Punki
Oct 21, 99, 9:56 pm
My flight yesterday from Toronto to Chicago (which turned out to be even more unusual than I had imagined) was one very high stress operation from the get go.
The flight was scheduled to leave at 6:11 p.m., so we left the Maple Leaf Club to claim our first class seats at 5:40 p.m. Assuming we would board instantly, we walked toward the gate and were startled to find a large crowd of people pressing themselves forward to the gate. This was a little odd, as there didn't even appear to be a plane at the gate.
We somehow found seats close to the door and listened as more and more surprised and unhappy folks approached and the gate agent muttered things like "Oversold by 45" and "Well, there definitely is NO first class but we'll do our best to get you on." They soon announced that the plane was on the ground, but (as you could see if you looked out the window) there was a huge traffic jam on the ground.
When it looked like boarding was imminent,we hear the following announement, "We will board ONLY first class now. First Class will be followed by only current 1k and PremEx customers.
Will the Premiers please be patient? We will preboard all 55 of you in proper order, just prior to general boarding." No Joke -- 55 Premiers! They ran out of overhead luggage space before they started general boarding and there were many, many gate-checked bags.
All the Gate Agents and the Flight Attendants were flabbergasted by the statistics. The Purser actually brought the manifest to my seat and together we counted:
12 1ks (No less than 8 in coach.)
18 PremEx
55 Premiers
85 Total passengers of status out of 145. You do the math!!!
The Purser (who was also a PremEx) assured me that the only folks in 1st paid to get there (I didn't tell him how I got there) and that there were NO EMPLOYEES even considered to get on board that plane.
We started talking about the revenue the status folks on board represented (and how important it was to UAL not to crash this one) and we did the math. At a bare minimum these flyers represent:
55 Premiers = 1,375,000 miles per year
18 PremEx = 900,000 miles per year
12 1ks = 1,200,000 miles per year
Total = 3,475,000 miles per year
And just think of the bonuses. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
So, was there some Webflyer parallel universe PIP happening in Toronto this week? This was a most interesting flight, but they sure didn't seem to know how to have fun like we'll have fun on our PIP! http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
The flight was scheduled to leave at 6:11 p.m., so we left the Maple Leaf Club to claim our first class seats at 5:40 p.m. Assuming we would board instantly, we walked toward the gate and were startled to find a large crowd of people pressing themselves forward to the gate. This was a little odd, as there didn't even appear to be a plane at the gate.
We somehow found seats close to the door and listened as more and more surprised and unhappy folks approached and the gate agent muttered things like "Oversold by 45" and "Well, there definitely is NO first class but we'll do our best to get you on." They soon announced that the plane was on the ground, but (as you could see if you looked out the window) there was a huge traffic jam on the ground.
When it looked like boarding was imminent,we hear the following announement, "We will board ONLY first class now. First Class will be followed by only current 1k and PremEx customers.
Will the Premiers please be patient? We will preboard all 55 of you in proper order, just prior to general boarding." No Joke -- 55 Premiers! They ran out of overhead luggage space before they started general boarding and there were many, many gate-checked bags.
All the Gate Agents and the Flight Attendants were flabbergasted by the statistics. The Purser actually brought the manifest to my seat and together we counted:
12 1ks (No less than 8 in coach.)
18 PremEx
55 Premiers
85 Total passengers of status out of 145. You do the math!!!
The Purser (who was also a PremEx) assured me that the only folks in 1st paid to get there (I didn't tell him how I got there) and that there were NO EMPLOYEES even considered to get on board that plane.
We started talking about the revenue the status folks on board represented (and how important it was to UAL not to crash this one) and we did the math. At a bare minimum these flyers represent:
55 Premiers = 1,375,000 miles per year
18 PremEx = 900,000 miles per year
12 1ks = 1,200,000 miles per year
Total = 3,475,000 miles per year
And just think of the bonuses. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
So, was there some Webflyer parallel universe PIP happening in Toronto this week? This was a most interesting flight, but they sure didn't seem to know how to have fun like we'll have fun on our PIP! http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif