Originally Posted by
TheMoose
Agree, something is missing. Why would you get the boarding pass four hours early and be the last person to board for a confirmed FC seat? Is it possible they were listening to headphones and missed the boarding calls? Were they in a restaurant/bar/bathroom? Engrossed in an intense phone conversation?
Just because you're "in the area" doesn't mean your seat can't be given away. With online/mobile check-in these days, the agents have no way to even know if you're in the airport. If you were on a connecting flight I suppose they could know if you boarded that, but they would have no way of knowing if you're in the gate area or even still in the airport (maybe went outside for a smoke?). Who knows. And generally if they're going to "give away" your seat, they make at least a couple PA calls (we've all heard these if we're trying to standby for an earlier/later flight) before giving away your seat. Missing information indeed.
To clarify (again):
I was at the gate and watched the entire boarding process from about 30 ft away. If I don’t board 1st when I am upgraded, I wait until the end so I don’t get stuck in a stuffy jetway. That is why I was the last one in line. I was not under the 15 min cutoff and there was not a final boarding announcement yet, and I was not playing any games with anyone. Or trying to see how close I could call it. I simply stepped into the end of the line that was boarding.
When my BP was scanned, it was taken after the GA saw that the seat was gone. By the time the other GA found me a seat, they were in enough of a rush and clearly unwilling to discuss the issue with me further such that I did indeed fear retribution if I escalated the issue further right there at the gate. I did not want to risk being denied boarding because of uncooperativity, especially after I saw how nasty the GA was when she refused to show me her badge.
There was a sponsor for these miles, I did not want to complicate the issue further at the outset of my post so I apologize for not being more transparent there. The sponsor also gave me silver status at the time of the upgrade. I don’t think this had any bearing on what happened. I did indeed fly in Biz the 1st leg so the 12.5 K miles were correctly deducted and not returned to the sponsor.
If I had thought of taking a pic with my cell it would have likely gotten me in trouble with that nasty GA and I would not have been quick enough to think about stealing the pic without being obvious; I would rather have likely wanted to flaunt the camera in the hopes that this would cause them to rethink their attitudes (and this would likely have gotten me bumped off of the flight).
I really would like to know just why this happened (and why DL is so stingy with their compensation). But I am hesitant to give a DL lurker my info (via PM) lest retribution run wild. I will consider this only if: 1) FTers think it is a good idea, and 2) the DL employee promises that it will remain in strict confidence.