American Airlines gate agent Matt in San Diego is a real bad apple. He made the start of my trip miserable, and he seemingly did it because he made a mistake, didn’t want to admit it, and made himself feel better by threatening me.
This is my blog, and I share a lot of personal travel stories here, both my successes and failures and the reasons why I do things. So it only feels appropriate to share with readers how a gate agent got the better of me.
My wife, daughter and I spent a few days in San Diego. The non-stop flights home to Austin (on Southwest and Alaska) didn’t work for me, and I had a $99 companion ticket valid for two people, so we flew American Airlines through Dallas.
When we travel with my two year old we bring a stroller, though she’s also great walking through the airport. It’s a YoYo stroller bought specifically for travel, to be able to collapse it and stow it in the overhead bin. The stroller’s dimensions are well-within carry on limits. This stroller has been all over the world and on dozens of flights in the U.S., within Europe, and Asia Pacific where stricter rules often apply.
As we walked up to board our flight in San Diego, American’s gate agent Matt said “strollers must be checked.” I smiled and offered that this one collapses and is no problem to fit in the overhead. He pointed to the bag sizer beside the boarding door and said “show me, people say that all the time and it’s not true.”
So we showed him. We took my daughter out of the stroller and collapsed it. It fit inside the sizer just fine, because its dimensions are within American’s rules. He got mad. “You’re still going to have to check it, or you won’t be boarding this flight.”
Ok, I wasn’t going to fight him. But this meant having to wait on the jet bridge for the stroller to come out, rather than having extra time to connect in Dallas – to stop make stops for our daughter before our next flight. That just makes travel a little more difficult when you’re flying with a two year old.
He wouldn’t even let her stay in the stroller down the jet bridge. He confiscated it at the gate – perhaps now knowing that it does fit in the bin, he presumably wanted to ensure we didn’t board with it, since he realized it would fit. And that meant I even needed to wonder whether the stroller would be boarded or not.
Now, I tweeted this and the American Airlines twitter team backed Matt up.
Matt at @americanair gate 27 in SAN is an embarassment.
He informed me all strollers must be gate checked. I showed him ours collapses and fits inside the sizer.
He got mad, declared it would be gate checked or we would not travel. Now we'll see if he even boards it for spite.
— gary leff (@garyleff) May 7, 2021
American’s social media team argued that all strollers must be checked but that’s not actually what the policy says. And a spokesperson for the airline confirms, “our policy does allow for compact, collapsible strollers to be taken on board the aircraft and placed in an overhead bin, provided there is enough overhead bin space.”
Even if there was a policy to forbid strollers that are smaller than a carry on, that’s not Matt’s understanding of the policy. He wanted to prove to us that it was oversized, which is why he insisted we put it in the sizer – to show us it wasn’t an allowable carry on based on size.
I suppose I should give Matt in San Diego more of a benefit of the doubt. The airline did just tell agents to become more zealous enforcing carry on bag sizes.
He shouldn’t take it out on customers, but it’s possible he was just having a bad day – I only dealt with him once perhaps he’s not always a jerk on a power trip the way he was towards my family. Although, perhaps he’s just ill-suited to the role:
Gary, if this agent guy is tall, gray hair, & glasses he was being an *ss on Tuesday too.
— WTX Jet (@WTXJET) May 7, 2021
And after describing the gate agent I dealt with,
Stopped flying AA after they ruined our trip. After trying to politely explain our situation to gate agent in SD his behavior escalated to extreme rudeness then did not allow us to board. Tried to ask AA to resolve it and they just gave the runaround. Very poor guest service
— Trey Foshee (@TreyFoshee) May 7, 2021
Update: and another one,
I've encountered this gate agent before and couldn't agree more. If this is about Matt having a bad day, he must have a lot of them! It really is a shame that AA seems to have a "shoot first policy" that presumes all pax are problem fliers.
