mthake

Thursday AM 8:35 flight from ATL to STL, cancelled due to SW maintenance requirements.

Stand in line for 1.5 hours, get confirmed B54 on 9:00 flight from STL to ATL. All travelers received LUV $100.

Call customer relations, they tell me to request boarding after BS, and to call back tomorrow to get more LUV.

Reps arrive at gate 8:15. I respectfully request to board after BS as instructed by customer service. Rep tells me she cannot help, and I just need to board after A group. Rudely, she can't help me, cause she don't control the gate. Ok, fine, ....

Gate Rep arrives, so I go speak with her. Same questions. She looks at me like I'm stupid, and tells me Business Select doesn't count on rescheduled flight. She actually tells me that its a courtesy that I'm even on this flight. She says there is only 60 people on the flight, and I need to just relax.... really?

We board the 737-300, and its a completely full flight.

The next day, I call customer relations, and explain my story. They apologize, and offer me an additional $150 LUV. They are going to send my experience to the management.

This is my first bad experience. Have I been satisfactorily compensated?

Thoughts?

ch3ss

I would say no you havent been compensated correctly at all.

I have had that happen to me where its down due to maintenance but they rebook me as a BS fare.

Id call back again and ask to speak to a supervisor and just explain to them the position you were in. Sounds a bit crazy if you ask me.

Often1

You are also due a refund in cash (to your original form of payment) of the BS supplement as WN was unable to provide it you.

Send in a webform request. Make it 2-3 short sentences at most (your OP is way, way, way too long).

tusphotog

Why couldn't you board before family boarding and after A60?

smmrfld

+1. Take the extra points you get for booking BS as A+ and be done with it.

justhere

They can rebook you as a BS fare but if there aren't any boarding positions available from A1-A15, you are going to get whatever is available.

ursine1

And when this happens, you should be allowed to board at A16.

PAX62

If there are BS positions available on the new flight and you ask nicely, they usually accommodate but the default is you are at the back of the line of those that already checked in even if you are BS and positions are available.

There is no mechanism to generate a A15.5 boarding position if they are full and why should Mr. A16 get a crappier potion and let others cut in front? It wasn't his flight that got screwed....How may A16s do you let in line...the whole other 1-15 that got bumped?

This is why they recently started allowing A list members to board after the A group if you do not get an A position. I have been bumped of a BS fare only to get a C30 position before they started that new procedure....THAT really sucked.

justhere

I don't disagree but I do see PAX62's point.

I recently got a VDB and was told sorry no BS boarding positions available on the next flight.

I was fine with that but as we were about to line up to board the next flight, I asked the GA (different one from the one that gave me the VDB voucher, etc) was there a way to board earlier (had high A BP). She gave me a kind of "absolutely...we don't expect you to wait until then to board" answer and just wrote A1 on my BP.

Wasn't sure that would work at the gate but when we boarded I think there were only 2 or 3 people in the BS group and when I handed in my BP and tried to explain why A1 was written on there, the agent didn't even let me finish explaining before telling me to go ahead and board.

No idea if it always works out that way but it did this time. I also have no idea if anyone actually had A1. The only person in line that asked me had A2 so he lined up right behind me.

The plane ended up only about a third full so my boarding position wouldn't have been an issue anyway but there is no way that a third of the people on the plane were on BS fares so it does beg the question of why they are not able to print out unused A1-A15 positions.

tusphotog

Or you can board at the end of the A group. Not ideal, but it sure beats boarding at C30.

Not sure where you heard this, but this is not true. If there are open BS positions and you're on a BS ticket, you get a BS boarding position. The only time you don't, is if the gate has released the BS positions back into the general mix. Then you board after A60.

When the GAs release the BS boarding positions into the general mix, they can't print A1-15. Those positions are gone. As I wrote in a couple days ago in another thread here, once released, the BPs exist (i.e. passes 1-15) but the positions do not. So, you're stuck with C30 or C40 or whatever the next available one is, and hopefully can board before the B group.

I have no clue what the standard time is to release the BS positions, but in my experience it varies from not at all (empty flight) to when they start pre boarding. I suspect it's when they start offloading people who haven't checked in (10 minute rule).

chuckworth

At some stations, can't remember which, they have stamps and will stamp your BP to let the Ops Agent know to board you at the end of BS. Had this happen to me a few times and was allowed to board after BS with my stamped BP. May be an unofficial thing that is station specific.

toomanybooks

Yeah, they always say this when you complain. Normally something about their monthly management conference. It never amounts to anything.

pinniped

I don't even understand what happened here.

Why did your boarding pass for the STL-ATL segment change? Did they (or you) accidentally cancel the whole itin? Or did you intend to change STL-ATL after your delay on the outbound?

justhere

I did see your other post but not sure I fully understood it. I checked a recent BS mobile boarding pass but didn't see any other number other than my A# on there.

Anyway, in my VDB example the next flight was about 3.5 hours later and I was told that they couldn't print a BS BP. I'm pretty sure it wasn't because there were 15 BS passengers as the flight only had about 50 people on it.

ursine1

A-Listers can board after the A group, but if someone purchased a BS fare then they should be allowed to board after the BS passengers. The "mechanism" is that your boarding pass says "Business Select" on it (regardless of the position).