Flying Luggage (UX baggage handlers throwing bags at DEN)

They must be thinking passengers watching this from the terminal or plane parked next to it are not going to care.

Would be nice to get a comment from United Insider on this.

(tip of the hat to Surftel on FT)

Wow that is disgusting.

Do we see any flying guitars?

That's horrible! They can't even be bothered to walk five more steps.

I have seen similar (though not quite extreme) behavior a few times from my window seat. Next time I'll pull out my iPhone and capture it. Would be good to also record the date, time and gate information. Maybe zoom in on the baggage handlers to allow for easier identification. I think we still have enough unemployed people who'd gladly treat our bags better if given a chance to apply for the job.

Terrible, do they really think people aren't looking out of the window from the terminal?

I saw something similar that annoyed me about a month ago. After boarding at EWR I looked out of the window (starboard side, F cabin) and was initially pleased to note the baggage handler had put priortiy bags aside, presumably to take advantage of the LIFO process. Once all the non-priority bags were on, the handler seemed to take great delight at picking up each priority bag and take an extra large swing, throwing each one about a third of the way up the conveyor. After each throw, he would watch the bag land, in the same manner a golfer watches the ball complete it's arc and land back on the green. In fact, I could hear the muffled thud of each bag landing on it. Not very respectful, IMHO.

I am speechless.

Is there some sort of labor dispute with the baggage handlers?

Are UX ground services below the wing still contracted at DEN (i.e., lowest bidder and not mainline)?

Agents may give me a hard time every now and then for bringing my 26" rollaboard on, but this kind of nonsense is precisely why I never check luggage (besides skis or golf clubs, the carriers of which usually wind up destroyed after each trip).

There is no valid explanation for this conduct and I sincerely hope that this handler, if identifiable, is terminated.

They should call them "baggage throwers" and not baggage handlers

I wonder how many of those had "fragile" stickers on them

That seems to be a way to ensure the the luggage is mishandled.

And people wonder why I never ever gate check my CPAP.

Also: the first two cases look like Rimowa or Zero Halliburton.

Well that explains why the life of my luggage seems to be much shorter than expected.
I will ask if I can remove my own bag from the aircraft, hate to see the guys in the video inconvenienced.

Waiting for the response from UA.

I was wondering the same. Who actually employs these baggage handlers? That's terrible. For the record, every time I've witnessed baggage handlers doing their jobs, they did so properly (to my untrained eye, at least). I'm sure this is a case of a few bad apples, but given the number of bags they "handle" on a given day, they could potentially be affecting hundreds of passengers daily.

DEN as well as other hubs i.e LAX/SFO employs both Mainline and SkyWest Agents (OO)... Unfortunately if this is an Express Gate then they are SkyWest employees however if this is a Mainline Gate then they are in actuality United employees.

Frankly, I don't care. It's a plane with the UA logo painted on it that's being unloaded. The passengers who own that luggage being thrown around paid UA for the ticket and potentially for the privilege of checking the bags. UA owns this issue. They can fire their contractor if that's what they use. But it's their reputation and their responsibility to deal with this.

You're right from the passenger perspective it's all United and it does fall under the UA Contract of Carriage so complain to them and they will deal with their own vendors.

If that were my plane I just got off, I'd definitely be writing in for a "goodwill gesture".

Doesn't surprise me. The only times I've had "duty free casualties" in my checked luggage was when I was passing through DEN. 2 times. One of them the bottle was securely wrapped in bubble wrap, inside a cardboard box, in the middle of a suitcase filled with clothes and they still managed to break it.

I am about to send that video to my wife. She's planning to take a special wine bottle to her family on her next trip. Maybe we'll pack it in an old suitcase full of old towels. Fortunately she's not flying through DEN.

I dunno, but to me it looks like they are efficiently getting the bags off the plane at the lowest possible cost to the airline - so, they'll get an "on-time" award and bonus, right?