ltfly

To me, breeding anger is self-destructive (unless it is very highly justified). Move on

Naomasa298

One could certainly take a gentleman at his word.

However, a gentleman would not "say something to himself" in the full knowledge that the person the remark was directed at would hear the comment. At the very least, he would have the balls to say it to her face.

Since you proved yourself not be a gentleman, I think she was quite justified in not taking you at your word.

Replace "gentleman" with "lady" as appropriate.

rosensfole

Ipso facto; by expressing your frustration you put yourself on the back foot in this situation.

If you had kept your composure, checked in THEN asked for a manager I'm sure that manager would have taken your complaint seriously immediately.

My conclusion; you are at least in part to blame. You say you'll avoid France in future. I doubt France will lose sleep.

I've flown through France many times and I've never had a rough time.

Approached in the right way all the staff at CDG have always been pleasant if at times efficient.

qae155

If you read the OP, that's precisely what I did.

I have already accepted that I should not have allowed myself to become too upset. I still think there is no excuse for the manager's behavior.

What I actually said was that if what another poster claimed was in fact the case, I would avoid flying through France. I take no position as to the veracity of his or her observation.

And I have no expectation that France will lose sleep. That's not the point.

HalconBCN

Everybody is being 'screened' at the Priority check-ins and the key lesson is not to take it personally. Sometimes I breeze through in shorts and flip-flops without any questions; other times I've been asked "are you traveling in business" while wearing a business suit and having the gold tag proudly displayed on my luggage. I find if you respond politely with a smile, the same tone usually comes back.

rosensfole

I read the OP. You muttered something within earshot - that's not keeping your composure. If you'd have kept quiet then the manager wouldn't have taken the position she did. You'd have had satisfaction. Anyway - making mountains out of molehills innit.

irishguy28

Given the provocation of witnessing one of his charges being verbally abused, then I don't see anything surprising in his subsequent treatment of you.

Don't dish it out if you can't handle it. And don't assume that just because you walk away when you dish it out, that someone won't call you out for your behaviour.

Often1

First and foremost, this entire incident went way over the top when OP spoke out loud in a sufficiently loud tone to be overheard by someone else some distance away at a major international airport. He did not speak to himself, he spoke ou tloud. There was no reason to utter anything out loud unless OP intended to be heard and if he intended to be heard, what he said was grossly inappropriate to the situation. He may take his business elsewhere, but may well find that such conduct in some parts will find him with the suggestion that he take his business yet elsewhere.

Second, for whatever reason there are a significant number of threads started by people who are challenged to present some proof that they are entitled to entry to a priority line of one kind or another. Spending the money to pay people to police line entry has become an unfortunate necessity because there are indeed so many people who either ignore clearly written signage, think that they are special and that the rules do not apply to them, or have heard from their second cousin's uncle that it is OK to break the rules. While it is easy enough for the check-in agent to deflect these scammers, by the time they are caught out, the line is disrupted and the entire point of the priority area is undercut.

Third, there are many carriers, stations and situations where OP's access to a priority service would have been denied without some proof that he was entitled to that access. Certainly he could have had access to the standard check-in area, but without a printout, an electronic version, a status card or something, he is in for a rude awakening in many locations.

Fourth, while none of us were present, the fact is that he was simply asked a question a second time. If he lied the first time, he lied the second time. There is nothing odd about what is effectively, "are you certain?"

The ultimate resolution here sounds fairly typical. The senior AF person is trained to calm the situation by dislodging the customer without any harm ocurring and other customers being disturbed. As the entire incident is on video because of its location, it is all there for review.

qae155

I'm sorry. I have been perfectly open to the idea that your criticism of my behavior had some grain of truth in it. But now I'm afraid you've lost me. Firstly, my remarks cannot by any reasonable measure be thought to constitute "verbal abuse." Secondly, the manager didn't even witness the situation, as stated in the OP. Her attitude towards me was unreasonable and aggressive from the very start.

irishguy28

Your actions caused at least two people to "call out" to you, or to "lecture" you. All because of your prickly reaction to what sounds like nothing more than a normal interaction that happens thousands of times a day at airports all over the world.

If you manage to get an airline employee to "call out" to you, then I think it is unreasonable to assume that the manager - who apparently only witnessed this part - will automatically see you as the reasonable party.

However, even with the benefit of the rest of the story - as told here - I don't think the manager's opinion would have been any different.

brunos

Then you will also avoid flying through many countries where there are agents checking that you are allowed to use priority access. In my experience many of them. And some, like the US, can be more forceful towards guys who create such troubles and force their way despite an agent's objections.

And we only have one side of the story. Would be interesting to hear the agents' version.

ijgordon

I need some popcorn for this!

Good point. I was at Eurodisney some 20+ years ago and was practically having to kick kids in the head to keep them from cutting through the lines.

There are many airports where they won't even let you in the front door without proof of an itinerary. Many/all in India (and last I was there maybe 4-5 years ago, only paper was acceptable). At DPS they did accept a smartphone screen.
Arguably, that's for security, and different from keeping the riff-raff out of the premium lines, but I agree with the "accept the consequences" line of reasoning.

Naomasa298

What you did was this:

You clearly intended her to hear what you said, so you could get your dig in, and you were taken aback when she decided to call you out on it.

btonkid12345

OP - I just went through CDG less than a month ago. Had my Delta Diamond luggage tags displayed (which AF reps should know) and had my CDG-JFK J boarding pass on my phone.

At the SkyPriority barrier, there was a line of people and two AF agents. A group of people with bags on a cart were held up by one of the agents. I quietly waited my turn, and the other agent saw my Diamond tags and that I had my boarding pass in hand. She checked the date on the boarding pass and let me through with a smile (which I returned with a smile of my own).

I asked the check-in agent if access to SkyPriority had recently become an issue. He replied it had, and that some people were using boarding passes marked "SKY" for other passengers or from different dates. Note the access agent at the beginning of the line only glanced at my boarding pass - she did not ask for my ID in any way.

So it seems finding your way into the wrong line happens more often than one thinks. I personally think the Ms. A was simply combining local attitudes with her job to not allow anyone in without credentials, and it came across the way it did. She probably regretted it until you fired back en route to the check in agent, which is what caused the first supervisor you spoke with to have the back of Ms. A.

I do think the first supervisor was wrong. They should have been more mature and calmly diffused the situation. Instead, they made it more tense for all involved. It sounds like the second supervisor followed their supervisory training. I had a poor experience with AF supervisors once - being passed around, being told something is "not possible," being very indifferent to the customer - and after that experience, I decided that my travel journey wasn't worth ruining over some of the small things anymore. Hopefully you have this same lesson.

qae155

All I care about is having the freedom from the automatic presumption of guilt. I haven't done anything to deserve it. I have no sense of entitlement whatsoever. I don't care in the slightest about most of the FF perks that get discussed ad nauseam on these boards. Half the time, I don't even bother availing myself of things like priority boarding, so as not to barge ahead of other passengers.

Only in some sort of extreme police state does expressing disagreement about the way someone has done their job constitute "verbal abuse." I suspect the real problem is a severe lack of accountability among AF staff. In a country where nobody has to worry about losing their job, staff no doubt they feel they can get away with anything.

I have accepted that I should probably have dealt differently with the situation. I do find your zeal to exonerate the airline of any blame whatsoever curious. Still, I realize that for many people, right or wrong matters less than lining up with the strong against the weak. After all, what will I ever do for you? Nothing. A major airline, however, might.