I had the exact opposite leaving Michigan on American Air to Chicago for Qatar to Doha.
The American woman at check in said she was checking everything all the way to Harare. I said I think I need to collect and check my firearms back into Qatar air in Chicago. She was insistent. So I think cool, less hassle.
We had a long layover since AA canceled our midday flight. So we booked the airport hotel. While chilling out I get a call asking where I was they were frantic. Unclaimed firearms.
No biggie. Plenty of time to deal with it. But undue stress.
Then on return the Qatar internal airport security called my rifle scopes firearm parts. They were going to confiscate a lot of $ worth of scopes, 4 total. It took two more levels of seniority to get it corrected. More undue stress from uninformed employees. And I had their own rules printed out repeatedly showing them their rules. No impact on them whatsoever.
Note to self check rifle scopes next trip.