Originally Posted by
star_world
Really? channa - this is nothing to do with a rant. See this selection of quotes from this thread:
Actually, it looks like pretty much everyone is saying that you usually have to be present.
Your logic is that this is a good thing because the next person on the list "might" want to decline the upgrade? I'm sure that happens occasionally on every airline - on PMCO the GA goes on board in the event that an exception like this happens and pulls the next person on the list up front if they're already on board, or pages them at the gate if they haven't boarded yet.
But it's an exception - most people take the upgrade. Why build a process that is perfect for the exception but horrendous for the norm?
It's bizarre that everyone is saying that the alternative is for the plane to go out with empty seats. The two simply aren't related IMO.
No, that's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying that the GA will skip over people but do so cautiously. Like in this case, if Mr. A is a misconnect, no reason to upgrade him, then offload him, then run the list again. Might as well just skip him.
Or if Mr. A is a potential misconnect, skip him, run all but 1 upgrade, wait til it gets a bit closer, and then decide what to do about him.
As for boarding last, UA GAs typically do not go on board to upgrade. The "battlefield" upgrade is mostly a CO thing. It may be because of the systems' lack of ability to use common sense in upgrading. If you have to upgrade misconnects, then yes, there will be errors made and more upgrades to give out later. From what it sounds like, CO's systems require that they upgrade in sequence, no exceptions. So a GA cannot use their judgment and pass over someone who is a guaranteed misconnect.
Regarding the GA who posted about skipping over, I'm assuming that means to handle couples, misconnects, etc. Say I'm #1 but my companion is #5, and I say I only want to upgrade if she gets upgraded too. The UA agent would skip over me, process #2 - #4, and then if it looks like there will be 2 more seats, he could process both of us.
With the CO system, they would have to run #1 - #3 in sequence, and then go back and block my old seat just in case, or worse, downgrade me, re-add me to the upgrade list, and hope we're still together on the list, then upgrade #4. It's a lot more work for this type of situation, which is not that uncommon.
FWIW, I've been upgraded many times at the gate and had my BP waiting for me with my name on the cleared list.