Originally Posted by
TrojanTraveler
Exactly. I had a red coat at JFK recently give the "this has been the upgrade policy in the 16 years (or whatever it was) I've been at DL" line, and as soon as she left, the other two GAs said, "is she gone?" and then "of course we will pull you up from the back if there is a no show" (the front was full).
The only way to be consistent is by consistently processing upgrades before boarding only. If a GA had to go to the last row to upgrade a passenger and it's close to departure, there will be a delay.
I think it's bad customer service to delay 150 passengers in order to process an upgrade at the last minute. Overall it nets positive customer service to only upgrade at the gate to ensure on-time departures. And all GAs should notify all passengers who are 1-3 on the upgrade list that they should wait to board.
I've seen #25 GM get upgraded because he waited until the end of boarding to take a phone call.
Too many GAs want to be nice and process upgrades onboard, but they can't be consistent because when they see their upgrade in row 40 they find any medallion in row 4 and upgrade that one randomly. Consistency in policy over anything else is important (to me).
If Delta tells me that it's their policy to do X and expect Y, then I should always get to expect Y whether that might be a good or bad thing.