Originally Posted by
Red BP
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There is probably also insufficient insight on this board what other factors impact the grading list and to what degree RM is manually pre-sorting the grading list days before the flight.
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What I find annoying also is, when on heavily overbooked flights they do the grading in the hour before departure of the long haul at FRA, while they let you check in for the connecting flight in MUC and offer you the upgrade for miles, even on the most expensive Y-fare (in a case where confirmed upgrade was impossible beforehand). Then when you arrive at the gate you see BPs for blue members getting upgraded.
The FM usually only touches the flight at the beginning of his/her shift, ie a maximum 4-6h in advance. If the flight is badly oversold, some grading happens in advance, the rest if left till the end as no-shows or misconnects save the day for the FM and their team. In the heat of the moment this grading at the gate may not occur as per 'the list' because of various reasons (no time to walk into the aircraft and reseat pax, elites travelling with families etc). These are documented however, so that an audit can check up on the performance of the FM or if a HON/SEN complaint is verified.
FMs and DSTs will get into disciplinary problems if the record of complaints regarding their behaviour towards elites increases.