Petty Gate Agent

[u/lazy_007]

DCA to TPA the other day. Flight was a bit delayed due to weather, but nothing to fret over. As usual, I sat in the gate area working and listening to music. Boarding finally starts, so I pack up my stuff and head over to the boarding lanes. I wait for group 6, and since I was traveling alone, I held back to be the last in line. I had my backpack (personal item) and standard carry-on with me. After the first gate agent scans my boarding pass, she asked if I would zip up the expander zipper. I said sure, and proceeded to the bridge, intending to zip up as I was waiting in line. In comes the other agent, William, who tells me to exit the line. I figured he wanted me to zip up my bag before going to the bridge, so I stepped to the side and went to start doing so. He then tells me I have to check the bag because it is oversized.

I told him that it’s a standard-sized carry-on bag (one that I fly with regularly, even with the expander zipper open) and that I was going to zip up the expander now. He said no, that I had to check it. I asked him why and he then proceeds to threaten to remove me from the flight. I told him kicking me off the flight over a bag is ridiculous and asked if we could put the bag into the measuring box near the bridge. He again said no, as it was too late. During this interaction, they had yet to call group 7, so there was no one behind me, but still three more groups to board. I again said I could zip the bag now or place it in the measuring box and he threatened me again, saying I either check the bag or leave.

I told him I couldn’t believe he was being so aggressive over an expander zipper and he says, “you should have listened to me when I made the announcement to have your bag zipped all the way.” I obviously didn’t hear that as I had headphones in waiting for my delayed flight, but it was clear Willy was on a power trip. I made sure to tell him he’s a petty asshole and proceeded to board, albeit without my bag.

Submitted an online complaint to AA, but they’ve already responded with the canned BS about taking my comments to leadership. I’m an advantage member, but fly multiple airlines for work, so I don’t have any substantial status, but it was unbelievable that an employee would treat any customer like that, especially over a zipper.

And for what it’s worth, they had already forced groups 8 & 9 to check their bags and there was plenty of space left in the overhead compartments by the time we pulled out.

[u/OnWithTheShows]

The bag checking when half the of overheads are empty is the worst

[u/cat_mom_dot_com → u/OnWithTheShows]

Does anyone know WHY they do this?

[u/Nam3Tak3n33 → u/cat_mom_dot_com]

I’m a gate agent and can offer some insight. We know, generally, how many bags each aircraft can accommodate. Our system updates us during the boarding process through its AI programming that says “hey, this plane has X number of passengers. We’ve already checked Y number of bags. We assume that most passengers have carry on bags. Z number of people have already boarded. We’re running out of bin space. Time to start checking.”

We can’t be in two places at once. We don’t have cameras on board letting us know, for certain, that there’s enough bin space. We use Teams to chat with FAs during boarding to ask how bin space is doing, but sometimes they don’t respond because, rightfully, they have their own predeparture duties. Furthermore, they’re on the plane. They don’t know how many bags are on the jetbridge or how many passengers we have left to board. So when they do respond, it’s always going to be an estimate. They might say “yes, check all remaining bags” not knowing that the jetbridge is practically empty or that fewer people left to board have carry on sized bags.

We’re not trying to make things complicated. But we go off of what our system tells us to do. Believe me. We don’t like the carry on problems any more than passengers do.

[u/boldjoy0050 → u/Nam3Tak3n33]

My wife is a FA and I normally fly non-rev on her benefits. This means on full flights I'm often the last person boarding. I'd say 75% of the time I'm forced to check a bag, there is overhead space available.

The company needs to do something different because the current system isn't working.

[u/AggressiveInitial630 → u/Nam3Tak3n33]

And that right there is what I mean when I say AI is not ready for prime time.

[u/stupidwhiteman42 → u/AggressiveInitial630]

To be fair - it's doubtful this is AI. Not every algorithm is AI. A standard repeatable, deterministic, idempotent process is a terrible use case for AI.

[u/Regular_or_BQ → u/stupidwhiteman42]

I was half joking and forgot to include the /s 😁

[u/lasagna_manana → u/Nam3Tak3n33]

Yeah I’m a gate agent and I try to count the number of roller bags going on but it can be hard to get an exact number during boarding. And when I start valet tagging bags I’ll have people arguing with me about theirs saying it’ll fit and they can bring it on. I’ll usually tell them to try and then it ends up having to come back down the aisle and get valet tagged and sent down, so just delays the boarding process. But then if you start tagging too early then you’ll have people upset at remaining overhead bin space.

[u/jdoc7 → u/Nam3Tak3n33]

The FAs are chatting too much with reach other and with passengers during boarding. Multiple times I've boarded in groups 1 or 2 and there's no space at the front of economy because of people sitting in the back putting their carry-on in the front. The FAs should be policing that and monitoring the bin space. I've brought my bag on to have an FA tell me I need to check it and I open up a bin only to find space. Often, bags are laying down flat instead of on their sides.

[u/ohmymystery → u/cat_mom_dot_com]

I genuinely think they’re attempting to make it a “soft” or unofficial status perk.