How to Handle a Rogue Airline Employee

We just wanted to get home.

Isn't that the immediate thought of travelers running into unexpected delays?

But instead of helping us sort out a last-minute, weather-inflicted reschedule of our July flight out of the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, a Southwest counter clerk went rogue, escalating a routine matter into a security incident.

When I later sorted out the confrontation, I discovered rights I didn't know that travelers had — including one new rule that all travelers need to know.

Neither Southwest nor the North Carolina airport spokespeople were willing to comment on this incident, despite repeated requests and copious documentation. Neither disputed any of the facts.

Here's what happened.

On July 11, I arrived in Charlotte via Southwest Air for a family visit. My luggage never made it to the carousel, so I trudged to the small Southwest check-in counter for help. A staff member immediately agreed that both my Airtags and the Southwest tracking system indicated that my bag was somewhere in the airport.

As we tried to find out exactly where, another staffer interjected, shouting over the heads of other coworkers: "What color was your suitcase? Teal? That's a stupid color." Then: "You say you were at the carousel looking for your bag? No, you weren't. I was there and I didn't see you."

Stunned at this verbal attack, I said to the staffer helping me, "You've got a real problem here." He nodded, silently, and kept tapping his keyboard.

The accusations continued. As the bellicose staffer had turned her name tag over, rendering her anonymous, I snapped her photo, to document the incident. With that, she stomped over to face me. "I'm going to call security on you! That's harassment!"

I just wanted my bags and I figured that security would probably throw me out. I kept my head down, the helpful staffer completed the paperwork to have the bags sent to my Charlotte address, and I left.

But that turned out only to be round one.

A week later, my husband and I arrived at the stroke of 4 p.m. for our return flight. It was a clear, sunny day and we had plenty of time. But as we worked the kiosk to get our boarding passes and bag tags, the screen fluttered and then erupted with bad news: we'd been rescheduled for another flight . . . leaving the next day.

Confused, we went to the counter. And there she was: the very same staffer who'd verbally accosted me a week before. Instead of helping us figure out what was going on (a sudden storm, it turned out, upended flights for the rest of the day), she accused us of refusing to follow airline rules. She said she'd make sure our tickets were canceled completely.

Again, her name tag was turned over. So, again, I took her photo. And with that, she threatened to call security.

"Do it," my husband and I both said, in full view of her coworkers, who were studiously focusing on their computers and ignoring the temper tantrum. At that point, security sounded like a lifeline. We needed help.

Ten minutes later, security arrived, with raised eyebrows and sighs that implied this wasn't the first time. They called the Southwest supervisor. She conferred with the staffer, who insisted that the fault was all ours. We pointed out that security cameras would belie that, but at the time, we needed to get our travel arrangements back on track. Efficient and friendly, the supervisor arranged for a hotel stay, rebooked our tickets and gave me her email address.

That proved invaluable when I realized the next day that we were doomed to deal with this very same staffer for a third time, when we showed up at the same time and same place to again try to get home. I documented the entire timeline of both incidents, including photos and screenshots of the notifications of the rescheduled flight to prove that there was no way we could have known of the change that occurred at the same moment we were trying to check in. I emailed it all to the supervisor, and wrote that we were concerned that this same employee would again manufacture an incident and try to derail our travel. The email subject line was "Requesting safe passage."

It worked. When we arrived to check our bags, she was there. I saw her; she saw me. She looked at her phone and ignored us while a different staffer took our bags.

Finally, we had a routine interaction with Southwest at the Charlotte airport! That evening, at home, my husband and I exhaled and asked each other, "What just happened?"

Documentation is everything in messy situations like this, according to Joe Nazarian, a First Amendment lawyer and a travel consultant with the California firm Pathway.

I had taken photos because the staffer had turned her name badge over, so I couldn't note her name. I had assumed I had the right to take photos in a public airport.

Did I? In the space of just one hour, I emailed that question to the Federal Aviation Administration, which sent me to the Transportation Security Administration, which sent me to the Department of Transportation, which sent me back to the FAA. None were willing to spell out the First Amendment rights of travelers in public spaces. Time to ask a consumer rights lawyer.

"Before the TSA checkpoint, airports are considered public spaces, which means you generally have the right to document what's happening around you," says Nazarian. "This includes taking photos of people or events, but you should always be respectful — just because it's legal doesn't mean it won't lead to conflict if someone feels uncomfortable."

Of course, with the Southwest staffer inciting the incident, we were thrust unwillingly into an uncomfortable situation.

But, if the incident had occurred past the security checkpoint, especially at a gate, the public's right to film or take photos might be less assured. "Even in public areas, airports can impose reasonable restrictions to keep things running smoothly, so anything disruptive — like blocking walkways or causing a scene — could get you in trouble," Nazarian says.

It was a good thing I exercised the Constitutional rights I assumed I had, because evidence is invaluable, says Duncan Greenfield-Turk, CEO of custom tour agency Global Travel Moments. My timeline of screenshots and photos backed up every minute of each incident. As I pursued a formal complaint with the supervisor via email, I included and referenced the timeline.

In that our tickets were bumped to the next day due to weather, my main concern was holding Southwest to what I understood at the time to be the best-case scenario: that airlines pay for hotel rooms under such circumstances.

But I didn't know that we had additional power to negotiate if we had wanted to. As of April, airlines are now required by the Department of Transportation to refund in cash — not vouchers — when a flight is canceled and they offer alternative plans that aren't suitable.

It's a good idea to regularly check the DOT consumer news web page to make sure you are up to speed on the latest rules for navigating airports and airlines, including equitable access for people who use wheelchairs and the latest rules for traveling with guide animals and pets.

Greenfield-Turk recommends insisting on speaking with a supervisor if you can't come to an agreement with a recalcitrant front-line customer service staffer. After that? Time to file a formal complaint, he says, with both the airline and with the Department of Transportation.

And what about the problematic employee's threats to summon airport security?

We're glad she did. The security staff in Charlotte was polite and efficient. Without them, we wouldn't have been able to secure the help of the Southwest supervisor. The airport itself declined to comment or even provide statistics about how often airport security is called in for dispute resolution and what types of situations merit security staff intervention.

I am still waiting for Southwest to tell me how it intends to prevent this employee from treating other passengers the same way. Maybe I should call security.

Joanne Cleaver is a freelance writer based in Charlotte, N.C. She covers women's issues, travel, entrepreneurship, financial planning and retirement readiness. She has authored seven nonfiction books, the most recent being The Career Lattice: Combat Brain Drain, Improve Company Culture, and Attract Top Talent. Read More