American Airlines Baggage Handlers Fight Over Passenger’s Luggage

by Gary Leff

Normally we think about two kinds of luggage: carry on and lost. But there’s actually a third kind, damaged.

Just watch these American Airlines baggage handlers fight over a passenger’s luggage being unloaded from a plane on Saturday.

The good news here, is though there may be a bit of hostility between the baggage handlers themselves and while they may not be super gentle with the bag they’re arguing over, it’s not actually appearing to cause any damage that would be noticeable to the bag’s owner.

That’s not always the case, like when an American baggage handler shoved luggage onto the tarmac in Dallas last month or when a baggage handler actually steals from luggage (sometimes other passengers do this too).

It’s remarkable that more often than not your checked baggage actually does make it to the carousel at your destination, reasonably on time (within 20 minutes if it’s Delta or Alaska) and undamaged outside of normal wear. That’s true even if your checked bag is a tire.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. But, the one thing the baggage handlers can agree upon is no masks. For that, I am optimistic.

  2. Do they get paid by the number of bags they touch/load? Partly explains the price of airline tickets. There are at least seven “workers” dealing with the baggage. Reminds me of the road construction crews where half the people on the job are standing around staring at potholes.

  3. For an industry that tells you that they’re having a tough time hiring people and are chronically understaffed I see quite a few ramp rats.

  4. Sounds like their CSM will be investigating that…. guarenteed it’s either beef between the involved parties. Or, the position assignment they have which corresponds to certain list of tasks…

    Or, maybe he’ schtooked his girl.

  5. Too bad Ed doesn’t have a camera on him while he does his job. Bet he’s done something he wouldn’t want on social media too.

  6. First of all it’s Envoy, not American airlines employees. Please get your story straight or do some researching before publishing the story.

  9. Come on Gary it’s way past time to ditch the trite “carry on or lost” homily, not least because it’s completely wrong. The smugness doesn’t get less saccharine with repetition.

    How many times have you yourself had bags actually lost?

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