— RJ Leighty (@TravForUs) May 8, 2021
The thing is, Matt is an outlier. My family had a row of Main Cabin Extra. A flight attendant on board saved space in an overhead bin for us (this wasn’t a plane with the new bigger bins). I thanked her but explained we didn’t need the space, since our collpasable stroller had been confiscated at the boarding door. She apologized.
And then during the flight when she came down the aisle with the traditional water, snack and sanitizer bag Sonora thanked us for our business and apologized again – knowing that it sets the travel day off on the wrong foot. She even offered us drink service of soda, juice or water (a service that doesn’t return to coach until next month on American).
Later in the flight she even came back with a thank you note, the first I’ve ever gotten flying American. And I was in coach. She made every effort to turn around a bad interaction with the airline – and she did.
The problem, though, is that the outliers like Matt bring down the reputation of the airline. They also bring down the morale of the employees who work hard to go out of their way to take care of customers. It’s tough to work alongside bad apples who get away with it day after day and reap the same rewards as those who love their job and live it each day. And Matt will go on treating customers this way, creating resentment towards his airline.
Fortunately for me I’ve never had an interaction like this one with anyone else at American Airlines in 10 years as an Executive Platinum member. And getting to fly with Sonora? That was actually a treat.
You’re a jerk, Gary. I have two small children and I still find you using this platform to try to get someone fired reprehensible! Poor gate agent probably dealt with more in the last month than your privileged self has ever had to deal with.
@steve jenney – no, three passengers had 3 personal items and not a single carry on bag besides the stroller which would not have been ‘abusing the carry on rules’ since it was within regulation size and the airline confirms it should have been permitted.
I agree that I am “NOT IMMUNE to the guidelines” – in this case I was following those guidelines, and the gate agent was not.
Where does AA policy’s say you can carry a stroller onboard? Per the page you linked to:
“ Strollers over 20 lbs / 9 kgs must be checked at the ticket counter
All other strollers should be checked at the gate before boarding”
Seems pretty clear strollers must be checked one way or another?
Gary,
YOU are a bad apple for calling out someone by name. Who’s power tripping now?
Gary, good for you. Agents like this do not belong in customer service. Saw your tweets yesterday and this EP is on your side. Not cool.
Love that FA going out of her way to make you feel personally accommodated after that interaction. I had a 30 min chat with Heather Samp yesterday as one of the 40 “most engaged” members of the AAdvantage program over the last 12 months. I told her about my impression of AA devaluing the brand by removing premium cabin amenities such as full meal service on short haul (seemingly permanently), removing espresso machines, and such. All of these make her job that much harder in trying to engage customers with the loyalty program. However, the reality is that one bad interaction like this does as much damage to the brand’s esteem as all the espresso machines in all the premium cabins in the fleet.
@Jordan – first, the gate agent didn’t think it was against policy so this shouldn’t even be relevant.
second, American Airlines has *told the FAA* that compact strollers are acceptable on board in overhead bins, and gotten approval for this.
third, American confirmed the policy in an official statement to me.
fourth, the website explanation even distinguishes between must and should with respect to checking a stroller.
@Lisa Russell – a first name, no last name, and no photo posted but okey dokey. I’ll make sure not to show up at your customer service counter!
I hear you. I was Executive Platinum for years and it used to be rare to get a bad apple. Although I did get them occasionally, the great service made I usually got made up the few “bad apples”. Now we percentages have changed, running into discontent and undertrained gate agents who seem to have no clue of customer service is more common. Do you think the change is because in many cities gate agents aren’t AA employees? Often times we now choose to drive instead of fly.
I agree with Gary’s including the agent’s name. The AMERICAN AIRLINES agent at our connecting flight in Philadelphia screamed at me because I asked him if he could accommodate my wife and our autistic 10 year old in seats next to each other. He SCREAMED that there were none available . I felt his anger. The funny thing is that there was an empty seat next to my son’s seat. Kudos to the flight attendants who allowed my wife sit next to him, to the pilots who invited him to their cabinet and explained him everything about an airplane to our son, and to the passenger on the other seat next to our son. That gentleman was very accommodating and kind. YES there a few BAD APPLES at AA. Gary did every thing correctly
If the AAgent’s first/given name was far more unique in the world, would that mean it would have been left out?
