Originally Posted by mysterym

I used to fly for work every week, amounting to hundreds of flights. So maybe now that I am flying significantly less, I am just having bad luck and a smaller sample size... but was curious if others are of the opinion that Delta has gone down hill the past few years?

Over the past year, I've flown maybe a dozen times. Most of the trips had a significant issue, usually maintenance-related, that yielded multi-hour flight delays. For the most part, flight staff have been nice and friendly but its the gate staff (i.e. attitude when I asked to be re-booked when a 5 hour maintenance delay was announced) and condition of the planes that has been the main issue.

Short version:
Today, I experienced something I've never seen before: a ?ramp agent? policing passengers on the jet bridge and arbitrarily deciding to force half the plane to check their luggage once on the jet bridge despite at least half the overhead bin space being vacant.

Longer version:
The ?ramp agent? started screaming that everyone has to check bags because overhead bins were full. I doubted that because half the plane was behind me so I asked if it was really full. The gentleman replied that it wasn't full but they were in a rush since our equipment arrived two hours late. I said I don't want to check my bag if there was space to which he said he can have me placed on a different flight (in a somewhat threatening way, because I questioned him). I thought he was outright rude and unprofessional. Upon boarding I asked the flight attendant if there was space and she said plenty. All while this agent is screaming in the background every minute counting down and telling people to hurry up.

Upon boarding, I walked to the back of the plane and approximately HALF the overhead bin space was completely EMPTY with most bins towards the back completely empty. Lots of folks were not happy. The equipment was already so late and now we will have to wait additional time to retrieve luggage at baggage claim. The kicker was this agent first lied to everyone that the bins were full and then after being challenged by a few brave souls, started telling everyone it was to make things faster..BUT after everyone was seated for a good 15-20 mins, the captain came on and said the ground crew was still loading the bags (that everyone was forced to check).

A few questions:
1. Is this a normal practice? If so, is it new?
2. What was the likely position of this gentleman? ramp agent? was not one of the two gate agents behind the counter/scanning BPs.
3. Is the individual personally being held responsible for a timely departure, a certain team, etc, that would be supporting this process and behavior?
4. Was there anyone I could've escalated to on the spot? Does this individual actually have the authority to throw me off the flight for challenging him?

Thanks FT!