Originally Posted by
newyorkgeorge
LOL. Earlier this year I was trying to get out of NYC to ORD before a snowstorm hit but arrive at ORD after it left (the storm was heading east). I suggested to the EXP TA to route me through STL in which I would overnight (at my own expense) and then onto ORD the next morning after the storm would have cleared. Her response was "is this a mileage run", to which I said no. (Actually, it was part DEQM MR, part heading to Chicago for a weekend albeit in January but for $118ai rt.) To which she said "we keep getting calls from EXPs that are doing mileage runs to ORD and they all want to be rerouted using an additional leg".
She refused to reroute me but put me on an earlier flight to ORD. That flight was I put on was the only flight to make it to ORD that day but I had gotten another EXP TA to back me up on JFK/SFO/ORD (overnight to ORD). When we landed at ORD there was no runway in site with so much snow. I'm still miffed as why just that sole flight went and all others were cancelled.
I am not sure that the EXP agents would be alerted to watch out for those "evil" mileage runners.
These EXP agents have lots of experience and I would think they have come across EXPS that have made mistakes with their itineraries numerous times. So , when they ask "are you on a MR", they are really just looking after us and avoiding people calling later "hey I made I mistake, I was sleepy, I had not realized there was this non-stop to XXX". They don't want you to be in Frankfurt for two hours when you really want to spend there at least a day for a business meeting. Of course, they know about the MRs, so they would probably ask just to feel comfortable that they can put you on a crazy itinerary, as requested.
Regarding the experience above, I would guess that in an irregular situation (massive weather delays, fires, etc) and with lots of people calling and with limited flight options they have to juggle with, they would prioritize according to pax needs. So if I'm an EXP agent and you just want to stop in STL because you are on a MR I would probably don't give you the seat because I know there are other pax that REALLY need to get to STL that night.