I don’t know how many AAgents there are working at SAN, but I doubt that there are that many people with his name working AA flights at the gates at SAN.
I’ve had my own bizarre run-in once with a male AAgent during a very early morning flight out of SAN when it came to cabin baggage, but I doubt it was with that guy as it was so long ago.
I don’t think this is a particularly unique situation, nor do I believe it sheds light on a greater issue that is specific to American or the SAN staff. Your issue is with an individual, who, bad day or not, doesn’t deserve to be smeared by a travel blogger. And certainly shouldn’t have to be called an “embarrassment.” So no, please don’t come to my counter either, so to speak.
Gary – Thank you for calling this out.
As a CEO of a company myself, if one of my staff were not providing the best customer experience possible I would want to know so I could improve training and address the problem. If you ignore your customers you damage the entire company and brand. American has many great staff that go above and beyond. I was on a recent MIA to LAX flight in Flagship First and was denied access to flagship check-in – when I went to regular first class the staff took me back to flagship were the staff were rude to me, saying they cannot know all the rules rather than just apologizing and then moving on….
Bottom line “Customer is right” philosophy should be the first intersection and then advising the customer if he is not in a polite manner. specially if the customer is an EP, it is customary to show extra appreciation for the business just like the flight attendant did.
Gary you did it correctly. If customer service agents know they will be called out for good and bad behavior they will give better service. like trip advisor for hotels restaurants no harm in having rating for gate and flight agents. when one calls the airline and speak with an agent you are asked to rate the call and whether you would work with the same agent or not.
hence I see what Gary did is fair and he appears to be unbiased and factual as he complimented the flight agent.
Gary, appreciate your candor in reporting this even though at this point I rarely if ever fly. In the past I always few American as I as a loyalist and they have taken kind and good care of me. It’s sometimes amazing what a random act of kindness can do in both directions. I think sometimes the rules are vague just enough to allow for exceptions and interpretations that would make life easier and kinder for all. But subject to interpretation….we see here what happens. What struck me most while reading your post is that this sort of thing happens in so many environments and situations. I am agitated right now with a coworker who is acting like I am generating the problem in re to helping one of our clients with providing some names and numbers of some resources. The co-worker acted as if I considered it an “inconvenience” when I never used the word and she is the one generating the inconvenience for the client as she could, instead of passing the task (which I consider just another workday task) just provide the info directly and not make the client have to make another call or wait for a return call. So much I think comes from who we are and what we think, and empathy, which one would hope all gate agents and others in these roles would have. Traveling is stressful enough, and then all the issues we have to be concerned about doing so these day….plus the challenge however loving, of being concerned/looking out for a little person….Hopefully more happy miles ahead for you regardless of status!
Did you use his real name and use your privilege in the industry and media to try to fire someone?making If so, you are a bigger ass than him. You bashed him and praised the company. They are one in the same. At that moment he is AA. 2 issues. 1 -His lack of Cust Service 2 -His lack of understanding of procedure (or his managers). If he was flippant with you and others, his manager should have already observed this and corrected this with him or move him out of public contact/company. 2nd issue is the confusion over policy. Did he think the overheads would be full? Was he just a jerk because he thought it was oversize and didn’t want to back track? Still a manager/communication issue.
I was on a full AA flight and they were taking all carryons and checking them in by the time I arived at gate. They politely announced that due to the full flight the oveheads will be full and they need to check bags. Didn’t hear beef but didn’t see strollers. Should be a different rule. Something I learned in CS: You don’t mess with a mama bear and her cubs. Management didn’t teach him that.
Any body in support of Matt on this blog can go to hell! No one forced that dick to take this job and if his rudeness is generated by other rude people to the point where he treats all badly, then he should quit!
