What in the world. Can someone please tell me the rule about getting a checked bag to a pax when their flt has cancelled and they are rebooked on the flt for the next morning? The employees in PHL are refusing to get a bag for a friend of mine (their flt cancelled and are heading to a hotel in PHL) and were told their bags are locked up and they cannot get it. Can't or won't? Is it really policy?
Why won't usair get someone's checked luggage?
- Thread starter Hula Girl
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There is no policy (unless its a PHL local policy) about not giving bags back. Most places dont have enough room to store extra bags and WANT the customer to come and get them so they dont have to deal with them. Sounds like staffing issues or lazy agents who dont want to get someone to get them. I would ask for a shift manager.
Dog Wonder
Veteran
A Shift Manager and divine intervention.
nycbusdriver
Veteran
The shift manager is in a meeting and/or on a conference call and is unavailable to actually do the job he/she is supposed to do.
GOD FORBID that the shift manager may be asked to actually meet face-to-face with an actual customer. Not gonna happen. No way. No how.
(This technique is only used in some stations. PHL is the worst, followed closely by CLT. LGA, oddly enough, is just the opposite. The shift managers and station manager are often seen in the gate areas. Don't know about other stations since I don't know those folks on sight. But even captains are unable to wrest a station big-shot out if his/her hiding place, unless, of course, they are about to be arrested at the screening point. Then, the station manager and cohorts are right there cheering on the TSA and police.)
This isn't exactly on topic, but it isn't far off either.
When PHL turned into an overcrowded parking lot on March 16, 2007 due to freezing rain mixed with sleet (no holdover times published for that mixture of precip back then, so technically even deicing was a waste of time- forget takeoff)- my plane was full of bags and was 8 hours past scheduled departure. A pax only had enough medicine to make it into the late afternoon, the rest was in her checked bag. Stupid move, but we were scheduled to get in at 10 am. She had planned for a minor delays only.
It took an Act of Congress to get her bag off the plane and in her hands. The TSA were going bananas (this was on gate F2, in plain <hah> sight), I was talking to everyone I could, and the supe/manager yelled at the GATE agent for volunteering to pull it.
The lady was a weird shade of green by now, and we're about to call the ambulance.
I made an exec. decision. I walked out, pulled the bag myself, and threatened to make front page news if any other staff member of any other department gave me even a mouse turd's worth of s*** over it.
Funny. They all backed off. She must've eaten a cocktail of 7 pills out of that bag...
When PHL turned into an overcrowded parking lot on March 16, 2007 due to freezing rain mixed with sleet (no holdover times published for that mixture of precip back then, so technically even deicing was a waste of time- forget takeoff)- my plane was full of bags and was 8 hours past scheduled departure. A pax only had enough medicine to make it into the late afternoon, the rest was in her checked bag. Stupid move, but we were scheduled to get in at 10 am. She had planned for a minor delays only.
It took an Act of Congress to get her bag off the plane and in her hands. The TSA were going bananas (this was on gate F2, in plain <hah> sight), I was talking to everyone I could, and the supe/manager yelled at the GATE agent for volunteering to pull it.
The lady was a weird shade of green by now, and we're about to call the ambulance.
I made an exec. decision. I walked out, pulled the bag myself, and threatened to make front page news if any other staff member of any other department gave me even a mouse turd's worth of s*** over it.
Funny. They all backed off. She must've eaten a cocktail of 7 pills out of that bag...
If you pulled the bag and brought it right to her from the plane beyond security, that is where the problem was, not that she got her bag. If the bag was pulled, taken to TSA screening, cleared and then brought to her, no problem. Since some things can be checked that cant be taken into the secure area, before a customer can access their bag in the secure area, it has to be screened. You could always have pulled the bag and taken it to the claim area for her to get, and then have it rechecked and rescreened with the rest of the checked bags, but it probably wouldnt have made it back on the orig flight. Another reason the ramp hates to pull bags is because they have to search the entire bin for a bag. Its not loaded numerically so they have to physically search thru all the bags, which is a pain. The op stated the flight had been canx though so the bags should no longer have been on the plane and unless all the bags were already sent another way, they should have been accessible for the customer to take with them to the hotel. These are two very different scenarios with different security issues.
Let's see: Her bag tag (claim ticket) matched the one on the unique piece of luggage. Her full ID tag on the bag matched her info on her photo ID (I wrote it down). She had late stage congestive heart failure and diabetes. There was 4 inches of ice on the ramp, which lead me to believe the same was a hundred yards away on the streets. I had no idea how medical response would get to us, and whether any responders at the airport were equipped to help her or even get to the gate.
TSA himmed and hawwed.
Everyone that was ambulatory (except the awesome gate agent) refused to walk on the ramp to get her bag.
Anyone in a baggage cart wasn't moving, either.
After watching the supe/manager/whoever give the gate agent a shellacking in front of all the pax at the gate, I was done.
I went and yanked the bag, brought it in, and dared them to give me an ounce of crap over it. SCREW the debacle we call "security." This woman was chronically ill and acutely getting worse by the minute. I dropped the media threat to the TSA, and they backed right off. I offered to let them "screen" her bag before I gave it to her, but made it damned clear that she was getting her meds ASAP.
Phoenix: You don't want to fly with me. I buy a lot of meals for the crew... and on a long overnight, adult beverages all around! You'll put on weight. 🙂
TSA himmed and hawwed.
Everyone that was ambulatory (except the awesome gate agent) refused to walk on the ramp to get her bag.
Anyone in a baggage cart wasn't moving, either.
After watching the supe/manager/whoever give the gate agent a shellacking in front of all the pax at the gate, I was done.
I went and yanked the bag, brought it in, and dared them to give me an ounce of crap over it. SCREW the debacle we call "security." This woman was chronically ill and acutely getting worse by the minute. I dropped the media threat to the TSA, and they backed right off. I offered to let them "screen" her bag before I gave it to her, but made it damned clear that she was getting her meds ASAP.
Phoenix: You don't want to fly with me. I buy a lot of meals for the crew... and on a long overnight, adult beverages all around! You'll put on weight. 🙂
Dog Wonder
Veteran
Yawn.
tea42
Advanced
why PHL makes thier own rules....we hear this all the time---that they would not give pax the bag back....it is actually a quite simple thing to do....management probably can't figure it out though...
tea42
Advanced
The CSS or Manager should be fired....this is pure laziness....we know the hubs are busy---so are the field stations...smaller stations work without much more...and they still manage to get the job done....this appears to be a PHL and CLT "rule"....hey Tempe----this needs to be fixed!!!
Just like leaving carts of bags off of flights....for no reason....???
My favorite new PHL thing (POC only) is every day it seems like they have time to put remarks in every flight.
**** PHL will experience ATC due to Weather today **** Do not send any misconx. Intl flights will leave on time. We do not wait for conx on these flights. PHL has no hotels. Reroute conx from your station.
OK, thanks. Now what are YOU going to do the rest of the day? It seems like its someones job to put this in no matter what type of day/weather PHL is going to have. The hubs get all the extra POC agents and then expect the outstations with their little staffing to do it all anyway.
**** PHL will experience ATC due to Weather today **** Do not send any misconx. Intl flights will leave on time. We do not wait for conx on these flights. PHL has no hotels. Reroute conx from your station.
OK, thanks. Now what are YOU going to do the rest of the day? It seems like its someones job to put this in no matter what type of day/weather PHL is going to have. The hubs get all the extra POC agents and then expect the outstations with their little staffing to do it all anyway.
bagchucker
Senior
You cannot hold someones property hostage. Ask for a manager. It might take a while, but eventually you will get your bag(s) back.
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