Originally Posted by bocastephen

Honestly, I don't know what's worse - Delta personnel making up their own rules according to personal preference/ignorance or the claims by some that it's somehow our patriotic duty to let a certain class of people receive frequent flier benefits because of their job.

I think this behavior is not going to stop until a bunch of you DL FF folks pen a rather terse note to the appropriate DL VP and Fedex it directly to their office with a demand that this practice cease immediately and all DL GA and FA staff be brought back in line with company standards and policies. Period. It isn't going to get resolved by sending customer service notes to a contracted worker in India named Bob Smith who can hardly remember the name of the airline they're representing. You have three distinct issues that need to be addressed directly - the unauthorized upgrading of military personnel ahead of or in place of otherwise eligible customers, the upgrading of paid upgrades ahead of Elites, and the sloppy or downright deliberate mishandling of the upgrade/standby list due to laziness or an interest in upgrading key persons.

As far as you military entitlement folks - if you want to give up YOUR upgrade or paid F seat to military person then YOU go right ahead and do so - don't be thinking you can take MY F seat and award it to someone you think is great because of a uniform.

I have used my Plat companion privileges on CO to upgrade military people - but ONLY when I've verified with the GA (or now via the PDA site) that no one is still on the list waiting for an upgrade. I will NOT take the upgrade away from a Gold, Silver or companion just because I think it's a nice gesture. FWIW, I've also upgraded a couple regular folks who were flying with a Silver elite who couldn't upgrade them as companions - but ONLY when no one else was on the list, and the seats would otherwise go empty.

The military is all volunteer - for some to think that we owe military folks our F seat, exit row, entrance to club or whatever travel or non-travel related benefit is out there to be nice or show sympathy because they went to Afghanistan or Iraq, give me a break. If you don't want to go to Iraq or Afghanistan or any other global hotpoint, the solution is simple. Don't join the military. If you feel the need to take care of military people, then YOU go ahead and give them YOUR F seat, buy them flowers, take them for dinner, give them a hug or whatever.

[omni_post]Personally, the greatest gift we can give all of them is to bring them home and keep them here, then overhaul the VA to take proper care of the injured and sick.[/omni_post]