So, I’m still a bit confused as to the actual facts of the matter…
1) AA’s published policy seems to state that anything that is a stroller is to be checked, either at the counter or at the gate.
2) Gary has stated that AA has “told the FAA” that collapsible strollers are allowable (I’m not sure what the medium for telling the FAA something is – is that like in the Federal Register or something?)
3) Gary references a “spokesperson” providing an “official statement”, but it doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere. So is the spokesperson stating that the printed policy is incorrect, that would seem to be material – does AA plan to issue a written clarification? I’ve had plenty of company employees tell me all sorts of “policies” or homegrown policy interpretations that were completely made up on the spot. And I’m also curious, if Gary is going to name Matt, why doesn’t he name the spokesperson, if it was an “official” statement?
I’d also note that if we want to be super pedantic, the spokesperson’s statement actually seems to defer to the discretion of the gate agent(s) or cabin crew, by way of the ‘provided there is enough overhead bin space” clause.
I’d just like a bit more of an understanding of the facts, as what I’m seemingly hearing is that AA has a materially incorrect published policy, as the story is being told.
@ Gary — Why don’t you just fly Delta instead? Become Diamond, and you won’t be disappointed.
Must be a lot of airlines union members here to defend Matt, and people who have no children traveler (like Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air). I’m EX PLT for over 5 years now and have over 2 million miles. Yes gate agents have a lot of bad people, but there are some bad people that should have no business working in service industry period. Before pandemic, we were given these vouchers to give to AA employees for outta a boy or girl. Why shouldn’t be opposite apply?
I tried purchasing a ticket from Fl.
To Az. Om American Airlines. The web site would not recognize my secure code. I used my husband’s credit card with same result. After
Trying for 2 days with rates continuing to go up, I drove to the airport to buy my ticket. Which cost $35 more from the ticket agent???
I still don’t have a seat reservation…
Hope I have a seat on Monday.
Farewell AA and good riddance.
I wonder if the thank you notes are becoming more common. I got one back in April from the great Elizabeth in LA
I don’t think it’s inappropriate to call out the agent by first name. Feedback is an essential part of customer service, both for other customers and for the airline.
I was a high tier Delta flyer, but recently have moved a chunk of my flying over to AA… Mostly because I prefer their Asian partners to Delta’s. But I think this boils down to some issues I have noticed with AA’s service, that I’ve never seen with DL. There seems to be more confusion around policies, and FAs/Agents seem to be more on edge with AA. I’ve seen several AA crew members snap at customers… Granted I’ve seen more customers on AA flights that don’t seem to understand how to fly, and act inappropriately as well. So it could be some burnout from having to deal with people that are often out of control.
Delta’s customer service is much more polished and uniform. I’ve had fantastic service from AA, but it’s just not as consistent, and there seems to be confusion as to what the policies are, and how to enforce them.
What is wrong with you people. Yes, call this guy out by name. I work with the public, and frankly customers are generally *ssholes. Selfish and didn’t pay attention during pre-school when they taught wait your turn. I’m from San Diego. Matt should be fired. San Diego has too many people who are good at customer service. So I say, wait your turn, nobody owes you anything, you are not special or better than those people who are putting up with your *h!t.
@Gary you did the right thing. I personally thank you so that when travel does have us going through SAN we know who to watch out for. I’m confused as to why people feel it’s okay to compliment a “good” employee, with name or not, but your a bully by naming a “bad” one. They wear name tags for reasons. This is one of them. I have stood side by side with agents like this as a former Supervisor with NWA in LAX, MSP, BOS and NRT at the counter and gates. I have called them out in public and in private. I have apologized on behalf of them to customers and when able made their flying experience better. Agents like Matt under my supervision would have been stationed at baggage claim, lost and found or other non desirable locations with the least public contact until discussed with the station managers. Was I like by most, YES! The others ended up leaving or transfering with a full explanation in their jacket with them, and still had issues where they went. NWA was great in my mind as they did everything to assist in turning their attitudes around. Some came out shining, others not so lucky.
