American Airlines Luggage Tags: Fill & Download for Free

At American Airlines we are required to have either our REAL first name, first and last name or A nickname that must be approved by a supervisor on our name badges. I’ve only experienced one passenger contacting me off the aircraft and he got my information off my luggage tags.

I was asked by my CEO to make a last minute trip to Germany for a meeting with one of our suppliers. I was flying out of Mexico through Houston, then Dulles to Nuremberg, first class. When I got to the gate in Houston, the preboarding had started and the gate agent was yelling at a passenger waiting to board. He had two skycaps helping him with his wheel chair and a half dozen carry on bags, and the gate agent apparently had told him he couldn’t take that many bags with him. He objected, and she wouldn’t let him preboard.I boarded, and took seat 1B, my least favorite choice. As the plane filled up, seat 1A remained empty. When everyone else had boarded, they let the problem passenger on…seat 1A of course. He came aboard with his two skycaps, and they tried to find places for all of his carryon baggage. He continuously complained about where they were putting the bags, claiming he needed easy access to every one of them. He finally sat down with a small hard cooler under his legs, and we closed up, backed out and started taxiing to the runway. Every time one of the cabinet attendants would pass, he would try to stop them and make a request. As we were nearing the runway, the chief attendant (purser?) came back and leaned over me and asked him what he wanted. He said “I want to talk to whoever (sic) is in charge!” She smiled and said that the captain would talk to him when we got back to the gate! As we were returning to the Houston terminal unscheduled, they had to find an empty gate, staff it with ramp attendants, gate agents, and airport police. When we finally go to the gate and they opened the door, the police came aboard and assorted the passenger off, we buttoned up and finally go cleared to depart.I missed my connection in Dulles, got to Nuremburg a day late, lost my baggage in the plane change, and showed up for the meeting a day late, no shower, no shave, wearing blue jeans and a tee shirt.After the meeting and I finally got to the hotel, they couldn’t find my room reservation, and my baggage which was to have been delivered to hotel was missing. I’m standing at the front desk, slightly pissed off, telling them the reservations had been made months in advance (it was a trade show and we had reserved a block of rooms), and the airline was telling me bags had been delivered to the hotel hours earlier. The front desk crew kept telling me I didn’t have a reservation and my bags were not there when a bell boy walked up. He heard my name, and said “Mr. Taylor, you’re baggage is in your room where I put it two hours ago, and your room number is XXX.” Needless to say, I gave him a handsome tip and retired directly to the bar.On the return to the USA, I was cooling my heels in the Lufthansa lounge in Frankfurt when I was paged to the front desk. They told me my suitcase had been pulled off at the ramp because something inside was making a buzzing noise. They wouldn’t load the suitcase until I went to the gate and opened it up, and turned off whatever was buzzing. I was sure there was nothing in the suitcase that would buzz, but I went to the gate to see what the problem was. They took me out the gate to an elevator down to the ramp where security and a baggage handler were waiting.When I stepped out of the elevator and asked where the suitcase, they pointed to a black American Tourister. As my case was a Samsonite and blue, I told them it wasn’t mine and asked why they had called me. They pointed to a luggage tag with the name Taylor. I pointed to the luggage claim tag from the airline, and showed my claim ticket which did not match. They got indignant and told me they couldn’t put the suitcase on board unless I opened it up and turned off whatever was buzzing.I told them I didn’t care if the threw the suitcase in the trash, my flight was getting ready to board, and I had left my carry on in the lounge, and I was out of there. Made it back in time to board as the last passenger and made it home with no further issues.

It depends on what you mean by a "hack".Try to stick with one airline and optimize your relationship. Work that frequent flyer membership for everything that it's worth and don't be too quick to cash in your points. Keeping a high balance is a good way to get perks without spending any of them. When you get your balance up, find a way to talk to the gate staff. Ask to confirm your seat, check on a special meal request, etc. If they're in a good mood and see that you're a good customer, they may offer you an upgrade. If you ask for one, you'll be charged for it.ALWAYS be nice to your airline and hotel staff. They have to deal with angry, disgruntled, self-important jerks all day long and very few people treat them with any respect or consideration. Rarely is anything that goes wrong actually under the control of the people that you're talking to. They're just the sacrificial lambs that have to take the abuse from the people that get pissed off about it. Treat them with respect and courtesy and your travel life will be significantly better.Get a credit card that provides points or travel bonuses with your preferred airline or hotel chain and put all of your expenses through that card. If you intend to travel a lot, the points will likely provide a better "bang for the buck" and will work to move you up in membership tiers.Try to stick to one hotel chain. Sign up for the loyalty program and get a credit card when they offer a good signup deal. Once they identify you as a frequent traveler, the offers can be quite lucrative. Once you start logging stays, they fall all over themselves to keep you as a customer. Loyalty really does pay when it comes to hotels.Rental car companies aren't quite as hungry. Though loyalty still has advantages. Sign up for the loyalty program and try to stick to the same company as much as possible.Check out nerdwallet for advice on cards and loyalty programs.If you're travelling internationally, don't use any clothing, backpacks, bags, luggage tags, etc. that refer to a country or company. Avoid using your business card as a luggage tag, etc. Unless you know the country and area really well, you don't want to draw attention to yourself or your belongings. In one company that I worked for, we actually had advice from corporate security to put Canadian flags on our luggage when travelling into countries with anti-American sentiments. (Being Canadian, it was somewhat ironic to hear that advice from an American security team :)Make use of your hotel concierge (especially if you're in a country where you don't speak the language). Ask them about the area, any places to avoid or frequent, etc. Put their name and extension into your phone and keep a paper copy of it somewhere (phones get stolen, random slips of paper or business cards usually don't). Keep a copy of the hotel business card in the local language with you to show to cab drivers or to ask directions.That's just the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully others will chime in.