Former American Airlines CEO Doug Parker co-hosted this week’s Airlines Confidential podcast and was asked for his best travel tip. He offered don’t ever check a bag.
There are no silver bullets that I know that others don’t. I can tell you though what I tell my family. Number one, don’t check a bag. Wherever we’re going, you can buy stuff when you get there. Do not check a bag. It’s not that the airlines don’t know how to get there, but it’s incredibly complex, it makes your experience much more difficult. So anyway that’s my major tip to anybody, is just figure out a way no matter where you’re going to get it into your carry-ons and don’t check a bag.
It’s long been said that there are only two kinds of bags, carry-on and lost. But not all airlines are created equal here.
American Airlines loses more bags than any other airline. They won’t invest in RFID tracking, even as other airlines are integrating with Apple AirTag.
It’s not easy to avoid checking a bag of course if you don’t board early, since everyone else is bringing bags on board to avoid checked bag fees. You may be forced to gate check through no fault of your own! And this can happen even when there’s plenty of bin space left. Fear of potentially having to gate check bags at the last minute and delaying a flight a minute or two is why agents require customers to gate check even when there’s still bin space left.
Parker though goes on to offer something much more important, “probably a better tip is just be nice to the people that are out there working. It’s not just pablum. While it’s hard for the traveler, that makes it harder on the people that are out there.”
He offers that it feels better to be nice, but host Scott McCartney notes and Parker agrees that employees will take better care of you if you’re nice to them.
There is merit in the old saying “you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.” It breaks down a bit when you start thinking too hard because there’s nothing nice that you’re ever trying to do with flies when you catch them. All it means is you’re more likely to get people to do nice things for you if you’re nice to them than if you’re a jerk.
The saying dates back, as I understand it, to Torriano’s Common Place of Italian Proverbs and entered the United States via Poor Richard’s Almanac (Benjamin Franklin) in 1744.
- Whomever you’re dealing with is rarely the same person who caused the problem you’re dealing with.
- They have lots of people complaining to them all day long. You set yourself apart by treating them as a person, with their own emotions and motivations.
- If the person in front of you in the customer service line is getting upset and taking it out on the agent, the agent is all the more ready to expect you to do the same. They’re not going to want to listen to your story or spend time working every angle to find a solution. They’re going to want to move you out of their line as quickly as possible. Basic human nature.
You want to turn that on its head. Acknowledge the difficult job they have. Acknowledge even that you’re adding to it. If they ask you how you’re doing, as bad as your travel day is, it’s probably not as bad as listening to complaining passengers all day. Make them smile. Make them laugh. They’ll be happy to do more to help you.
Even if you don’t care to treat the agent as a person for its own sake (because they’re a human being and it’s what’s due them) if you want to get better treatment you should start by interacting with the person on the other end as a person. From a purely self-interested perspective it’s better not to be a jerk.
If you have a beef with the airline, take it up with executive management or the Department of Transportation. Don’t take out your frustrations on a junior employee. It’s not their fault, and they’ll be less inclined to help you if you do.
Oh, well I was disappointed when I read this article. You see, I thought the one travel rule Dougie would’ve told his family would’ve been DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!
Yikes. Well he’s former so can tell the truth but an airline CEO saying out loud the excellent advice “don’t ever check a bag” (side note to the single fellas: put it in a prenup that there will be no bag checking). Like a chef that comes out of the kitchen saying “do not — under any circumstances — order the soup”.
“Wherever we’re going, you can buy stuff when you get there.” – says the former CEO worth about $80 million.
Also, if money even somewhat isn’t much of an object it’s so easy now to just ship your bags to wherever you’re going.
Good rule until you want to take something liquid like a special bottle of wine as a gift.
Reminds me of my trip to Orlando, Xmas 2018. Me, wife, 4 yo twin girls, and a nanny. Car seats, strollers, etc etc. 12 pieces of checked luggage and one dude. I had $200 in $5s and $10s, money well spent.
And there I thought the one rule is Avoid Canada since they won’t let him in as a convicted criminal.
How many bags have you had lost, Gary? I’m at zero after around a thousand flights although a few were delayed.
Tone deaf multi-multi-millionaire says what?
Does he throw out his private plane after every flight so the next flight is minty-fresh?
And how do you get the stuff you buy back without checking a bag on the way home?
Right, never check a bag. If you have irregular operations it will only make matters more difficult and AA in particular won’t provide your bag back if you’re force to overnight.
I thought he would say: ‘Fly private.’