If I were anyone at American I would be thanking you for pointing this situation out and I would be in contact with the station manager and try to assist Matt in having better days.
People also don’t understand that rules and regulations and policies are written loosely so the airline, at time, may have some teeth in the outcome. I always left it up to the lead agent at gate or counter to make the best decision within reason. Matt should have looked shocked and been pleasantly surprised and stated joking, we learn things new everyday and let you board with no other issues. Apology or not, humor moves everything along. Matt should also have known where your seats were and been able to calculate looking at your belongings whether everything would have been able to fit. If Matt had any issue in thinking it may not he could have easily said to you if the over head bins fill we will need to quickly gate check it and please make sure the FA has no issues. BAM, solved, move on, over, done, have a great flight. Easy peasy! Why make a problem when one doesn’t exist .
Gary, if I were still in the business, you’d be welcome at my gate anytime. Safe travels sir!
Gary – Next time you fly AA, I suspect you will receive excellent service.
Seriously, if you let things like this get to you, you will be on medication soon. It does seem that a lot of people use their PLATFORM, whatever it is, to try to get even.
Frankly, stay home with a 2 year old. Most of the people who sit near you will be annoyed. I know, it is your “right” but get off the power trip.
I agree Gary..they need to be flexible to the customers…. I had an issue with my carryon..we were on standby and were able to board..but they wanted to check my bag. It fits under the seat in front of me but they said no(2 male gate agents who were rude to many in front of us) so i could not board.. I wrote it up with bag pic and got a call from home office apologizing to me.
@Gary Leff “You said this policy was ‘complicated’ and I asked you how, I guess by attacking me in response you’re conceding your first claim isn’t defensible?”
My first comment: “Publicly name-shaming an employee? And then tweeted that the employee was “an embarrassment”? Volunteered to the FA that your stroller was “confiscated”? Sure sounds like you should have checked your ‘tude along with your pricey pram.”
I never said “complicated,” you did. Stop lying. It’s indefensible.
YES! It is our fault to fly AA because we do not learn anything from making a mistake!
It’s not so simple James. Where I live and where I want to go my choice is usually American or American
In this country it’s best to keep your expectations low. That way you won’t get angry when things go south which they too often do. I’ve come to realize 90% of people are either idiots or A-holes. If you want good service, go to Japan or Korea.
Gary is a frequent flyer with high status on this airline and a high profile within the industry. He blogs about policy and and experiences for a living, and has a significant following of readers who value his insight. I’m an AA ExPlat and I read his site because I like his content. Gary bought a product/stroller to expedite his travel experience, and in turn, everyone else’s experience. This product was designed specifically with convenience in mind. The gate agent was rude and wrong. Yes, it happens. But when you are dealing with your best customers, a little effort goes a long way. Gary was likely boarding in group 1 or group 2. For people commenting/complaining that he held up the line, I’d guess you were not in group 1 or 2. You likely were in boarding group 8 on the cheapest standard economy ticket and there was no chance of available overhead space for your bag by the time you boarded anyway. I didn’t read that the flight was delayed because of this incident with the gate agent, so I don’t understand how it was a factor of inconvenience to other passengers beyond the lack of customer service from the gate agent.
Part of achieving high loyalty status with an airline and its partners is for the service that comes with it. AA failed to provide a high level of service for Gary. It’s not an isolated incident and it is one of the reasons I’m changing my airline loyalty and earning status on Delta and Alaska this year. If American wants to keep it’s biggest spenders, they might consider spending more time on customer service training. If not…those of us spending $20k + each year on airline tickets will go elsewhere.
