tom911

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local...421705223.html

Does UA's conditions of carriage prohibit filming of their personnel in the non-secure area of the airport where you check-in?

joshwex90

Does the CoC prohibit videoing on board?

qukslvr619

Well it's in the Hemispheres magazine stating that filming of personnel is prohibited. There was a well documented incident with FT'er MatthewLAX in which a FA went nutso over him taking pictures in the cabin leading to him being pulled off the flight.

Bottom line, yes its a public place, and I'm sure that legally you are allowed to film. But pointing a camera phone in an agent's face with the intent of claiming your 15 mins of fame because you are the latest "victim" of United or whatever airline employees is surely never going to end well.

I've had heated exchanges in the past, but I've learned that there are better ways of dealing with them if you deal with the agent in a calm matter. Don't like their response....find another agent or a supervisor. Don't like their response....call reservations. Eventually you'll find a solution.

BearX220

The CofC fine print is somewhat secondary to the rules of social media engagement. When a UA rep is punitive and vindictive, there is no way for UA to win a contest like this, no matter how "right" the rep was. And in this case the agent apparently was wrong anyway... as the confrontation occurred in landside / public space.

The video makes the UA employee appear irrational.

villox

American seems to have a policy against filming people in any "airline area" including ticket counters, but I can't find anything but an onboard policy for United.

1353513636

At the end of the video the police say he is allowed to record the video so I'm not sure what United has to stand on. Good for the police for not automatically siding with the airline.

villox

The police officer is in a position to judge whether the person is legally allowed to film there. They're not in a position to judge whether the airline has the right to cancel a ticket for unauthorized filming of airline personnel.

Still, I doubt this is United policy, and certainly it's not an easy one to find.

spin88

Spirit aside, the police, I think, have a renewed understanding of what is NOT their roll as it comes to airline vs passenger issues....

villox

Finally watched the video. I doubt the passenger generates much sympathy considering how audibly intoxicated he is in the video. She easily could have denied him for being too drunk to board an aircraft - her problem was making it about the filming and canceling the ticket outright.

SF1K

It seems that the customer's voice sounded quite calm and rational and the UA CSR was irritate and irrational. Which unfortunately is too often the case - I so often witness (without being involved or recording) UA employees on power trips and many times the customer has not done anything to deserve the treatment the UA employee is dishing out. I must say that truly all of these current incidents have me booking away from UA when possible - it's not the only reason but a number of things that when added up just don't have me making UA my #1 choice anymore.

flyerbaby19

will be curious to see if the airline has the right to cancel the ticket. perhaps they could claim some sort of bad behavior.

CALlegacy

It seems possible that one or the other check-in agents was mistaken about the baggage fee. $100 is a possible fee for an overweight bag, $200 for an oversize bag, and $35 for a second bag. That can also be $300 for a bag that is both oversize and overweight. $125 doesn't seem to be an option.

I wonder if much of this dispute does not arise from the airline confusing people by not getting their own rules right. Then again, if the bag was a soft-sided duffle, then both the size and weight could have changed.

Aside from the videotaping issue, bullying a customer over a fee dispute by cancelling his reservation is just not how to do customer service.

emcampbe

I wonder why I never find these kind of employees....maybe its because I show up for flights sober and am very rational when something doesn't go the way I want, and I'm reasonable about these things. I've gotten to the point where I've needed to talk to a supervisor - both on the phone and at the airport, but never come down to an argument like this. Not only does this always help de-escalate anything that's going on, it usually leads to some sort of reasonable compromise.

Should also be noted that legal or not, taping the employee, when it was clear that she didn't want to be taped, clearly wasn't going to get him what he wanted. If I was the employee, I would have simply said I will be happy to help you further when you stop taping me.

Which is why i think the passenger just wants their 15 minutes of fame and perhaps some sort of settlement. The Passenger does sound intoxicated, which is not going to help their case (and if the agent was smart, could have just refused to check in based on that, or have warned agents at the gate about a potentially intoxicated passenger, and had him denied boarding at that point).

Bag fees that caused the issue seem to be at issue - $300 vs. $125 on the way over. $125 is regular bag fee + overweight fee, it's an extra $200 for oversize or additional weight (beyond 70lbs). If I had to guess, I'd guess the passenger went over 70lbs on their bag on the return, or it was oversized. Maybe it wasn't this way on the way over, or maybe the agent on the way over was nice and put a fee to a lower level for them (and if that's the case, another one where no good deed goes unpunished).

On the other hand, interesting enough that the news item calls the passenger a "frequent flyer" but doesn't sound like it to me. In addition, passenger now wants UA to cancel all future booked travel with them....good luck with that. If this gets big enough...maybe to get them off his back.

I'd be interested to hear the agent/UA's side of the story - pretty certain it will be almost all different, and what actually happened is somewhere in the middle.

BearX220

If the current vogue for whipping out phones to tape CS encounters helps discourage crazy airline employees from drumming up confrontations and bullying customers, it's all good if you ask me.

KevinDTW

As people who advocate for more government surveillance might say, if they're not doing anything wrong they have no reason to be concerned.