It’s telling when CEOs don’t trust their own company’s products or services. Even ex-CEOs. Like, maybe, make the checked bag experience better for everyone instead of giving up. Pathetic.
Great advice – if you are going somewhere warm where you can wear shorts and t-shirts the whole time. But I’m not a college backpacker. I cannot go to Europe for more than a week without checking a bag. And I’m not going to spend a day (or a couple of days, if buying for a family of four) buying new clothes that may or may not fit. I’m not going to wear one pair of trainers the whole time.
A much better idea is to plan a long connection on a dependable airline so your bag will make the connection. AirTag it. Put the important stuff in carryon, so you are okay if it does go astray for a few days. I’ve had checked bags go astray for a couple of days, but never had one lost forever.
Why would anyone listen to Parker? Parker was the worst airline CEO.
My son worked in customer service for five years. The grief those employees get from an entitled public is incomprehensible. They are trying to help but must abide by their company rules. His experience opened my eyes and I never blame a CS worker or raise my voice to them. I politely outline my issue, suggest a reasonable solution and have almost always reached a reasonable outcome.
And if the person in front of me was a jerk, the first thing I do is tell the CS worker to take a breath and relax, that I have a few moments for them to get back to level.
What a self-absorbed jerk, saying not to use an essential part of the service which his company provides, and to buy new (to be thrown away?) things everywhere.
I am an 8.5 million-miler and I happily check my bag.
Treat them like human beings and they react like human beings. What’s so hard about that?
Bag or not? Honestly, it depends on the circumstances. The last time I had a suitcase go missing for over 24 hours was 24 years ago, for three days, on a KLM-Alitalia connection.
The point is, of course, that you shouldn’t over-pack. But yeah, saying “you can always buy stuff” is typical out-of-touch billionairese.
Avoiding checked baggage is not always possible. Last year, I went to an impoverished country where I checked in sufficient food and water to last the 5 day trip. There is no way I could have carried five days worth of food, not to mention water.
Once President Reagan went on a foreign trip where all the water needed for the trip was transported there. Local water was deemed as unsafe to drink. BTW, I do not claim to be the President.
@paul
5 people
12 pieces of checked luggage
i’m sure you had 5 carryons
what in the everlovingfork was in TWELVE pieces of luggage that you needed for a trip to orlando?
archaeological excavation equipment?
deep-sea scuba gear?
please tell me this was a trip for at least 10 days from more than 1000 miles away
please
For some reason I don’t think the CEO of AA has any problem finding room onboard for he and his families carry-on luggage.
Good advice for Parker and his family who have plenty of money and only fly around the USA. Traveling internationally to countries for months at a time, that don’t have your size of clothes is entirely another situation. Checking bags is the only solution as shipping to third world countries is like throwing dice but not as certain. I suppose that with enough money, the concierge can direct you to a tailor to hand make clothing for tall people. Another solution to keeping from involuntarily checking your carry-on bag is to undersize it a bit and don’t use a roller bag (I also have powerbanks in it that have to go in cabin luggage.)
Uggh…. @Paul is the traveller nightmares are made of! How long does he hold up check-in lines while all that junk is processed? How often does he do that?
Whenever I see families checking in I make sure I’m in a different line. Everywhere, not just airports.
Talk about speaking from a position of privilege. Spend vacation days most people consider precious traveling from store to store (how?) to purchase a disposable set of clothes as I assume you’re not checking on return flight.
Yeah, buy stuff when you get there. Yes, I am in the subset that can do that (although not worth $80M), but you’re advertising just how clueless of a jerk you are to offer that as your #1 piece of advice to a general audience.
We put Samsung tags in our luggage. So far I’ve been able to track out luggages wherever we are.
I’ve always thought he was a douchebag, and this just gives me another reason to confirm my long-time opinion of him. He (and his family) never had to check bags – he could have brought as many on board as he (they) wanted. He WAY more than he was ever worth, and the proof is in his statement – he couldn’t even figure out how to secure that bags would meet their owners at their destination, YET, he still charged them… disgusting man!
I’ve had delays but never completely lost a bag. This included a 28-day round the world touching five continents, and an airline strike that resulted in a cancel after checking bags and buying a ticket on a new carrier on South Africa. I got my bags every time.
I don’t check every time, especially with complex routings, but sometimes you need more stuff than a carry on. Foreign airlines sometimes weigh your carry on or have even smaller size limits.
