Even as a P he couldn't have used 2004 SSWU's could he? The ones I received said Super Elite and Elite. SWU's could be used by P's. Did you mean SWU's?

as someone said previously in this thread I think part of the story is missing. As a former gate agent I can tell you I would not have had the time to call a secuirty guard to come to the gate. Also they always ask why they are needed and if I had told them someone is trying to use certificates that wasn't theirs I would have been laughed out of the airport.

Ace Cdn
Your are right on, been there, done that. Security would laugh their heads off. There's got to be more to this story. I think WHY FLY should ask his friends more questions. :rolleyes:

Good luck finding out who the friend is! If the persontrying to use the certs doesn't volunterr the information, they have no way of knowing!

I don't for a minute imagine that AC would have gone to the expense and trouble but the technology does exist to individually serialize documents like this and be essentially undetectable. It was revealed a while ago for example that some colour printers include barely detectable yellow dots in their output that encode the printer's serial number.

Right, but security ought to be a little concerned about someone not entitled trying to get into the front cabin, i.e. closer to the cockpit. One suspects that the actual deal here is that security was called over to give the pax the once over based on "suspicious behavior" or belligerance.

exactly. If someone just asked and left it at that then that would be the end of it, but if someone was persistant and getting irate about it then I would have called someone to come have a little talk with them. Again I don't think we have all the details.

Well here is the first email..... then I asked him for the agents name... and then his reply...
---------------------------------------

You damned near got me kicked off the plane!!! When I first showed them the certificates at the checking the guy said he would put us on a list and we should then check at the gate to see if there was any room. Great!
We arrived at the gate and I innocently went and asked if we could use the certificates and he said 'no'.
I did a bit of innocent joking and pleading and he checked again and said 'no'. He kept asking if I was and Elite member or if my fellow passenger was an elite member. I did not lie. I finally gave up and accepted the refusal.
About 25 minutes later the same attendant and a security guard came over and said "We are not going to cause any trouble for you, but we may wish to confiscate those upgrade certificates. The friend who gave them to you should have known better than to give them to you. If we do confiscate them and send them in with VOID written across them your friend could lose privileges. I did a bit of talking and they decided that I could keep them and the I would speak to you about the situation.

OK I NOW ASKED FOR MORE INFO>>> REPY. [im not yelling I dont know how to make bold type face.]

I don't want to get the gate agent in any trouble as he was never rude at all. He was quite emphatic when he approached me before we flew though and said that if he confiscated the tickets and wrote VOID across them,and sent them in, that your status with AC could be in jeopardy.' He did not actually bring security with him - he just stated that security could confiscate the tickets but he didn't want to cause me any trouble as he realized that I was just asking about the possibility of using them. He was quite adamant that you should have know the rules better though.
His name was [removed by me].
Having said that....should I try to use them on the flight back to Canada.
I was going to stay clear of any attempt but now maybe I should try again???

Also I was unaware that P could not use SSWU... IS that true? Also he is P if he needed 18K.. in 2004.

why fly's going to jail, why fly's going to jail, why fly's going to jail :D

:D :D :D

A whole lotta confusion, a whole lotta distortion, first security was called and then security was not called , gee what do you make of this, or perhaps the moral of the story is, I guess, don't try to use something that does not legally belong to you Or something that you are not entitled to. :D

Please don't bring any lawyer into the discussion. The coupon are gonna be 18 pages long and you'll need a magnifying glass to read the fine print, specially the ones where it would say "if used by another person they will call security and threaten to take the cert :p

They can print them on TP!! That way length is less of an issue, and at least they'll always get used! :D

DF

AC does have its own Security Unit that takes care of fraud, which is most likely what might have been referred to here by the agent, not airport security. And yes, Ps cannot use SSWUs, just SWUs. SSWUs are very clearly marked with SE and Elite right over the word "Special", which also suggests that non-status persons cannot use them...unless accompanied by someone of the eligible status, which is stated on the certificates too. SWUs have all three elite tiers identified on them. What more needs be written on the certificate to be clearer? It is true that the agent would have no way of knowing who the donor elite was, but I would not fault the agent if s/he did write VOID across the certs and hand them back to your friend.

Agreed.

Maybe they thought the OP was kidnapped and had his certs violently stolen from him. :rolleyes:
Rules may have been "broken" or not followed "properly", however, the action taken was super-duper-uber-exaggeramo style. :rolleyes:

So if the OP's friend found an E or SE to u/g him/her as a companion, then this would be a non-issue, n'est-ce pas? The only difference is that the OP's non-status friend used it him/herself. This calls for the SWAT team. :rolleyes: