously trying to break the rules, it was a misunderstanding of what I thought was allowed and what was. upon discovering that I was wrong I was cooperative in making right my mistake. however due to the circumstances, knee surgery/being a premier member I thought there would be some way he could accomodate me (I wasn't trying to avoid the $100 fee I was trying to avoid miles of walking at LAX to retreive my bag and recheck it and the running to check my bag in HNL to get on the flight in time) I was completely willing to pay the $ for my bag just not twice over for the same bag when it is completely possible that they can check my back all the way through to chicago. he said the only way the would be possible is if I went all the way back out of security to the original check in ticket counter which I ended up doing. there were numerous other options he could've taken but instead he chose to be the least helpful and accomodating person ever and made an injured man run, it wasn't neccessarry. he kept implying that I would miss the flight no matter what I did and it was my fault for being such a rebel and not listening.

TEX277

I must admit that I find it quite ironic that you identify that he was doing everything he could to make you miss your flight and yet when you give him a perfect excuse to refuse you travel he resists.

You abuse him, he abuses you and you make your flight. Not quite sure what you have to complain about.

IMHO all around

nigelloring

What is your point?

DannyJohnson

what excuse did I give hiim to refuse travel?

elitetraveler

Swearing at him; up to that point you were good to go. By the same token, swearing at him doesn't allow him to assault you so you should have recourse from that perspective.

Jaimito Cartero

It sounds like two people went above and beyond in the a-hole department. I can take three carryon bags on almost any flight, but don't because the time it takes to explain why (DME), is usually not worth it.

If you were serious about it, you should have called the police then, and not just whine about it here. Using nasty language when dealing with anyone is just not acceptable. You're certainly not going to get a "Thank you, sir" for such a response.

What I often don't get, is that people have three items, is that they can often put one of the smaller items inside another, and then there are no problems. I also recall that on some airlines camera bags are excluded from the bag count.

dgwright99

If the 2 bags were as small as the OP states, it seems to me that he had a 4th option - go buy a bag that would hold both the small bags. If they really were small, then maybe just a plastic shopping bag from the news stand would have been sufficient.

N830MH

You can't assaulted with HA employment like that. I am really not appreciate it for your behavioral in HNL. So because you are required only 1 carryon & 1 small personal items included laptop, purse, backpack and etc. You can't carry more than 3 carryon bags. You have to be checked the bags at the jetbridge and this is not unacceptable for trying to carrying all 3 items into the aircraft. If you are trying breaking the rules and you would being banned for flying any commercial airplanes for rest the life.

thepointsguy

Do you really believe that if someone tries to take an extra carry-on, they should be banned from flying any commercial airplane for life? I know you are a fearless defender of the airlines, but that seems a bit extreme.