An a side note, as someone who doesn’t travel with children, I thank you for making the effort to seek out a stroller like this one. You are the parent I will absolutely go out of my way to help. So many times people traveling with children have done zero to minimal preplanning and expect everyone else to compromise their own travel experience. There is plenty of time for preboarding passengers traveling with kids or who need special accommodation, before top tier frequent flyers board. For people flying with or without children who have done their homework, they will have streamlined their boarding process, have limited themselves to one bag for the overhead bin and one very small personal item that fits under seat. That neck pillow and blanket, jacket, box of candy, and extra shopping bag from Duty Free, etc. should all fit within the carry-on suitcase and personal item. If not, consider that it is not Gary who is holding up boarding. You are. It’s not the frequent traveler who knows what they are doing. It’s you.
What’s the difference between calling out someone’s name on a blog and sending a complaint message to the airline? If the person deserves to get canned don’t both methods single out the culprit?
Bad Agents need to go. They make everyone’s life miserable and poorly represent the airline. This Matt guy seems to be known to a lot of travelers as a problem. If they do not want to fire him they can move him to a non customer facing position. Dealing with customers is an art and skill. Traveling with children is difficult enough and good agents make it easier.
I was flying AA with my family first class flat bed and the agent forced me to check my carryon which I have taken over 100 flights with and fits in the sizer. When I boarded the FA heard me discussing with my wife and she went out there and demanded the suitcase from the GA and boarded it. Amazing staff can make or break an airline. Fire the bad and put the good on a pedestal and take care of them. Kudos to you Gary!
The way things are going, shortly only American Airlines will survive. I stopped using this airline in the 80s due to rude employees and being lied to by reservations CS employees. Have a problem,,shout it out so the next victim of venomous hate wont have to go thru the rudeness
I think we all have been in situations where the customer service was horrible. Is it right? no but do we choose to make a huge scene every time it happens… Why would you? I just don’t see where the situation was so intensified that you created this.
Yes, I do believe some should be aware of their lack of knowledge or their failure to respond effectively for training purposes and in an effort to improve the customer experience but this article seems as if you were calling this young man out to also be spiteful an wear the ol “I’ll show him who he’s messing with “ mentality.
Its unfortunate that you experienced a difficult time , but I believe there was a better way to handle this instead of an attempt to humiliate another human because you couldn’t have it your way.
Gary is wrong, loud and obnoxious in this case. Strollers must be checked, says the policy. Period.
To those saying Matt was rude, you’re only hearing Gary’s biased version of events. Did Gary act loud and obnoxious too? HE doesn’t think so, but he is hardly a good judge of the situation.
I hate rude people as much as the next person and I have had my run ins with rude gate agents, insolent attendants and downright nasty customer service reps but Matt didn’t do much wrong here. To judge him on a public forum, ex parte, is classless.
On a personal note, I DETEST self important ***icks who shove coats, strollers and bags of airport-bought food in the overhead, when space is at a premium. Inconsiderate little brats, all of them.
I’ve flown many places for work on many airlines. Connecting through DFW I had the absolute worst customer service experience with an AA gate agent. Too long to detail, but the end result was the plane took off with empty seats, and I was stuck in the airport overnight on standby first flight in the morning. As a result the other soldiers on my team has to wait for me and the gear I had checked to complete the mission we had. I was nothing but polite and patient the whole time, and I will NEVER fly AA again if I can help it.
The only domestic airline that I have flown that consistently tries to make things work for their customers is Southwest. That’s why they are our only choice on any route they fly.
What a silly article. “It’s been all over the world.” You sound like a novice flier. This article is obnoxious and unnecessary. If you have a complaint, file it through the proper channels. No one wants to hear your crappy complaining. So you had a bad experience, get over it Gary. This outburst is embarrassing.
When was this post written (not published)? My guess is on that flight from SAN to DFW. Gary fuming and cranking away on the iPad/iPhone/laptop and complaining to the FA while wife rolls her eyes and deals with the 2yo.
The same amount of time spent writing this article could’ve been spent submitting a complaint through the proper channels. You just wanted attention and you got it. Now what? Not that these airlines care, you’re just a dollar sign whether you’re Platinum or Copper.
