Rapier
01-07-2013, 01:50 PM
I have for many years made it a practice when I travel around the globe to go hunting or traveling with firearms to only travel on American Air lines when at all possible. Their service and reliability has always been exemplary. Well that idea came to a crashing end on January 3rd 2013 when I stood in line for two hours waiting to get a firearm checked in by the only person on duty, for American Airlines, at the time, that was allowed to check in firearms at the Las Vegas airport that morning.
This morning started by my having a premonition for some reason, of a disaster. So I wanted to leave for the airport early although I was booked, checked in and had my boarding passes in hand, all done by computer months, then days, then hours ahead of time. I am a nut about not having any missteps in flights. I know how difficult it is to get another flight today if you miss connections. Nothing I imagined prepared me for what was to transpire.
We arrived at the air terminal two and one half hours early and were met with long lines at the ticket counters and helpful aids at the funnel points. Being told that I needed to get my wife’s and my boarding pass from a kiosk, I told the aid that I had our boarding passes in hand and just needed to check my baggage. I then just casually mentioned that I had to check in a firearm at the counter.
At that point we got an education in the new American Airlines. They filed bankruptcy in 2012, in the process they terminated the vast majority of their employees and hired independent contractors to provide labor. Now here is the catch, no one in American Airlines but an actual employee can do certain functions and one of those functions that the contractors are prohibited from doing is checking in a firearm. We apparently just hit the right person on the outgoing leg of this round trip and nary a problem was had nor anything said to indicate a problem might come later. The Las Vegas Airport on this day had one person that could check in a firearm and that person was selling tickets to non-ticketed people and changing flights for passengers, including non-English speaking foreigners that had no clue of what he was saying nor did he know what they were saying, in other words, a giant gaggle.
We stood in line for an hour and one half watching a total goat roping going on before we got to put our bag in the pedestal and asked that it be checked in. Then we found ourselves being informed that we needed TSA locks so the TSA could unlock our case, which is totally against the law with a firearm. No one is supposed to access a firearm once it is inspected and the case is locked except the owner and if the TSA wants to look at the firearm they are supposed to come get you to unlock the case, period. Was that the end, nope. We were then told to stand by while the TSA checked the bag. We were required to stand there for another 30 minutes, until we were released. By that time we could not get through security and transverse the entire airport in time to catch our flight out.
So we were faced with an employee that did not know the rules, who was in charge of the process and was performing his responsibility bass ackwards. By the time we got through this circus, we had missed our initial flight out and we ended up flying standby all day, trying to catch flight after flight until, after catching the very last flight of the day out of Dallas, we got home 5 hours late.
Where was our bag with the firearm inside? Just guess! Oh it made the initial flight and was sitting at our destination for 5 hours. All in all, a very unsatisfactory experience.
If you have an idea about flying with a firearm on American Airline, I suggest you either change airlines or you go at least 3 hours early. Did I mention that American now charges $25 per bag including the first bag and more for the second bags or any bag over 50 pounds, coming and going.
Things in life change, but you get used to a certain level of service and it is a shock to find out that service has changed so drastically.
Ed
This morning started by my having a premonition for some reason, of a disaster. So I wanted to leave for the airport early although I was booked, checked in and had my boarding passes in hand, all done by computer months, then days, then hours ahead of time. I am a nut about not having any missteps in flights. I know how difficult it is to get another flight today if you miss connections. Nothing I imagined prepared me for what was to transpire.
We arrived at the air terminal two and one half hours early and were met with long lines at the ticket counters and helpful aids at the funnel points. Being told that I needed to get my wife’s and my boarding pass from a kiosk, I told the aid that I had our boarding passes in hand and just needed to check my baggage. I then just casually mentioned that I had to check in a firearm at the counter.
At that point we got an education in the new American Airlines. They filed bankruptcy in 2012, in the process they terminated the vast majority of their employees and hired independent contractors to provide labor. Now here is the catch, no one in American Airlines but an actual employee can do certain functions and one of those functions that the contractors are prohibited from doing is checking in a firearm. We apparently just hit the right person on the outgoing leg of this round trip and nary a problem was had nor anything said to indicate a problem might come later. The Las Vegas Airport on this day had one person that could check in a firearm and that person was selling tickets to non-ticketed people and changing flights for passengers, including non-English speaking foreigners that had no clue of what he was saying nor did he know what they were saying, in other words, a giant gaggle.
We stood in line for an hour and one half watching a total goat roping going on before we got to put our bag in the pedestal and asked that it be checked in. Then we found ourselves being informed that we needed TSA locks so the TSA could unlock our case, which is totally against the law with a firearm. No one is supposed to access a firearm once it is inspected and the case is locked except the owner and if the TSA wants to look at the firearm they are supposed to come get you to unlock the case, period. Was that the end, nope. We were then told to stand by while the TSA checked the bag. We were required to stand there for another 30 minutes, until we were released. By that time we could not get through security and transverse the entire airport in time to catch our flight out.
So we were faced with an employee that did not know the rules, who was in charge of the process and was performing his responsibility bass ackwards. By the time we got through this circus, we had missed our initial flight out and we ended up flying standby all day, trying to catch flight after flight until, after catching the very last flight of the day out of Dallas, we got home 5 hours late.
Where was our bag with the firearm inside? Just guess! Oh it made the initial flight and was sitting at our destination for 5 hours. All in all, a very unsatisfactory experience.
If you have an idea about flying with a firearm on American Airline, I suggest you either change airlines or you go at least 3 hours early. Did I mention that American now charges $25 per bag including the first bag and more for the second bags or any bag over 50 pounds, coming and going.
Things in life change, but you get used to a certain level of service and it is a shock to find out that service has changed so drastically.
Ed