Punki-

I lurk UA every couple weeks or so and find your civility (not at the exclusion of other regulars of course!) refreshing. Hopefully, decorum will ultimately prevail amidst the heat of competing, if not conflicting opinions.

With respect to the 'secrets' of the trade, I find that most of my usable 'secrets' are grounded in 'working the system', not 'beating the system'. The most applicable 'working of the system' seems to be the so-called airport discretion/agent discretion/gate discretion model. Whereby if you bump into a sympathetic agent or an agent you truly have a relationship with, you can (not always will, but can!!) coupled with a lighter load on your flight... unexpected benefits can pop up.

When a discretionary bonus/benefit is transformed in one's mind into an expected entitlement, sure there are going to be disaffected FFers. If someone's goal is to 'work' or 'beat' the system 100% of the time, that person will never be satiated or appeased by revealing 'secrets'.

I trust that most of us fall into the category of 'lets good naturedly take our best shot' when we are gunning for an off-the-books benefit. If we succeed, it feels good enjoying the benefit AND knowing that we are actually kinda travel savvy. But if we don't succeed, we can take the cheerful 'no harm/no foul attitude' and get on with our flight (and our lives!).

I like spiffing MY customers when it is not to the detriment of my job status, my company's bottom line and of course, not crossing any legal lines! But what I savor most about giving to my customers is, their sense of surprise, gratitude and pleasure.
If I sensed that they were ANTICIPATING my effort at largesse, I might not feel so inclined to spiff them (or at least not so frequently). I'm sure our CSR agents around the country feel that way too. They KNOW we're good customers; they KNOW what our hot buttons are; we just have to TRUST them to pace themselves in giving to us- enough to keep us happy, but not so much that the novelty wears off and/or not so much that their efforts on our behalf could jeopardize jobs on their behalf!!

FYI- I don't post alot of my cert stuff on Coupon Cx because my CSRs, while they can fly free, can't stay or drive free. So, my UA car and hotel certs are quite effective ambassadors of goodwill...your Swiss Chocalates notwithstanding Rudi. And I don't think Cleveland's primary culinary export- pierogies, are yet in high demand by CSRs.

Thanks for hearing me out.

[This message has been edited by beaubo (edited 02-27-2001).]