The most complicated delay happened at Heathrow and was triggered but a last minute reroute where the Admirals Club agent boarded my flight and recommended I take a new routing. She was right and I got to London on time. The original would have left me in NY overnight. Trouble was I was taking Eurostar the next day, but my bag arrived and I found a way to get it. Not CK, just really excellent service by the club agent.
Only on American Airlines.
Have been checking bags on almost all flights for over 30,000 segments, and can count on the fingers of my hand the number of mishaps.
But the joy of bringing gifts to others, crisp clothes.that are appropriate to the occasion (and not some polyester stuff that’s most appropriate in the gym), proper make up, etc. made my life more fulfilling and closed many business deals.
This person was a terrible CEO, and his advice is in line with this.
Sometimes it can be necessary, useful, kind or even financially rewarding to check-in luggage. But I am primarily a cabin baggage-only passenger.
As a former AA employee, I can tell you how easy it is to miss-check a bag. Try to avoid checking luggage if you have a connecting flight to your final destination and double check your luggage sticker to ensure they’re traveling to the same destination as you are.
Dear Doug,
It’s been a while. First as a member, I would like to thank you on behalf of the TMU baggage handlers sub-group for the glowing endorsement of our work. I am also very glad to hear, that during your tenure, your A1 pass family was able to find a way to travel successfully. I do remember not so long ago when you were the head man over at the Crandall Campus, great name choice by the way, we were also good pals. I do wonder though, if you had spent a little more time on this “incredibly complex” issue, as you say, instead of micromanaging what your family brings on holiday if we would have had the opportunity for this nice chat today. But then again, for those of use working in the terminal basements and in the rain, it just would not feel like the holidays unless we were working overtime day after day to stack up the, shall we say, “delayed” baggage.
We miss you Doug,
but you legacy lives on!
Your pal,
Baggage Stacker X
Parker is right: it’s stupid in most cases to check a bag. It can cause unnecessary problems and delays. Sometimes you have to, of course. Like I like to bring back wine when I visit some countries, and I’m not allowed to carry it on. And there are several other special reasons like this. But I am certain that 90% of people who check bags really don’t need to. They’re just bringing extra stuff they could easily live without. Heck, I routinely take 30 day trips abroad — often to different countries with different weather — and I do absolutely fine with just a carry on and large backpack. There’s this thing called “laundry,” and nobody should want to be burdened by more luggage than they absolutely need.
Parker was an abysmal CEO. So of course his advice is just plain stupid.
My personal experience with AA is 90% rate I’d either delayed, damaged
Or
Lost bags.
Over 4MM flown, top tier on two airlines, and I still usually check a bag. That’s what I pay the airline to do: handle my bags. I never aspired to be a skycap. And I don’t want to be one of THOSE people struggling their way through security and holding up the boarding process trying to jam the kitchen sink into an overhead bin.
Guess I’m lucky. 30 years traveling domestic and international, only one bag lost. A few a day late after me. But than again, i dont use AA to go anywhere ( i consider Spirit a better choice).
The easiest (if not the least expensive) solution is to ship your luggage by FedEx (or UPS). Avoid the luggage shipping companies because they also use FedEx etc. and add delays and costs). FedEx picks up my luggage at home the afternoon preceding my outbound flight. They deliver it to my hotel the morning of the day of my outbound flight. Returning home, they pick my luggage up at the hotel (usually after I have checked out), and deliver it to my home the next day. (I don’t have anything in my luggage that I need during that overnight delivery.) You may be able to generalize this to some multi-destination trips. I have even used this technique on some international trips, but the details are always different.
That any group or anyone would ask Doug Parker his opinion about anything, let alone flying is almost laughable, if it weren’t so misdirected. He treated everyone poorly, yet suggests others do differently. His comments about checking bags are more directly a reference to what most of the baggage handlers at AA would have done to his bags, had they had the opportunity, is more to the point. I could go on and on.
Doug Parker is a disgrace, and represents a very dark time at AA, and unfortunately this dark legacy lives on there. This coming from a multi-decade, multi million mile EP flier, who finally saw the light and moved to another carrier, where my loyalty seemed much more appreciated. I am not an ex or current employee.
AA recently made someone gate check a bag on DC to NOLA when she got on counted 22 empty overhead spots. This is a terrible way to use overhead buns! They’re there for a reason!!!
It always cracks me up to see CEOs being quoted. Their advice is rarely useful.. they live in a different world than the rest of us and their advice is usually self serving. So many things can’t be carried in your carryon.. thanks to draconian laws after 9/11.