Rude PHL lounge employee - Kudos to LGA

 
Old Dec 9, 2006, 7:36 pm
  #1  
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Rude PHL lounge employee - Kudos to LGA

G'Day -

I am a Qantas Plat - The status provides Qantas Club membership and Qantas Club members can use US Lounges (for now, at least).

Was in the US lounge at PHL in the "F" "commuter concourse" a few days ago with a colleague who is also a QF Plat / QC member. He was wanting to credit one segment to QF and one segment to LH and asked for assistance. A US gate agent at Louisville said it could be done upon arrival in PHL for the connecting segment.

My colleague enquired while we were in a PHL "F" Club and was speaking to the male agent behind the counter. The agent said it couldn't be done anymore since HP purchased US. My colleague then said the gate agent (at SDF) was sure it could be done upon arrival in PHL. At this point the agent at the US Club lost his cool and said, "well why don't you go and have the gate agent do it" - This nastyness took me by surprise and my travelling companion then asked the agent, "May I have your name please?" -

The agent responded, "You don't need my name and I'm not giving it to you". At that point he thanked him, got a sarcastic "thank you and goodbye" back.

It's been a couple years since I've flown US myself, but I must say the employee we encountered at the US lounge in the PHL "F" concourse was just downright rude and nasty.

On the other side of the coin, I personally had a great experience at LGA yesterday with the folks in the US lounge as I waited for a delayed flight. I will be sending in a thank-you letter to their manager. I always love writing thank you letters, especially this time of year. Kudos to LGA and their assistance Friday evening (most flights were delayed 2 hrs, several cancelled).

As far as the lounge employee at PHL, anyone think it's worth sending in a letter of complaint about this employee? I'm not looking for any compensation or freebies - neither is my travelling companion. With over 100,000 miles/year of flying on multiple carriers, countless airports & lounges, I would have to rate this employee as the most bitter front line employee I've come across in quite some time. Aside from this, I was happy with flying US Airways (only a few short-haul segments).

Cheers!

SDF_Traveler

Last edited by SDF_Traveler; Dec 9, 2006 at 7:37 pm Reason: typo
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Old Dec 9, 2006, 7:41 pm
  #2  
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That's PHL for you.

Also, I don't think it's every been possible to credit different segments of the same PNR to different frequent flyer programs. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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Old Dec 9, 2006, 8:46 pm
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Originally Posted by Jumpgate
That's PHL for you.

Also, I don't think it's every been possible to credit different segments of the same PNR to different frequent flyer programs. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
Welcome to PHL is what I told my colleague at the time

What took me by surprise is this was an employee of the US Lounge. I pay to access some lounges via memberships, and other lounges I obtain membership or access to through FF status. OneWorld Emerald though Qantas which provides me with a Qantas Club membership means a lot of flights in paid premium cabins (QF uses status credits, which are based on fare paid to obtain status vs miles flown).

While there is no FC with US Airways Express, passengers in the lounge tend to be premium passengers and/or frequent travellers. For me, it just seems so wrong for a lounge employee to get rude and nasty with a customer.

RE: FF #'s

I know multiple FF #'s can be inserted into one PNR on other carriers - it's just broken down by segment - but don't know about US.

In my experience with AA, QF FF #'s must be entered segment by segment in order for it to take and print onto your boarding pass.

For some tickets like RTW's, I've seen FF #'s inserted segment by segment as some RTW tickets use carrier combos that are not part of the same alliance.
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Old Dec 9, 2006, 10:04 pm
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Ok, I have to say I have flown out of PHL and been to that lounge many times and never had a problem with the person being helpful. Now, I have neve seen a male there so maybe I just have always been lucky but have had pleasant experiences there but nothing compared to LGA. LGA has some of the most helpful and hardest working loung folks. Always informative and helpful. ^
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 1:23 am
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Originally Posted by mcgahat
Ok, I have to say I have flown out of PHL and been to that lounge many times and never had a problem with the person being helpful. Now, I have neve seen a male there so maybe I just have always been lucky but have had pleasant experiences there but nothing compared to LGA. LGA has some of the most helpful and hardest working loung folks. Always informative and helpful. ^
Ive had no problems with the staff in PHL either, but I would agree with the OP in asking the name and employee number of any employee who gets cross without a reasonable cause Theres simply no excuse for it, considering were all in the club on account of higher revenues, whatever they may be
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 6:15 am
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Personally, i would have asked for the station manager at that point.....no way i would have taken BS like that. My dep airport is philly and i usually have good experiences with us employees (way better then pit).
Write a letter....and call. If someone is going to work in customer service...they shouldnt have an attitude like that.
Also, Im pretty sure it is possible to credit different segments to different FF acct numbers. It is probably best to do it with the gate agent.
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 6:49 am
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Interesting, I am a regular at the club in the "Effed" Concourse and have never seen a male employee behind the desk.

