SamOF

Well, no. If the poster who said there is an anti-discrimination claim is correct, the employee could still win by showing that Delta has not fired other employees under similar circumstances.

FirstInFlight

The (former) employee admits in her complaint that she improperly upgraded someone on at least two occasions She claims it was a common practice. This has the potential to be a fascinating case as other employees are questioned and records examined The complaint is quite a few pages in length - not sure it's possible to post - but it is available on Pacer.

PRWeezer

Indeed, it is taxing on any employer when someone cheats the system. Of course it's discouraging when such taxing cheating hits the media, even if it doesn’t mean firing.

pvn

I'm wondering why you're now using this circumspect language ("if true") when you've been one of the quickest to pass judgement in cases in this thread that were much, much less cut and dried.

KDCAflyer

If this story is accurate, hopefully it'll mean the beginning of the end for upgrade shena.

It can't be that difficult to police. The elite upgrade list should process automatically. Any exception, such as someone being upgraded out of order, or a GA failing to clear someone to keep a seat open, should automatically be reported by the system to the station manager and/or someone at corporate.

If the GA has a good explanation, fine. If not, fired after the second incident. It's not that hard.

Hopefully this story will be enough to scare the bad apples straight. Full-time DL GA jobs are not easy to come by, and good luck getting hired by another airline after getting terminated under these circumstances.

MSPeconomist

Yeah, since these are desirable jobs, DL could fire those who misbehave and easily replace them with others, either from DL part time and ready reserve employees or by the usual hiring procedures.

cmd320

Agreed. GAs are a pretty expendable commodity. If you aren't doing your job, or doing it willfully incorrectly, cut bait and move on. There are plenty of other people out there who will do it better.

MSPeconomist

However, I suspect that there's a lot of "learning by doing" with experienced GAs knowing a lot of tricks involving IROPs rebookings and how to fix problems.

Allan38103

The problem is that so much of what you read on this whole FT Forum is NOT accurate. Some what you read is factually false, some of it is not supported (maybe it's true or maybe it's not), some is pure speculation, and much is simply someone's wishful thinking disguised as "policy". If you believe ANYTHING you read on FT is true without doing independent verification, you do so at your own risk.

The recent report of an agent in South Carolina is a perfect example. Either the story is true, or it isn't. But is easy enough to confirm that.

MSPeconomist

How is it easy to confirm? The lawsuit becomes public record, but personnel decisions are confidential. Any settlement is likely to contain a confidentiality agreement. So we're likely only to know what her side claims when filing the lawsuit.

FC flyer

I think I was a victim of Shena yesterday (9/4/17). SEA to PHX flight 5779 operated by compass. I was first on the upgrade list with one seat. Constantly checking to see if I cleared. Suddenly, the seat was gone. Upgrade list didn't show anyone cleared, but standby list showed a person cleared into 2D. I spoke to the Gate agent who said this was the first person on the upgrade list and must have jumped me at the last minute. Can anyone with ability check to see if 2D was a non-rev.

MSPeconomist

I saw something today that looked like Shena regarding C+ "upgrades." For a domestic 737-900 flight, there were 70+ on the FC upgrade list and 32 on the C+ "upgrade" list. One person was "upgraded" to 10C and then a standby at the top of the list was assigned 10B. To me, it looked like 10B should have gone to the second person on the top of the C+ "upgrade" list rather than being given to some standby who wasn't yet cleared onto the flight.

OTOH if 10B had a ticket and confirmed reservation in W class on the flight but no seat assignment, then 10B should have been assigned the first (preferable) C+ seat, which was 10C.

I didn't see any indication that 10B was a broken seat, so I can't think of a scenario where it was right to put a standby into 10B after 10C was given as an upgrade.

This didn't affect me but it was something that I noticed, just as I was checking for what was observed a few days ago in another thread: the standby list shows everyone being given "main cabin" seats, even if they have seat numbers that correspond to D1, FC, or C+ rather than coach.

Bowgie

It is possible for the person in 2D to have a higher medallion status, but what happened is not the normal procedure. Upgrades process before standbys, so you should have have had the upgrade - by normal practice but not necessarily by right. It may be permissible for a GA to look at the status of the people on standby and upgrade directly from that list. Probably a rare event because I have not been upgraded in the past when I do a same-day standby.

kitkat77

I've seen this happen quite a bit recently, and been bit by it once myself.

I think something has changed in the last few months when they started the push to close the door earlier. It seems like the gate agents get a lot of "discretion" in who they clear and how, as I've seen people clear straight off standby to FC more than once. It used to be as someone said, clear upgrade and then standby, but I'm not sure if that's still policy.

People can say SDS, standby for IRROPs passengers ticketed in FC etc, but this has happened after people on the upgrade list have already cleared so I'm a bit suspect as it would seem those people would get the seat *before* the upgrade list clears. It usually seems to happen after most people have boarded and the person who has been upgraded off the standby list looks not surprised to be in FC.

CHOPCHOP767

This reporting/alert function of the standby list seems to me to lend itself to upgrade shena. Unless, the passenger is willing to take a screen shot of the list and then send it to DL, most are not going to question their seat assignments.

I do BOS->RIC a fair amount these days and always find it odd that F and C+ are empty at T-24 and then suddenly full at T-30 minutes, with F and C+ seat assignments showing up under the Standby rather than UG list. I've also witnessed persons on the UG list passed up when not available at the podium after being called by the GAs in RIC. It's a short flight, but still...