travel air-travel
Legal Recourse American Airlines Threw Me Off Flight
<p>I was recently thrown off an American Airlines Flight under the pretext that my suitcase had contained a laptop (information I had ill-advisedly volunteered to the lady at the desk right before boarding), leaving my pregnant wife and 2.5 year old to fly all by themselves.</p>
<p>They sent me down to passenger check-in again to get my suitcase under the pretext that having a laptop in checked luggage is a hazard. When I got down there, they sent down the wrong suitcases, and left the suitcase that contained the laptop in the belly of the airplane, and took off anyway (shocker!).</p>
<p>I was blue with anger. Either the pretext was complete bull (which of course it was, since the TSA says that it's completely OK to have laptops in checked luggage: <a href="https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/laptops" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/laptops</a>), or they are grossly incompletent, putting my pregnant wife and kid, and the rest of the airplane in danger.</p>
<p>Is there legal recourse here?</p>

<p>AA &quot;requests&quot; that you remove batteries from checked laptops and put them in carry-on luggage. You must, per their <a href="https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-service/support/conditions-of-carriage.jsp" rel="nofollow noreferrer">contract of carriage</a>, &quot;comply with airline safety rules&quot;, and they say that they can deny you boarding if you do not comply, which includes &quot;Are uncooperative, abusive, harassing, or show the potential to be while on board&quot;. You might then hope to sue them because you didn't violate any safety policy of theirs but they denied you your seat, but there's nothing in the contract that states &quot;The following is a complete list of policies&quot;. You should discuss this in more detail with your lawyer, but on the face of it there is no legal recourse, except of course a refund.</p>
