Originally Posted by
jetsetter
"I know several people who were fired for repeatedly waiving
and breaking rules."
Yes you do here this kind of statement periodically when waivers come up.
My question I guess would be then why do some agents continue to waive fees and break rules for their customers? All I can think of is that this business of firing people for it is so rare that, whiles yes obviousl it can happen in theory, its so rare and outside the scope of practical things that these agents don't worry about it.
So I'm genuinely curious why the two wildly opposing schools of thought among agents?
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To answer your question - There are two schools of thought because you have people who care about rules and running it as a business and there are those who don't care, feel they will not get caught and continue to do it (for years). Some are disgruntled and want to "get back" at United. There should be a balance -- using logic, common sense, a sense of responsibility to the passenger and my employer (United). Personally, I get very annoyed at agents who "break every rule in the book" just TO MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK GOOD, THE HERO OR HEROINE", making the next agent who has to deal with that passenger attacked for not honoring the same wrongdoing.
Do you really want to find out that someone (non-mileage member) was upgraded by their airline "friend" at the gate while other passengers who legitimately requested an upgrade have been bypassed ? Should I issue the $200 roundtrip fare (today) to my "friend" who should have bought the ticket 14 days out for that fare ? Believe me, these are just two reasons why agents have been dismissed. The lucky ones were those able to retire rather than get fired.
In thirty years I've seen a good number of people fired, walked off for stealing United or customer property (including seat inventory), fake bookings, deliberately ticketing wrong fares, overlooking extremely overweight bags, etc., etc. The lucky ones were given the opportunity to quit rather than having being fired in their record. I don't think this is a rare as some may think. Doesn't mean UA supervisors are sneaking around corners with clipboards watching our every move and writing it down (impossible), but if they see a pattern repeating with an individual or something or someone brings it to their attention, they'd be foolish not to follow up and keep an eye on it.
We are also issued a "Code of Conduct" booklet (which we have to sign for), so it's not like we can feign ignorance of things that are obviously wrong or say we were unaware of company policies. There's a union rule book, also covering do's and don'ts. I'm just amazed at how many people forget the basic rules; they annoy me. I just feel like eventually the wrongs they keep doing will bite them in the behind.