pags05

On a flight today LGA to DFW in which I was on standby for an upgrade, by the time I got to the gate (5 mins ahead of formal boarding time but flight had already begun boarding) I had been cleared, not sure if my name was called. There was only 1 gate agent doing double duty and he had a lot going on, so rather than try to get his attention at the desk, I got into the Priority Access line as an AA Plat to engage with him where he was scanning tickets. He asked me to step aside and he'd be with me in "5-10 minutes". He then proceeded to deal with and board every group, all of the individuals who came up to the desk, including a few who simply wanted to move from a later flight onto this earlier one, and then finally handed me a ticket that was already sitting right on the counter. Upshot was that since I was last to board, there was no overhead space so I had to choose whether to check my bag or put it all the way in the back (chose the latter). Reasonable layover at DFW so ultimately not too put out by having to wait until all passengers deplane to get my bag. But still a bit irritating!

Never seen this process/approach before - is it normal, or was the gate agent putting on a bit of a power play or some other kind of passive aggressive display? He didn't act poorly/negatively toward me during the interaction, and I wasn't rude or patronizing at all during the process (though probably a bit groggy!), nor did I make any kind of impatient or irritated gestures. What could I have done differently?

bdemaria

Let me get this straight: You got into an active boarding line to discuss your upgrade and think that the GA behaved badly by not stopping boarding to deal w/your situation?

Blumie

It's too late to do any thing now. At the time this was happeneing, you should have rolled up your newspaper, given him a smack on the nose and reprimanded him, "Bad Agent," "Bad Agent."

brp

Hmmm...I'm going to disagree with the responses here. I think it's cool that AA try to board early and get things out, but making an upgraded passenger wait until the absolute end to get a simple BP doesn't seem to be a good thing, especially inasmuch as the GA seemed to have time to deal with other people coming to the podium for other matters. Reissuing the boarding pass and getting a premium passenger boarded is a really simply procedure after they've been cleared from the waiting list. I think this should have been handled better, although I'd say that "bad agent" is something of an overstatement.

Cheers.

Blumie

I don't disagre with you; it could have and should have been handled better. But it sounds like the gate was understaffed and the agent overwhelmed. Perhaps the OP was too polite and the agent forgot he was standing there waiting. Who knows. Traveling involves lots of little annoyances, and we all can find things that the airlines can and should do better. But in my list of priorities, this is not high.

bdemaria

I can agree that the GA shouldn't have waited to the absolute end to give the boarding pass, but the OP shouldn't have expected boarding to stop in order to accommodate his/her request.

nrr

Per op's message, the upg bp was already printed, all the GA had to do was hand it to him--this couldn't be a big delay for GA.

Short hair Francis

I said bad behavior by the GA, but you did kinda put him at a bad spot by asking at the priority line. I probably would just wait at the desk next time

gemac

Since we're all speculating here, I'm going to speculate that LGA was short-staffed for gate agents and the gate agent was in a rush. If the agent interrupted the boarding process to process standbys, that would have been a good time for the OP to present himself at the podium while the GA was doing that, and when the GA finished that say "My upgrade cleared, I need the new boarding pass, name pags05". If the boarding pass was sitting right there, it is easier and less time-consuming for the agent to hand it to him than to say anything at all.

The other alternative is to get in line and hand over the Y boarding pass for scanning. The machine will beep, and according to the OP the gate agent then interrupts boarding to deal with that passenger.

pags05

Thanks for the replies, guessing this was the issue - intent on my part was to make things simpler for him by getting in line, but holding off until the end to hand me the BP appeared pretty deliberate. GA went to the desk several times in between group #s, handled other requests, and knew (and acknowledged) that I was there a couple of different times.

Foiled by politeness yet again!

brp

Per the OP, boarding was stopped to deal with people at the podium for things like standing by on a later flight- certainly lower priority for getting the current flight boarded. Since there were already stoppages to handle other podium items, I'd think that handing an already-printed BP (I'd missed that drastic simplification the first time) to someone seems a no-brainer.

It may not be a major annoyance, but I'd find boarding last for a reason like this and then finding no overhead space except in the back of the plane to be quite inconvenient. Especially when it could have been handed so easily.

Cheers.

Blumie

I don't think anyone is disagreeing that it could've been handled better. So what are ya gonna do?

dugknight

It sounds like the OP was too passive. The GA was obviously overwhelmed working the gate and the desk. I guess I'd place some blame on AA for understaffing and some blame on the OP for not speaking up sooner. I don't think I can blame the poor guy working the gate by himself.

Deltahater

So basically your upset that AA delayed your boarding by 10-15 minutes because of the FREE upgrade they gave you?

CO FF

Not "free" - earned by 100,000 EQMs of patronage either this year, last year or both.