Front-line airline employees have very tough jobs and often find themselves in impossible positions.
Gate agents have no control over whether flights get delayed, but they still absorb the anger of passengers who have just learned that they're not going to get to their destinations when they'd expected.
Flight attendants, of course, also must deal with their share of customer abuse. This was a major problem during the covid pandemic, where onboard staff was forced to enforce strict mask-wearing rules.
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Mask wearing was a divisive issue, but for a time federal law required people to wear masks on planes, moving them aside only to eat or drink.
Some people agreed with those rules and some did not, but flight attendants had to enforce them no matter how they personally felt.
And while masks have now become optional, flight attendants still must deal with passenger anger over policies they don't control. That's also true of the airline personnel who check people in as they board their planes.
Those staffers not only scan your ticket to make sure you belong on the plane, they also must make sure that your carry-on baggage follows the rules.
No passenger wants to hear that their bag is too big and has to be gate checked. And when that happens, tensions can rise and airlines have put rules in place to protect their employees.
In a recent incident, however, a checked-bag issue showed that American Airlines (AAL) has a secret policy that could get you kicked off your flight even if you didn't break any rules.
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American Airlines Has a Controversial Policy
At this point just about every American now carries around a camera that can also record high-quality video. That has led to an explosion of people recording interactions with everything from the police to customer service personnel.
In many cases, this has been a positive that has led to real change -- but American Airlines does not want people filming or shooting pictures of its employees.
If you violate that policy, you can be denied permission to board or kicked off your flight. The problem is that policy is not published anywhere.
American Airlines adopted a policy in 2014 to prohibit photography of employees, they published it at the time only in its on-board magazine, American Way, View From the Wing reported.
The airline does not say this on signs at the terminal nor does it appear in their Contract of Carriage (which nobody reads), or on their website, the travel site reported. It's also no longer shared in the magazine because that was shut down during the pandemic and has not been brought back.
"Is a secret policy that runs against common cultural practice, where people film things with their phone at will (and even tag the airline in social media daily without being told they’ve violated any rule), even a policy at all?" View From the Wing added.
American Airlines Enforced the Policy
It's important to note that no law prohibits taking photos or videos in public places. In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration does not have any rules that would make airports an exception. (Immigration areas at cruise ports and airlines specifically do not allow photography, and that rule is posted prominently on signs in those areas.)
This did not stop American from not allowing a passenger to board one of its flights after he shot video of a disagreement he was having with a gate agent over his carry-on bag, The passenger was asked to consolidate two bags into one, did that, and was then told his bag was too big and needed to be checked.
At that point the passenger began filming the gate agent, who called over a supervisor, according to View From the Wing. The supervisor then refused to allow the passenger on the flight and police were called.
"They told the police officer they’re willing to gate check the bag, they just want to fly, and were filming so they could identify the agent they wanted to submit a complaint to the airline about," the website reported.
"The passenger offered to delete the video if they’d be allowed to fly. However they were refused boarding, refused rebooking, and told they could request a refund."
The police officer on the scene confirmed that no law was broken.
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