Originally Posted by
Spiffieman
In BOS last time, I had to show the GA the Gold companion policy on my phone. I was 3rd on the list with 4 seats available. She kept on saying that is just how it is with my MVP companion is where she should be...with the other MVPs. I respectfully disagreed and showed her the policy. She agreed with me and did her finagling on the computer for my companion to show up underneath me on the list. Sigh. She was super nice, just didn't understand what was happening.
I would love a clear cut thing to tell the GA every time this happens but so far it is a lot of explaining and a lot of them trying various things for it to work. Or....just have it work as it should? heh...
But the OP's experience and the comments above are really troubling as it shows that GA's can manipulate the upgrade list however they like. It was always my understanding that the list was ordered by computer and we could rely on the fairness of the process. Yes, in these cases it was valid and justified but the fact that a GA can re-order the list at will is disturbing.
We have all read or had cases where we were a bit surpised at where we were on the list - I know I couldn't believe that early last year I was number 3 as a Gold who bought a ticket 10 months in advance on a leisure route; one where there was no one else on the seatmap until about 4 months later. And even then, no one in the elite-only rows at all. I couldn't imagine who jumped ahead of me considering it was a non-elite heavy route and a very small chance that 2 x 75K's would have bought last minute tickets.
So the fact that GA's can reorder the list bothers me as we can no longer count on the integrity of the ordering if it can be manipulated by a GA. Even though it was correct in these cases, who's to say that is always the case?