The scene on the tarmac at Miami International Airport looked like something taped by a hidden camera for a TV news magazine: a baggage handler carelessly shot-putting checked-in luggage from a buggy to a conveyor belt.
Inside the American Airlines MD 80, the passengers with window seats watched in disbelief as each bag sailed through the air and landed on the pulley with an audible thud.
“Can you believe that?” an incredulous passenger asked.
“Yes I can,” I replied. “He’s the reason I never check in my luggage anymore.”
The baggage handler stopped for a second, wiped his brow, and looked up at the aircraft. He grimaced and then continued hurtling the bags, one after the other, almost as if to say, “Stop me if you can.”
In Miami, they’re trying. American Airlines, which practically owns MIA, is so concerned about damaged bags that they have hired more than a dozen guards to monitor the handlers. (Apparently that wasn’t enough to stop the drug trafficking for which 30 AA employees – many of them ramp workers – were arrested last month).
Passengers are so worried that they’ve helped spawn a whole new service industry: luggage wrapping. The largest venture of its kind is Global Baggage Protection Systems, a company that charges an average of $6 to cover your checked-in luggage in a thick layer of transparent plastic called Secure Wrap.
Although the company operates out of 19 airports around the world, it got its start in Miami and does most of its business there, along with several other prominent wrapping services, including Quick Packaging and Riveri Strapping. All told, the three vendors should bring in a record $5 million from fliers at MIA this year.
“The biggest place in the world for baggage wrapping is Miami International,” says Peter Mestre, a vice president at Global Baggage Protection Systems.
He blames the problems on airline employees. “Let’s be realistic. Most of the damage comes from airline employees throwing the luggage around. Most of the theft comes from airline employees pilfering the luggage.”
And, he says, “Our best customers are American Airlines passengers.”
American’s baggage record is less than stellar. The U.S. Department of Transportation recorded a total of 32,584 cases of mishandled (lost or damaged) luggage – almost six reports per thousand passengers – on American Airlines in June (the most recent month for which numbers are available). Only TWA, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines did worse.
“We certainly don’t like to hear about one of our employees loading bags with less care than we, and our customers, would like,” says spokesman Tim Smith. “We work hard to provide good baggage service and we often take whatever steps are necessary to improve where we see a problem. Our baggage performance numbers are not as high as we want them, and we’re working on that, too.”
But is American to blame for the booming plastic wrap business? “That’s unfair,” says Smith.
“That’s more a function of the large sizes and variety of bags often seen in Latin American and Caribbean markets, for which Miami is a major gateway.”
While it’s true that American’s baggage handling numbers leave something to be desired, I’m not sure if we can credit the carrier with single-handedly creating a market for plastic wrapping. There are other reasons for the emergence of companies like Global Baggage Protection Systems. Miami is a gateway airport to Central and South America, where drug smuggling and theft are serious problems – an airport that one industry insider called “a place like no other.” Plus, many passengers at MIA transfer to other, less reputable carriers after flying out of the States, so their patronage of plastic wrapping isn’t necessarily an indictment of American Airlines.
That said, I’m still disturbed by that baggage handler’s flippant behavior on my flight, and I also don’t think Miami’s gateway status in any excuse for American’s dismal baggage numbers. Sure, 99.5 percent of American’s checked-in bags do make it to their destination unharmed, but do you want your luggage to be in that half percent?
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