Gary publishing a whole post about a gate agent who wouldn’t acknowledge he was wrong with his initial reason re fitting in the overhead bin. Gary’s defense in the post is that the agent was wrong and policy allows strollers that fit in the bin. Yet as numerous commenters have pointed out that isn’t the actual policy—it says strollers are checked. Yet rather than acknowledge he was wrong about the policy, Gary cites to FAA notifications and “official statements” he personally received but are not published elsewhere. The irony is dripping off of the ceiling and spoiling my dinner.
Parents are the worst’ “I was with a kid I’m responsible for and the water didn’t part.for me. Didn’t you see I’m with a kid!”
Take a bus
Power tripping gate agents are a very real issue. I’ve worked at two airports and I’ve seen it happen. They will treat ppl bad for any reason, I had this coworker who HATED Indian passengers and she would talk smack about them all the time, while at the counter or gate she would purposely treat them extra poorly, ie no seat changes and charging them if they miss their flight vs being chill with other ppl changing their seat around. Basically it’s modern day discrimination but she was smart enough to be subtle about it in front of those passengers. Hated working with her and she was real buddy buddy with the manager. I’ve seen other instances of power tripping many times when I’m flying or working elsewhere.
Anyone who says that power tripping airport employees do not exist and that it is always the passengers fault is delusional. Not all passengers are innocent but working a job that has us dealing with ppl obviously means that we need to be as patient and professional as we possibly can.
It’s clear the problem is that AA’s policy as written in one place doesn’t anticipate a stroller that can be folded to be as small as a carry on but that the policy is that these can be brought on board.
The “solution” would be for the stroller to come with a fabric pouch so it would look like a carry on, a compliant carry on. Or AA could change the language to indicate that strollers that are larger than the allowable size for a carry on have to be checked.
This is clearly an AA problem. Their language is contradictory but it’s clear given the confirmed that size compliant stroller are allowed on board that this is the actual policy. Now they need to clean up the wording to reflect that and get the correct information out to their front line agents.
Gary didn’t do anything wrong. He was following the rules. AA confirmed that. Matt may have thought he was following the rule too since they don’t make clear that compliant stroller are permitted. If this were another airline (I’m thinking of Alaska) the employees are empowered to use common sense and probably would have realized it’s the size of the bag, not the contents that mattered and let Gary onboard without a problem and then advised management about the problem.
But AA isn’t AS.
This sickens me. Entitled **ick, you just called out by name an agent, where they work, in a small station. You if all people are not unaware of the current climate where unruly pax physically fight airline employees. What you just did is no different. It’s an open invitation for anyone to assault a gate agent in SAN, And if it happens I hope you are sued to the gills. I also hope AA Corp Security follows up and puts you on notice and does like Delta and strips you of your status. These are DANGEROUS times for all customer facing airline employees. We have had broken bones, noses, been injured and off work for months due to pax injuring gate agents and your actions here inflamed the situation.
Do you even realize the responsibilities gate agents have on the ground regarding security and adhering to FAA regulations? Do you understand the policies have been changing and are fluid?
As far as your stroller, was your kid in it? If so he did his job. You should have had it collapsed at boarding. Was your plan to collapse it at the bottom of the jetbridge? Yeah, thought so which impedes othera from dancing around you to board. There is a reason The supervisor sided with “Matt”. I’m sure that was it.
I don’t care if AA apologizes, I’m sure it was a knee jerk reaction by some hourly employee. I hope this escalates and you are called out in the news and you get a taste of your own medicine and your sponsors abandon you.
I had a similar experience flying from Chicago to Buenos Aires. A guy at the gate force me to check in the carry on bag threatening and almost screaming at me. I told me that I was not flying and if I continued arguing he would ban from AA. I had very delicate figurine, computer parts that of course arrived broken to Argentina. AA then refused to reimburse me for the cost only paying me after I started to tweet. I never use AA again and i am very happy about it.