TheSkyGuy

Apologies in advance if there is some threat this should be folded into, I believe it is in the right forum though.

I'm a very young looking 21 (about to be 22 in less than a week) and I had a very interesting, rude, encounter when boarding a ORD - SFO segment on Friday.

Myself and my friend we're flying in first class on the flight. We were taking a long day trip for her 21st birthday and I upgraded the tickets at purchase using miles + copay. She'd never been farther west than Dallas and always wanted to see California, so away we went!

Anyway... first class was called and we joined the line to board. Probably 6th and 7th in line. I walked up to the podium and offer a good morning as I always do to the BP scanner. I go to hand the agent checking BPs mine with my friend directly behind me and upon seeing us he pauses and turns to the other agent working the flight and VERY LOUDLY (everyone within 100 feet probably heard) says, "We've only called first class right?!" to which she responds with a very subdued "yes." He turns to me and says "I'm sorry first class boarding only right now." And motions for us to step aside. I stand there without saying a word and present him my boarding pass. He takes it, kind of in a huff expecting us to be sitting in the cargo hold I'm assuming. Realizing it IS a FC boarding pass he scans mine and my friend's kind of avoiding eye contact and without so much as a "enjoy your flight." Obviously he realized that he just made himself look like a complete idiot it front of a boarding lounge of an extremely full flight.

In the immediate moment, I wasn't as peeved as I was about twenty seconds later walking down the jetbridge and realizing what just happened.

I'm used to being carded for looking younger than I am, I'm used to people thinking I'm 16. I always dress business casual when flying and anyone I deal with in customer service I treat with respect and I expect the same of them. What really got me is this gate agent's attitude and way of going about things. Anyone can fly first class and it's not up to the agent to judge based on apparent age. As a current PLT who will qualify for EXP this year and does A LOT of paid business/first travel this really really bugs me.

Luckily, we got one of the 737s with the IFE and had a very good flight crew so that was pretty awesome! Also, didn't get delayed much getting to SFO even though there were departure holds due to low ceilings.

Just debating if I should recount the story to customer relations.

FAA1996

IMO I don't think it's worth mentioning. Happens every now and then. Last week I approached the gate agent at PVG to ask her a question, I was waiting for most of the plane to board before I boarded. She was rude to me and said "this is the priority line." I quickly quieted her by letting her know I was in F. I'm not young like you, so can only assume she didn't like my sneakers and jeans outfit. Haven't really thought about it again until I read your story today.

alphaod

I would report it to customer relations, but you can bet this GA will probably not do this again for a while.

AA-Flyer-SAN

It probably won't go anywhere but you can still be let it know. Twitter seems to get more attention tho - or even Facebook. This is easily viewed by other people so it does tend to garner more attention. Emailing customer service generally returns with a cookie cutter response. I've gotten better feedback and one on one interaction after a facebook post not long ago.

Im sure it was rude and embarrassing for you. And not the image the company should project. I never been subjected to that before but other people have and I've witnessed it. I've even sent in a complaint once as a third party - but I also sent in letters defending an employees action as a third party.

In the end, these employees have been beaten up about people boarding when theyre not supposed to - and the gate lice gets infuriating. People just don't listen, respect proper manners, and run around with such self entitlement nowadays - any customer service job can fray anyone's nerves.

Is it really that important to make a complaint then file away. But I think the embarrassment on the employees part might be punishment enough. I'm willing to bet he or she thinks about it more frequently then you.

(Sorry for misspells or grammar - tough to write this from my phone)

davie355

You're right. But nothing in your post implies the agent judged you based on age.

SFOPhD

With no repercussions some poor employees simply don't improve their interpersonal skills. Some certainly realize mistakes and try to do better, but sadly some don't care.

TheSkyGuy

Sorry if I didn't make it clear, but that's exactly what happened. He judged based on my appearance of being younger, assuming that I shouldn't be flying first class and made a semi spectacle of it.

I hate that they feel it's okay to just judge someone. Why not just look at the customer's boarding pass before assuming? I forget that common sense, isn't all that common.

gcuk

It unfortunately happens more regularly than it should. When I travelled First as a teenager and university student I was regularly challenged in the boarding queue. I found the most effective way of dealing with it was to announce loudly enough so people in the immediate area could hear, 'But I am travelling in First. Why do you think I shouldn't be?' That always elicited an embarrassed apology from the boarding agent and hopefully was a lesson learned.

