Outrage is brewing after an American Airlines first class passenger was kicked off a flight, despite arriving on time…all because an agent disappeared to grab donuts.
First Class Passenger Removed From Flight After Agent Vanishes For Donuts
A traveler claims he arrived at Orlando–Melbourne International Airport (MLB) about 50 minutes before departure, inside AA’s own 45-minute baggage cutoff window. But there was no one at the check-in desk. When an agent finally emerged from a back room…she was munching on donuts.
Even though the passenger handed over their ID right away, the agent ruled they’d missed the cutoff by two minutes and refused to check in his clubs. Meanwhile, the agent simply walked away again. Shocked, the passenger remarked, “She’s holding a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts and a coffee … I’m sure ALL of this is on camera.”
If this unfolded in that way, this isn’t just a bizarre inconvenience…it’s grounds for termination. A premium traveler, on time and professional, was tossed off due to a lazy, uncaring agent, buried under a phrase we’ve all heard way too often: “Rules are rules.” But how can you blame the passenger when you were in the back room before check-in cutoff, eating donuts?
I understand that at smaller stations like Melbourne, Florida, one agent may wear many hats. I’ll never forget the first time I was exposed to this in Bismarck, North Dakota (BIS). I was flying United and I spied the same agent who checked us in on the ramp loading bags and then boarding the flight…that maybe the case here, considering AA has three flights a day to Charlotte (CLT) operated by their PSA subsidiary.
But it doesn’t matter…if you show up on time and the agent is dawdling, it’s not your fault…and at a tiny station like that, it’s super easy to simply take the bag, put it on the conveyor belt, run it through an x-ray, then load it onto the plane…it takes a few minutes.
As I’ve said before, if AA wants to be a premium carrier, these sorts of stories cannot occur…a traveler should not feel compelled to arrive far before check-in cutoff because he is afraid the check-in agent might be taking a donut break.
CONCLUSION
A first class American Airlines traveler got scrubbed from a flight because an agent went MIA for a donut run. If this situation did go down as the passenger described, then AA owes this man more than an apology…it owes all of us a duty to re-train agents on such simple matters like not taking a break before check-in cutoff or enforcing arbitrary and capricious baggage cutoffs.
Hat Tip: View From The Wing
Contract airport staff (on all US airlines) are the worst. AA’s tend to be the worst of the worst.
The reddit thread doesn’t say that the employee was munching on donuts at all. The quotes include “while still chewing food” and “she is holdijg a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts.” Not sure how anyone would know the contents of the bag from the original post.
Sounds like a lazy slob, no matter what she was eating.
Damn you are getting very judgemental in your mid ages. Why not blame the ass clown that showed up at the last minute at a small airport since both are at fault in a way?
@ Dave edwards- did he arrive on time? Then how is the passenger to blame?
Oh Matthew be quiet and stop with this ridiculous comment.
What else would she have in a Dunkin’ Donuts bag? Goldfish?
It’s sad how difficult it seems to be for most airlines to hire consistently helpful public facing staff. Even if she couldn’t check him in, there is a basic level of competent service you should provide even to irately disappointed passengers. This guy might have been a tool who was running late. But if you’re at work, it’s on you to just suck it up and try to defuse the situation and do it with a smile on your face. It’s not that hard to just pretend that you give a damn in the handful of difficult situations you might face in a day. People act like public facing jobs are uniformly terrible and stressful, so they need to be dismissive to everyone. It’s just not true. Most people are easy, as are these jobs.
The standard attitude from airline staff seems to be, I’ll help you, maybe, and on my terms, I won’t put in much effort, and I will certainly make you feel like you’re keeping me from doing something else more important. Our declining workplace culture is the problem, and that’s not something one airline alone can fix.
Another cautionary tale on stop showing up at the last f##king minute. Not defending the employee, but come on, why do some of you think you are so important that you don’t get to an airport when you need to check a bag at the last possible minute. What if there was a line or even a customer in front of you with a challenging interaction? You know staffing is limited at these small airports.
I wonder how some of you run businesses like this? Do you show up for important meetings at the last minute too?
Spoiler alert….the world doesn’t revolve around you.
I don’t disagree, in general. But, where do you draw the line? The ‘rule’ states 45 minutes. So for the passenger 50, 55, 60?
Matthew’s comment about Bismarck reminds me of my own UA Bismarck experience a couple of years ago. I had a bag to check, arrived about a hour early. No one was at the counter until 30 out. Apparently there was some sort of emergency, she was the only one working, but she got me and two others behind me checked in and on board without delaying the flight, with many apologies.
This also reminds me of one (out of 14) of my represented employees showing up for work at 0659, 0700, 0701, 0702. etc. when work started at 7. The other 13 employees, generally ready to work by 0645, were not happy. Eventually had to discipline. He greived it. I lost: in fact the ruling was i needed to give a 5 minute grace period. Again, where do you draw the line.
Dave is not wrong.
Last time I checked employees are allowed a 30 minute “lunch” break and 2 15 minute breaks during their work shift. Why did the passenger cut it so close ?
If American Airlines really wanted to be a premium airline, it would he.
But they don’t.
So it isn’t.
“A premium traveler, on time and professional, was tossed off due to a lazy, uncaring agent, buried under a phrase we’ve all heard way too often: ‘Rules are rules'”. I read from a book that, “Sometimes, an ideal(or law) must be compromised in order to save it”.
This is such a silly sneaky thing. It makes a lonely silly boy want to weep
American has more problems than they know how to solve.y wife lived a horror story couple years ago on American. Never again
Maybe he was horny. People are silly dickens when horny. So sloppy and silly.
Why are munchinkin donuts given such a bad rap. Everyone calls them the ho’s of the donut. The donut ho’s. Very degrading. Ho’s have feelings too.
Ok, small airport and all that, but still, maybe schedule any food breaks after the cut-off check-in period for each flight or flights if more than one have that same time limit.
AA will never recover from its death spiral until they fix the employee culture, which is likely impossible with the curent group that has internalized “the airline is there to provide you with free travel and passengers are an imposition” for 15+ years. Fire them all and start over.
Ron Mexico! Great stuff!
I wonder how many of the squares here will get the name?
i’m guessing black.
Never lose a chance to make something racist. The new American nazi party (R) slogan
Joe was just playing the odds. As a gambler, understand when you have an advantage and run with it.
He might be wrong in this case, but betting it all the time and you’ll come out ahead, how is that “racist”?
In general ALL airlines in US offering less customer friendly service than their Asian airlines in general, thanks all American unions
But this article literally says “When an agent finally emerged from a back room…she was munching on donuts.”
I’m not sure I understand the semantic outrage- she came out of the back with a Dunkin Donuts bag, still chewing. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a cheek swab to figure it out.
In any case, the agent’s behavior was inexcusable and, hopefully, she is currently shopping the rounds of lousy cut-rate airlines for a new job.