GA pulled off busy gate to bid for vacation
Hiya - bizarre experience at an AUS gate on Friday.
Flight to DEN was oversold by 8, and the agents were busy trying to sort things out. As I was speaking to one of the agents about a VDB, the other agent (who was speaking to a customer) got a call on her cell phone. I heard her say "I've got a situation here with involuntary denied boarding (or something like that), and it is really busy. What is my priorty?" She seemed to be arguing with whomever it was on the other end of the phone.
When she got off the phone, she told the colleague helping me that they are pulling her off to get her vacation bid in. The other GA was pissed, and said "they'd" better send one or two agents over. She then paged for additional help, and no one responded. She apologized to us, and advised that there were no supervisors or managers on site.
About 20 mins later, the agent came back after presumably getting her bid in, to a huge lineup of passengers.
Maybe I'm naive, but I'm shocked that someone was pulled off working the gate for such a ridiculous reason. Is it just me?
As an aside, I'm wishing I hadn't volunteered... more than 48 hrs after my luggage was loaded on the plane, and I still don't have it.