Originally Posted by
NYCommuter
I'm definitely in the second camp. For the post that asked, "why upgrade military people, not others who help humanity", I've worked in human rights organizations (anti-land mines work) and have done construction trips to the Third World, yet the risks that my co-workers and especially I ran up against weren't anything like being on the streets of Baghdad, I'd assume. So any military member is welcome to have my FC seat anytime!
Good on you! I love your post. Here's the other side of the issue, it's harder than heck to ID people working for NGOs, it's a lot easier to ID military.
In my many millions of miles of flying, I've never seen an officer UG over an enlisted or Non-com. Has it happened? Must have. But how many other "he shoulda got the UG" happened every day?
This is peanuts in the whole scheme of things.
I was once on an AWA flight where all UG were out, but the checked-in F customer didn't make the flight (who knows why?) An FA tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I would be OK with allowing a Spec 4 in camo to take the seat since I was a Plat member and it apparently was my UG. I said "sure, let him have it!" She gave me free drinks from DFW to PHX, the soldier gave me thanks and we met up in PHX at the gate and I bought him a beer while his GF came in from Chandler. Turns out he was off a tour in Afghanistan and was doing a month long turnaround. Nice guy and even better to hear his story.
More power to anyone doing UG in this manner. Two very happy customers. Free drinks for me, aisle seat and yep - I did feel a little better for a night or two giving a verbal to allow my seat to go to a deserving American.