Any women travelers feel invisible?
Hello. By way of introduction, I am a 40-something female executive traveling an every-other-week SFO-EWR schedule.
My question today is whether you frequent female travelers feel at a disadvantage while traveling due to being female.
My specific questionable experiences have been with airline gate agents and flight attendants. Gate agents seem to go out of their way to work with male business travelers on seat assignments and upgrades. Despite being a very easy customer - I am always polite and friendly, never yelling or being demanding - I don't seem to get the accomodations men get.
And on the flight, I feel invisible and less valued to flight attendants. For instance, on a non-full flight where I don't get upgraded (frequent) I at least hope that the middle seat next to me in E+ remains unoccupied. I'll even switch my seat if possible last minute so that I'm next to an empty middle. But even if it works that way on paper, once on board it's different. When someone is bugging the flight attendant about wanting to trade seats right after boarding, I have literally heard more than once, "Why don't you take the middle seat next to this lady? She won't mind." (I do mind.)
Would they do that to a man? I don't think so.
Just generally interested in your experiences.
And hello!