Originally Posted by
StarlightSusan
Yes. Exactly how did the UA employees in F influence or coerce the lady into giving up the F seat?
Until that story gets told I call "shenanigans" on this thread!
Let me try this one more time. The UA customer service guy selected one half of a party in F to be downgraded. The man is sent to a seat in economy that just happens to be next to the seat that the customer service guy is going to occupy. The wife immediately expresses concern about separation from her husband, which is predictable. She then decides she'd rather sit with her husband, and
the customer service guy ends up sitting in F: the same guy who downgraded her husband.
I fly CR7s a lot. I suspect I fly them more than you. The carry on stowage situation is such that if you get upgraded and have carry ons, (which 1C did), you do not select row 1. The notion that the couple in row 2 was upgrade last on SFO to COS, a hub to major UX destination (count the flights) defies credibility. I am a 1K and when my upgrade cleared, the only thing left was row 1. So unless I was especially lax in selecting a seat, the couple was not the last to upgrade; they upgraded before me.
I think husband was selected because the customer service guy knew that the wife would go back as well and thus free up a spot.
Originally Posted by
flyinbob
Nope. Just you. This kind of thing happens too often, every day, and shows no sign of changing. UA doesn't get that you DO NOT put your employees in your best product while your customers get second best. The FA perhaps could be justified (though the plane was in SFO, a maintenance base, and it was a seat! So WHY was it "broken?),
If it was broken.
Originally Posted by
RichardInSF
OP: You've just discovered that this forum has a lot of non UA-employees who are true loyalists, no matter what the airline does to them. These are the same folks who, when someone says they are going to another carrier, post, "Oh good, that's one more upgrade seat for me."
Don't worry about them too much and keep posting your experiences.
Thanks. I've been here a while and I know all about the apologists.
Originally Posted by
ryan182
Ding Ding Ding. Are we to believe that the fact the jumpseat was broken wasn't communicated to the folks at SFO before the inbound flight arrived? If so, FAIL!
The GA should have know that the seat was inop well before that plane arrived in SFO, should have notified the couple that one of them wasn't going to be upgraded and thus sorted the whole mess well before boarding.
Indeed, and there is one more detail to share. A few minutes after the last arriving pax de-planes, the flight starts boarding. Once I get to the end of the jet way, the baggage handler blocks the entrance to the plane because the cleaning and catering crews haven't finished. It was the slowest clean/cater job I've seen, and the bag guy even muttered the same to the FA. I've boarded many times and been stopped in the jetway because of a maintenance issue, but being stopped because catering and cleaning was not done was a first for me. The relevance: a clogged jetway makes it harder for a mechanic to attempt to fix the problem. Boarding early also provides cover for "why didn't the crew inform the gate before boarding that there was an in-op jump seat".
Originally Posted by
ryan182
Then they could have decided to have neither of them take the upgrade before boarding and have a paying customer take the seat. That is how it would have worked at any company wanted to keep paying customers anyways.
And instead the GA ends up in F. Brilliant how he ends his shift working the flight he is going to fly. My admiration for his cleverness is boundless.
Apologists will claim that the combination of:
- a non-pilot/non-FA employee uniform as a pax
- the same employee working the flight before departure
- in-op jump seat that the same employee was aware of before he boards
- boarding starts well before catering/cleaning is done
- the same employee selecting the downgrade victim
- the same employee directing the victim to an empty seat next to his
- the downgrade victim's spouse also in F
- the same employee ending up in the victim's seat in F
happens all the time, and so there is nothing untoward here.
UFB. FT provides endless entertainment.
Originally Posted by
goingbananas
The GA didn't handle this well.
Dude the GA got to fly that plane in F. He handled it really well!
Originally Posted by
goingbananas
This should have been addressed before boarding and its not like the FA's were new and chances are they have had/dealt with an INOP jump seat before. They are fairly senior.
These were very young OO FAs.