aama

Who said anything about checking it for free? The whole thing escalated when he was asked to pay ~300$ and he didn't want to because he only paid ~100$ on the outbound.

And as I said arguing with the cops is just a great example of how "off the mark" this guy was.

knit-in

I guess you meant to write "pay more". Fair enough.

I feel it is a legit question to ask if you are required to pay ~3x more than what you paid for the same service (presumably by the same vendor) a few days prior. Hopefully, details of what transpired will be made clearer in days to come, but I don't question his right to question.

The agent was the one "off the mark" for canceling his reservation for filming her.

FlyerTom111

It does make you wonder how much this does happen and these people have no recourse because they don't have a recording and no one believes them.

John Aldeborgh

Reading this thread has been very disappointing and frustrating for me. Who have we become.

This guy was extremely rude, the GA was got emotional which is always a mistake (wrong). Two wrongs don't make a right. In my judgement we have lost all common curtesy in this day and age. Gee, I bought a plane ticket so I have a right to get liquored up and treat the GA like Sh@%. If you treat someone with respect, in my experience, you receive the same in return. We always seem to be looking to blame someone else rather that admit we were wrong, rude or disrespectful.

This guy was being a major a-hole and in my judgement the punishment fit the behavior. At the same-time the GA needs a job rotation away from the front lines or at a minimum some training on when to just walk away. This is a rough job and everyones tolerance level is different. I know I would last about a day as a GA as I don't suffer drunks, rude or arrogant people well.

I think everyone here should ask themselves how they would both feel and react if a drunk shoved a video camera in your face in the middle of a stressful moment. I wouldn't be very pleased, I'm confident of that.

The one thing I'm sure of is that none of the people on this thread have all the facts so we are all jumping to conclusions, which is also unfair and wrong, but for some reason that seems to be acceptable today. Hence, who have we become.

apodo77

Sounded drunk as a skunk.
No faux outrage from me and he made it home.

umustbjokim

Who knows what was discussed prior to the recording began, but it seems the agent was not answering the question of why the price was $300. "Your bag is overweight (x lbs) and oversized (y linear inches). Perhaps you added souvenirs, since you traveled here. If you can remove z lbs from your bag, we can check for that same $125." And keep repeating that.

Also don't understand why she didn't have him step aside and wait for the supervisor when it was obvious there was not resolution to be reached with him.

Lastly, as I've said in other threads, I think it is too easy for airline employees to end an unpleasant situation by kicking someone off a plane. Perhaps there needs to be some sort of arbitration system for when people are forced off their flights. If no merit, the airline pays a fine and compensates customer. If merited, passenger is on hook for any fees, fare, etc. Might drive a little better behavior all the way around.

ubernostrum

Airline staff go out of their way on every flight to remind us that they wield absolute authority over passengers and that their instructions are to be obeyed immediately and without question as a matter of federal law.

Setting aside the inconvenient fact that that's not actually true -- though it is a few generations of telephone-game removed from a true statement -- the only way to obtain after-the-fact accountability is by thoroughly documenting encounters with airline staff. Ideally, one should let them make false claims to the airline/media/etc. and then spring out a recording they didn't know you had, but just the fact of knowing they're being watched and recorded can have a significant effect on some people's behavior.

jr0ck

I think the counter agent did a terrible job handling this situation. He captured that on video. Regardless of his motives, this attitude within United needs to change. There shouldn't be "opportunities" to be made to begin with. Customer service agents that aren't trained or have the capacity to handle people like this shouldn't work in customer service.

As someone who has worked in customer service, you will deal with people much worse than this guy. As far as I know, the only thing wrong is that he was filming her against her will. She was the one who escalated the situation unnecessarily. Any number of things could have been done to avoid this embarrassing confrontation.

But to answer your question, No, I believe as he stated in the video. The reason he was filming was to have a record of the terrible customer service interaction. The way to avoid this is to not provide terrible customer service.

I am not sure what you mean by give you a break...I assume you're being sarcastic but I truly believe the gate agent was in the wrong here. Do you think she handled the situation correctly?

Does this mean every time a customer service rep treats someone like dirt or handles a situation incorrectly their actions are going to be condoned by vilifying the actual victim claiming that they are just trying to win one over. Even if they are and it is justified?

I could support your statement had the customer service agent NOT been out of line but she clearly was and on many levels. If you do not see that and all you see is a guy trying to "take advantage" of whatever situation. I don't know what to say.

The reality is they both could have probably handled the situation better, but in all honesty the burden to do so is not on the man filming but the person who is being paid to provide a service.

aama

No not at all. She could've done far more better.

But that doesn't rule out the fact that the guy was in fact:

a) drunk as a sailor
b) denying to pay for his oversize/-weight baggage
c) arguing a police officer about what happened with the airline
d) arguing a police officer about being removed from the airport area
e) eventually even cursing at the police officer who gave him a break not arresting him

As mentioned above, two wrongs doesn't make it right, but in this case the guy is way more wrong unfortunately.

Remember, the customer isn't always right.

luv2ctheworld

While it won't solve the problem... it will provide factual evidence to those who need to review the situation and come to a resolution.

Having appropriate video/recording of incidents gives clear insight into the actions taken by all parties. It prevents/minimizes false allegations and outright lies.

United (actually, all organizations) need to train and retrain their employees who are customer facing to think about how to properly and effectively manage customers/passengers.

Being customer facing is a difficult job; you don't necessarily need to have an advanced degree or excel academically. But you do need to have a solid understanding of the human emotions and psychology... both for yourself and the other party so escalations don't occur or can be minimized.

Being recorded can also be a constant reminder not to lose your cool for all parties involved.

NWAFA

UA is being grossly unfair to the GA. She has no access to a couple of beers and an emergency slide!

Seriously, we only see video after the confrontation takes place. We don't know what lead up to her canceling the ticket. From another article, it said the police arrested him for being drunk.

Personally, I think both passengers and frontline employees are victims of today's FAA laws and airline policies.

When I started forty years ago, we didn't have these problems. The occasional drunk and being on the look out for being hijacked to Cuba. We seem to use fewer employees to take care of more customers. Bad behavior on an employees part was unacceptable and grounds for termination. Today, the airlines know what's going on, but accept it as part of doing business. They really do.

Fly Safe!

NWA FA

luv2ctheworld

So here's another scenario where a recording would easily show what actually happened vs what she said and the FA said.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/woman-forced-urinate-cup-during-182525954.html

wanderingkev

Taping photographing in many countries is illegal

knit-in

As is alcohol. The guy shooting the video would be in so much trouble with the law in those countries. But not in this one.

Terence.Hill

I disagree - she is visibly scared, defensive and very uncomfortable, ready to run away. The AA FA was aggressive, abusive, ready to attack and very comfortable with that. He needed to be restrained by two people.