American Airlines crushed a family’s stroller – and told them that’s normal wear and tear, they get nothing. Despite having evidence of the airline’s mistreatment, they’re being stonewalled. What should they do?
The family was flying American Airlines out of Costa Rica, and connecting in Dallas. They waited on the jetbridge for “about 15 minutes” for strollers to come up. Something was clearly wrong!
That’s when we noticed the attendants scrambling to try and wiggle free the strollers that were all smashed together. Eventually they got all of them free except for one, that’s when we noticed that the stroller seen in the video was pinned in the lift and had been smashing down everything else.
The stroller “now bounces significantly when pushed.” The wheel is deformed. An agent promised that American would cover the damage, the customer filed a baggage claim as instructed, but has been told that that’s just “normal wear and tear.”
This is video of one of the other trapped strollers from the flight:
I’d say that the steps here are:
- Respond to the claim rejection with an escalation, rejecting the response and insisting that the situation be reviewed at a higher level. Claims are screened quickly, with an aim to cost-minimization. A real person with greater discretion might get a different outcome.
- File a Department of Transportation Consumer Complaint. The current DOT isn’t aggressively engaging in enforcement actions the way the previous one did, but each complaint should get real human review at the airline.
- Seek reimbursement in small claims court.
American Airlines is notorious for their poor handling of wheelchairs and was fined $50 million for it along with “unsafe physical assistance that at times resulted in injuries and undignified treatment of wheelchair users” last year. So poor handling of gate checked strollers shouldn’t surprise anyone.
That’s why it’s important to bring a collapsible stroller as a carry-on and bring it on board, rather than trusting American with it.
American Airlines has an official policy document that says collapsible strollers that fit in the overhead bin are permitted onboard aircraft (or checked as baggage for free). Here’s the policy to bring with you on your next flight.
However, a policy entitlement doesn’t trump what a rogue gate agent on a power trip does on the day of departure as I learned the hard way from notorious bad apple Matt in San Diego.
Indeed, an American gate agent forced a baby out of a car seat. Another insisted that children had to carry their own bags on board and parents could not help, or else the bags wouldn’t be permitted in the cabin.
they just detroyed my brand new bag and said normal wear and tear…im pissed….even the airport refused to take documentation anymore…..
Paging Dave Carroll and his band – time for a new hit song about how American breaks bags and strollers.
Did everyone forget about ‘United Breaks Guitars’… (2008)
I am not surprised about the lying since lying to the customer in an integral part of the airline business whether the airlines admit it or not. I have had a similar thing happen but I figured it was too much hassle to fight. I hope that this family fights and wins.
It’s probably an AI denial. Try to find a human to process your complaint.
I recently had a 1200 euro compensation complaint approved by Lufthansa and now they deny ever seeing the complaint, can’t find the referenced emails or booking numbers etc. When I email them the referenced compensation approval letter they just don’t respond.
Perhaps AI is still in training or maybe AI is doing exactly what they want it to do.
AA destroyed my bag and said they would pay $25. Not even a replacement bag, which is the way some airlines do it.
That caused me to have a 15 year boycott on flying AA except if dire circumstances. My boycott has ended and I’m ok with AA. They may have lost up to 150 trips, but probably only about 50.
In the early 2000s our stroller arrived in the jet bridge completely missing a wheel, making the stroller unusable. Kudos to Delta though. The pilot literally carried our daughter, and walked with us to baggage claim. Delta paid for a new stroller of our choice.
@isaac
To be fair Delta absolutely destroyed one of my bags – this was admittedly a bit heavy (but under 50 lbs) and one of the wheels just got ripped out, the other end had more damage. It almost looked like they fed it to a hungry grizzly bear.
I felt it would be more work to chase for damages so didn’t bother doing anything about it.
One way I have fought back on damaged checked luggage is to make some of my luggage as hard to throw around as possible. It also looks like it could be military since it is in a military style duffle bag. Inside of the military style duffle I put a backpack. An 85 liter one that has a full suspension so I can go long distances with it if needed. Not so good for things that need to be rigidly protected but good for anything sufficiently protected or can change shape as needed. Renting a cart at the terminal is a possibility but where I go in Asia usually has carts for free. Look at those who pack their luggage in large cardboard boxes. No handles to sling them around.