I was thankful for the Breezeway the other day. I was flying DCA-ATL-TPA and my DCA-ATL flight was late. I disembarked as the first passenger off of that flight at 8:17 PM, with my scheduled departure to TPA at 8:30. I literally sprinted through the terminal, setting a new record from B8 to A7 (across the taxiway, but for me down the hall, down the escalators, on the train - dove in as the doors closed - up the escalators, and down the hall), arriving at 8:24. Fortunately, the flight was a bit delayed and there were still about 30 or 40 pax waiting to board, although the screen said Zone 1-9.

After my now pointless run, I wanted nothing more than to head to seat 1B and relax with a drink. Everyone was neatly lined up on the non-Breezeway side so I went straight to the front of the Breezeway line and stood patiently, looking at the GA while she boarded several other pax. Since she didn't seem to be moving to hold up the other line to serve me in the Breezeway line, I reached across and handed her my boarding pass. I didn't hear any negative comments behind me, although I didn't bother looking to see the expressions on their faces.

I like the Breezeway, but clearly the GAs need to be a bit more proactive about serving the elite customers who are using it.

By the way, Later that night I got an email telling me that my upgrade had cleared on the first ATL-TPA flight the next morning. It's nice to know that they had automatically rebooked me. When I touched down in ATL and checked the Delta flight schedule on my PDA to identify the next flight out to Tampa that night, so I could call SMS and secure a seat, I was unpleasantly surprised to find out that Delta doesn't fly the late-night ATL-TPA flight on Saturdays.

-Michael