I would complain. The behavior was unprofessional in the extreme.

And it is possible to credit different segments to different programs, at least on UA. Never tried it on US. It is a good strategy when you inadvertantly find yourself travelling on a "direct" itinerary - splitting FF programs ensures you get all your miles A to B and B to C instead of only getting miles for A to C.
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 7:23 am
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Julie Jamgochain used to be the manager of the Clubs in Philly. Not sure she still is in charge but it might be worth a call to her
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 8:34 am
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I don't know of any male agents in PHL except for Jim, who sadly passed away last Thursday night in his sleep. I know Julie and almost everyone else in Philly and will try to find out who this was if it took place after Nov. 30.

I doubt this could have been Jim, as it would be so unlike him.

And I know the ladies in LGA too--did you get a name? I will be there later in the week and pass along your praise.

Thanks
Art
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 12:07 pm
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Originally Posted by Art234
I don't know of any male agents in PHL except for Jim, who sadly passed away last Thursday night in his sleep.
Thanks
Art
OT, but so sad to hear this. He was one of the only males I knew that worked the club, and sad to hear he passed away.

My FAVORITE person in any club has to be the white haired, realistic and well spoken bartender in the b/c club!!!! I never got his name, but he ALWAYS knew mine. I miss us ONLY for the employees in the club/cp line.
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 12:35 pm
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Philly Phlyer,

You'd be referring to Frannie, a very nice man and great bartender. The blond lady is Karina, and the youngish lady on weekends is Ceil.

Yeah it was very sad about Jim--and very unexpected.
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 3:15 pm
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Originally Posted by Art234
I don't know of any male agents in PHL except for Jim, who sadly passed away last Thursday night in his sleep. I know Julie and almost everyone else in Philly and will try to find out who this was if it took place after Nov. 30.

I doubt this could have been Jim, as it would be so unlike him.

And I know the ladies in LGA too--did you get a name? I will be there later in the week and pass along your praise.

Thanks
Art
Hi Art,

This was on the 3rd of December (Wednesday). We had a late inbound to PHL and were in the lounge for an entire 20 minutes before we connected to the 3:45pm Dash-8 service to ISP.

I returned out of LGA - Carol and Harriet were working the US Lounge over at LGA on Friday the 6th and both were extremely kind and helpful. It's nice to see bright, happy, helpful employees like them, especially on a day when there were many cancellations and delays.

SDF_Traveler
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 6:40 pm
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Originally Posted by Jumpgate
That's PHL for you.

Also, I don't think it's every been possible to credit different segments of the same PNR to different frequent flyer programs. Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't know about other airlines, but certainly with US you can only have one FF number in the PNR. I may be wrong, but I don't think any other SA carrier can have multiple account numbers in the same PNR either. You make a booking, and decide to which account your miles will go, end of story.
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 6:54 pm
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Originally Posted by warbo
I don't know about other airlines, but certainly with US you can only have one FF number in the PNR. I may be wrong, but I don't think any other SA carrier can have multiple account numbers in the same PNR either. You make a booking, and decide to which account your miles will go, end of story.
I believe you are correct as far as the PNR is concerned but I have always been able to switch at check in. For example, I travel a lot on the UA/EK RTW tickets and it always shows at check in my UA MP number but when checking in to my EK segments I just change it there and it always works. Check in is the place to get it right as it will show on your boarding pass and typically you should be good from there. I think some programs will not adjust after the fact so if you check in with one number and then try to get them to change it later it can be difficult.
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Old Dec 10, 2006, 7:18 pm
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Originally Posted by warbo
I don't know about other airlines, but certainly with US you can only have one FF number in the PNR. I may be wrong, but I don't think any other SA carrier can have multiple account numbers in the same PNR either. You make a booking, and decide to which account your miles will go, end of story.
From my US DM account:

04/27/06 04/29/06 SIN ORD 0896 C 9,320
04/27/06 04/29/06 CLASS OF SERVICE BONUS 4,660
04/27/06 04/29/06 TOP TIER BONUS 9,320

From my UA MP account:

27-Apr-06 UA 0896 C Class ORD to PHL 678 340 1,018

Had I not switched accounts in ORD, I would have received only the miles for SIN to PHL, which is only 486 miles more than SIN-ORD. Did better switching plans in ORD (best of all would have been to be more careful not to book "direct" flights).

Last edited by gardener; Dec 10, 2006 at 7:23 pm
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