wolf72

You do not check in tennis rackets into cargo. Not in the soft case.

kb9522

That's the passenger's problem. She should have known the max dimensions of what she can bring aboard.

wolf72

How the hell does a professional player get to compete in tournaments when he or she arrives at the final destination if the rackets are damaged or the frame(s) are cracked?

And you do not put rackets into cargo holds especially during summer as the heat alone for x amount of time can warp the frames.

Rackets have always been carried onto planes in soft cases/bags. It/s been that way for over 40 years.

It is a small issue being made into a big issue by one IDIOTIC UA GA who should have his/her head examined.

kb9522

There are quite a few ways to get them to her final destination safely without violating airline policies. She could have packed them carefully knowing they would need to be checked. She could have shipped them. She could have bought new rackets there or had her sponsor deliver them. She could have hired a fleet of carrier pigeons for all I care.

Again, not my problem.

And as long as they don't violate policy, they still can.

No, it's a huge issue. And it's great to hear there is an airline doing something about it. Give a mouse a cookie and it'll ask for milk. This is progress toward stopping the sense of entitlement that seems to be all too common in passengers today.

emcampbe

And a story that is now on the top of the FT home page on this incident says that a "another flyer who claimed to be aboard the flight said on Twitter that Zhang’s comments were incorrect."

When someone goes directly to social media with a rant, vs. contacting the airline directly and privately, I am very skeptical of their words. At best, its likely highly exaggerated. I'll admit I've gone to Twitter before with bad experiences, but I've usually just DM'd if its a real issue. Seems like its another one of 'UA is getting slammed right now, so let's see if I can get some publicity/$ out of them.'

wolf72

Going public seems to be the only way these day's to get any american airliner to admit fault or to look into an issue.

That's the reality of the situation these days.

What is the avenue of communication before they bother replying? Email? No. Wait. Twitter apparently.

kettle1

Did the tennis racket bag fit in the sizer, or not? That is the question?

How the UA GA handled the matter is another issue. UA really needs to retrain these front-line employees. If this hits the Press in China, UA better watch out. It is all about how this was handled. It sounds like it was handled bad by the GA. The folks from Houston that blew into "the Windy City" need to focus on training. Use that Texas "think" when that retraining starts.

友好的天空联合航空公司

emcampbe

Now, granted I've never been treated super-badly by UA, but everytime I've had an issue, a quick letter sent though united.com/feedback seems to do the trick. I often get an appropriate response within a day or two, and I'm just a lowly gold. As I mentioned, I've done DMs on twitter as well.

I can see the need to go public if you've attempted to go through the channels and don't get anything back. Given the incident happened on Wednesday, according to the post, highly doubt that happened here. So seems like an opportunist looking for way publicity/$.

fastair

Is she using wooden rackets, circa 40 years ago like Connors and Borg did? Carbon fiber ones (look at new generation of aircraft hulls like 787) are a bit more resistant to temperature, humidity, and pressure than the wooden ones when people needed to carry them on. I'd hope she'd tune up the strings before a match after traveling regardless, but the frames? It's the 21st century, not middle of the 20th. Materials sciences have come a long way, especially in athletics.

http://www.sportingnews.com/other-sp...j1f3rv7hodn8cr "Carbon composite rackets are relatively immune to changes in humidity and temperature (within reason), and therefore don't warp like wood rackets used to sometimes. And the materials retain their integrity for MUCH longer."

FlyingNone

----------
The agent didn't "damage" the boarding pass - it was torn where it was supposed to be torn, ON THE PERFORATION. Assault and theft, really ?????????
How about this tennis player, feigning mistreatment when all this boils down to is she had too many carryons and just didn't want to be confronted/questioned/challenged with anything but the way she wanted it to go ?? Why do you all assume the passenger is always right - just because they posted the equivalent of War and Peace on Facebook ? People lie. All.the.Time.

kettle1

The question is not the rackets. They (perhaps) were made in China? Perhaps out of bamboo? They could be very fragile. Did they fit in the UA sizer? That is the question? TRAINING is needed.

联合航空公司的代理非常粗鲁，检查了我的网球拍在货箱非常不专业

fastair

didn't look like it in the picture. Looking online for cases that will hold 5 or more, none appeared to be compliant with a 9x14x22

bobbybrown

United's own website states: "United accepts one item of tennis equipment as checked baggage or carry-on baggage. An item of tennis equipment consists of one tennis racket case containing tennis rackets and balls."

Guess one racket is counted as one carry-on bag. Among airline webpages, only JetBlue very clearly indicates that "single racket = one item":

https://www.jetblue.com/travel/baggage/
A tennis racket may be carried on the aircraft and counts as one carry-on item.

A post in this webpage mentions that the racket itself (or rackets themselves) is counted as an item: https://travel.stackexchange.com/que...bins-in-the-us

All info above suggest that a racket (or a tennis bag with of probably 2-3 rackets) should be taken out from other carry-on bag and be carried on its own. Only then, even if it overs 22 inch or the diagonal limit, it should be fine.

Loren Pechtel

It sounds so far beyond reasonable I think either we don't gave the true story or this is somehow retaliation.

blueman2

Am I the only one who noticed how poorly groomed this GA was? This has nothing to do with man vs woman. That person is just looks like someone who does not give a crap how they look. When you are customer facing, you have to care how you look. In my mind, this is just more evidence that the GA does not like being around customers.