Originally Posted by
MauiTigerShark
Perhaps there are two ways to look at this....the "doing it by the book" way and the "smart" way. It appears that, if the events panned out as described, AA almost chose the smart way but ended up doing it by the book.
I'll explain what I mean. Yes, the 3 PAX ended up travelling in the cabin they paid for...so that's AA doing things by the book and they''re more than entitled to do that. But, if the spare seats in J went to non-revs, that wasn't necessarily the smart thing to do. By definition "non-revs" don't generate money (be it on this flight or on future flights) whereas these 3 PAX are potential future customers as well as current customers. IMO it would have been "smart" of AA put them in J (as apparently there was room) to generate goodwill. A bad experience for these PAX (the double mechanical) would have had a good twist at the end....and could be the difference between repeat customers and customers who "may give another airline a go"....putting them in J wouldn't exactly have broken the bank(any more!) for AA. Just my 2 cents.
Honestly, I doubt that the GAs were thinking about customers generating money on future flights, or "generating goodwill." Those things probably didn't even cross their mind.
When working a flight, GAs have three priorities:
1) close aircraft door and retract jetbridge on time
2) close aircraft door and retract jetbridge on time
3) close aircraft door and retract jetbridge on time
They have very broad powers to do pretty much anything they deem necessary to make steps 1,2,3 happen. They can upgrade, downgrade, bump pax, etc. If they don't accomplish steps 1,2,3 within 10-15 minutes of scheduled departure time, they will be hauled in front of supervisors to explain what happened. They don't want that.
If upgrading you helps them accomplish 1,2,3 listed above, then they might do so. But if it would hinder/delay these steps, it's not likely to happen. Throwing a few non-rev buddies into J is probably easier for the GA than digging into the PALL list, figuring out the priority, researching who could be upgraded without ticket reissue, determining who is still waiting in the gate area (vs. who already boarded), etc. etc. etc.
Not saying it's right.....just trying to explain what I think happened.