Dr. HFH

Is your opinion based on any facts; or is it your assumption?

Mark_T

Given the GA had not bothered to look at the boarding pass at that point, what else would you suppose he was basing his rash judgement on?

Does it really matter if it was age, clothes or anything else, the GA clearly made a judgement based on some form of bias rather than simply look at the boarding pass and avoid the crass error.

For the OP, this probably isn't the first or last time people will get your age wrong and you will have to deal with those who should know better making rash judgements.

Remind yourself that irritating as it is when 21 to be mistaken for 16, you will have the last laugh as you get older and you start to feel a lot better about being treated as though you are much younger than you actually are

For now just work on a few snappy put downs to use for the odd occasion that deserves it like this one ...

Stripy

+1

To the OP: absolutely report this.

Stupid move on the part of the GA who was clearly trying to be way too clever for his/her own good. Hopefully the incident embarrassed him/her as much as some suggest but that doesn't mean he/she should not be pulled up for this officially (if in fact a complaint will achieve this). Absolutely no excuse for embarrassing a paying customer.

susansb

I did not read all of the responses, but did try to go back and get a good read of your post - but this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I send in on the customer relations page to AA.com. Granted I have EP status, so I likely got a quick response due in part to that (with your status, you should too).

I watched a flight attendant treat a series of other passengers very rudely on a commuter flight last year. I got so mad I typed my complaint on my iPhone while boarding was being completed.

I got a 2 minute VM message from someone here in DFW ops apologizing and assuring me that the matter would be handled. Explaining that no one should have gone through what I saw (it didn't even happen to me) and addressing point by point my complaints on how she behaved.

She did NOT have on a name tag, nor did she announce her name in the take off announcements, so I could not identify her by name. I was able to state on XYZ date, flight number 123, departing LFT at H:MM, arriving DFW, here is what happened. There is only one attendant on a flight like that, so they were able to track her down.

Here is what I would do if I were to send in a complaint to customer relations

1) mention that you greeted the GA with a good morning - and tell them if this is your normal behavior. (I think the fact that you have good manners towards employees helps)
2) ACKNOWLEDGE that gate agents do endure a lot of hassle, anger and downright rudeness from passengers
3) mention that this was a special occasion flight for your friend, and you were trying to do something nice - including showing how fun it was to travel first class
4) mention that you PAID in miles + copay for this adventure
5) if you were not able to get the GA's name, state departure location, flight number, departure time and even maybe give a description of the GA

Hopefully they can track down this GA, but if not, they can do a quick reminder to a few at that airport - that we (flyers) are often nice, understand GAs take a lot of crap, and we appreciate the GAs, however being treated with basic good manners is an expectation, not a privilege.

I'm not good at asking for "compensation" for stuff, but a couple of my co-workers would absolutely put something in there about how they used miles etc. for the upgrades and would request that some miles be put back into their account.

In your case it sounds like everything else went well and the flight experience itself was great - so if the shoe were on my foot, I'd send in the complaint and be grateful the rest of the trip was so nice!

and FYI - I do get my upgrades most of the time. I'm 45 but look younger. I'm female and therefore often the "token" female amongst an entirely male group of first class passengers. I don't travel BC - I travel comfortably - if that is shorts and a t-shirt, so be it. and when traveling, I usually don't wear make up. My focus is on getting from one flight to the next, getting/dropping off the rental car etc. So I need to be comfy, as that means to me, and make my life easier.

As long as you are dressed [with clothes that cover you and are not obnoxious in their logos etc. (as in on a t-shirt)], sober and have good manners - I don't care what class you are in - you should still be treated with respect!

best of luck

SonP

Send a note to customer relations if it makes you feel better. I dislike when this sort of thing happens as well, but I often find that nothing much happens about it unless you're willing to deal with it at the moment.

Cheers,
S

statepkt

Some of you seem to not understand people in constant customer service can have a bad day. Cut them some slack, it's possible every once in a while they aren't perfect to us with status or flying F.

smachiz

But given the GA's sheepish behavior, I think they might have figured out what they did was wrong.

OP certainly says the GA was embarrassed, which isn't indicative of someone who doesn't know they made a mistake (or someone who is likely to willfully repeat the mistake).

Personally, I'd let it slide. As they always say, don't sweat the small stuff.