US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - How did they know I was in the Club?

Ok, I was in the C Club at CLT returning back to RDU. I am there about 10 minutes after only showing the attendant my card so no real interaction, when I get paged to come to the front desk. When I get there, they tell me the gate called and asked if my wife and I wanted an upgrade. I said sure and we got the BP at the Club. I never bothered to try and upgrade because a 27 minute flight does not seem worth it. Get to the gate, and am greeted by the agent-oh, you are the biggs'.

So how did the gate agent know I was in the Club? Did he guess after seeing we were connecting and not at the gate? Is the info that I have a Club membership available to the gate. We had an hour layover.

BTW, the gate agent and Club attendant exemplified the service the US employees can do and I thanked the attendant and told her one of the reasons I fly US is because of the employees. ^

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to the Board and the US employees.

Biggs,

Very interesting to know for sure. I hope you send a letter about the gate agent letting him know he did well. I still think they have that form on the website where you can do a write up of employees.

But back to your question that is interesting. It is possible that they do know if you check in at the Club. I guess if you check in there they could very well have it at the gate too. Bravo Zulu for the gate agent. ^

I never bothered to try and upgrade because a 27 minute flight does not seem worth it.


You're not a true cockroach! :D
Me: PHL-DCA: "If there are FC seats available, I'd like to upgrade." :D

So how did the gate agent know I was in the Club?

I've had the agents at the club entrance tell me many times that they would "put a note in my record that I'm in the club", which should be visible to everyone.

I never bothered to try and upgrade because a 27 minute flight does not seem worth it.

Ouch, that hurts just to read. I've been on "short" flights that ended up with 2 hours on the ground due to various reasons. How can something for nothing not be worth it? :D

You're not a true cockroach! :D
Me: PHL-DCA: "If there are FC seats available, I'd like to upgrade." :D

Amen, Sister Alysia!

You never know when a 27 minute flight will turn into, "#44 for departure"! And that's after, "#21 for de-icing. Your PHL-based crew thanks you for flying USAirways."

Amen, Sister Alysia!

You never know when a 27 minute flight will turn into, "#44 for departure"! And that's after, "#21 for de-icing. Your PHL-based crew thanks you for flying USAirways."

Exactly. You'll never be so glad when <1 hour flights turn into transcon-length waits.

-JC

biggs -

I believe that whether or not you have a Club membership is in your DM profile that any agent can access. For example, it's the way a Club rep was able to determine that I was indeed a member when I forgot my card (stupid me). Of course, if there's a special Club Admin info file that they only have access to, I could be wrong.

By the way, enjoyed meeting you and Mrs. Biggs on the way over to STL last weekend. Hope y'all enjoyed your holiday parties. And also, thanks for the suggestions on area attractions.

CLTFlyer

Exactly. You'll never be so glad when <1 hour flights turn into transcon-length waits.

-JC


Although it wasn't a short flight, my flight from LAX-CLT turned into quite the lengthy show when we had to make an emergency medical landing and hang out in Alburquerque for some hours. I was never so thankful for an upgrade! :D

I've had this spooky sort of stuff happen a lot. At least in SFO they look for GP and CP on the flight and figure that they'll be in the club. LAX too perhaps.

I believe that whether or not you have a Club membership is in your DM profile that any agent can access. For example, it's the way a Club rep was able to determine that I was indeed a member when I forgot my card (stupid me). Of course, if there's a special Club Admin info file that they only have access to, I could be wrong.CLTFlyer
It is in the profile and they can see it at the gate, in the club, and on the phone when calling the CP desk, etc.

Slightly OT, but I wish they would print the membership info on the boarding pass like DL does. I have yet to have to pull out my CRC card when on DL, I just simply show them my boarding pass.

*Where ever you check in, the sine of the agent is retained in the system and it appears in the top right hand corner area of boarding passes. E.g. K13/DCA might be a sine for a kiosk in DCA. Each agent and kiosk has a specific sine. There is a Sabre entry to figure out what name a sine belong too. I don't know how restrictive the Sabre data is, e.g. whether a LAX agent can see who someone is in PWM, but if I had to hazard a guess I would say it is open to anyone. So the g/a might be able to see your record was last modified in the club;
*Probably what happened, e.g. they see US1/US2 and figure if you are not at gate you are in club. I'm sure there is an entry with your DM# where they can see if you are a club member.

Note that some airlines swipe a card when you enter their clubs (CO comes to mind). I don't know with these card swipes if they then can bring up a list of who has entered the club in the last xx hours/minutes.

Also as an aside when you board a plane on most all the airlines today your e-ticket status changes from ckin to boarded (not sure what the actual jargon term is for boarded.) Either your boarding pass is electronically read or your seat# is manually typed in to reflect that you have passed the jetway door. Sometimes when boarding an intl flight at the last minute for example an agent might radio "4J is on" meaning that your baggage can travel.