Attitude/presumption from ground staff about travel class (check-in; lounges)
Apr 6, 2018, 5:24 pm
#46
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: SYD
Programs: BAEC GGL, HH D, QFF, EB
Posts: 404
I haven't had issues with staff. Have had other passengers question though. I have had when entering galleries North (Was silver) someone in a suit complaining that they were letting me in but not him (I had a mohican ripped jeans and a heavy metal t-shirt).
Have also had someone behind me in the priority boarding lane tell me "this is the priority lane" when I said okay They repeated again about the priority lane. This went through several repetitions until I ignored them. They then called over staff to complain at which point I showed the staff my boarding pass for 1A.
On board on AA when I refused to switch seats to a worse seat I had someone complain "It's not like you paid for the seat" I was on a LAX-PTY TP run so I just ignored them. They were an upgrade to make it funnier.
Have also had someone behind me in the priority boarding lane tell me "this is the priority lane" when I said okay They repeated again about the priority lane. This went through several repetitions until I ignored them. They then called over staff to complain at which point I showed the staff my boarding pass for 1A.
On board on AA when I refused to switch seats to a worse seat I had someone complain "It's not like you paid for the seat" I was on a LAX-PTY TP run so I just ignored them. They were an upgrade to make it funnier.
Apr 6, 2018, 6:08 pm
#47
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: London
Programs: SK Gold, ITA Executive, Sixt Diamond, Hertz PC, Avis PC, IHG Platinum
Posts: 5,163
I am not a chatty person and I avoid chatting with fellow pax in general. I don't take kindly to being spoken to by strangers that have no need to speak to me...let alone questioned on my finances. That would be way out of line and had anyone ever asked me how I could afford something, they would NOT get a polite response from me. Glad you were patient!
Apr 6, 2018, 6:23 pm
#48
Join Date: Jul 2009
Programs: none
Posts: 1,668
What was the purpose of the original post, anyway? If it was just to report an incident that happened, well, you did that. Now get on with your life. If it was to make a complaint, you need to include your request for compensation or miles in order to make it valid. And tell the airline, not FT. All you'll get here is sympathy and some maybe "worthwhile" advice, but FT users can't issue you any points. Contact the carrier if you wish, then get on with your life.
Last edited by Allan38103; Apr 6, 2018 at 8:52 pm
Apr 6, 2018, 9:00 pm
#50
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 59
What was the purpose of the original post, anyway? If it was just to report an incident that happened, well, you did that. Now get on with your life. If it was to make a complaint, you need to include your request for compensation or miles in order to make it valid. And tell the airline, not FT. All you'll get here is sympathy and some maybe "worthwhile" advice, but FT users can't issue you any points. Contact the carrier if you wish, then get on with your life.
Apr 6, 2018, 9:21 pm
#51
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 5,596
What was the purpose of the original post, anyway? If it was just to report an incident that happened, well, you did that. Now get on with your life. If it was to make a complaint, you need to include your request for compensation or miles in order to make it valid. And tell the airline, not FT. All you'll get here is sympathy and some maybe "worthwhile" advice, but FT users can't issue you any points. Contact the carrier if you wish, then get on with your life.
Apr 7, 2018, 1:05 am
#53
Join Date: May 2012
Location: BKK/SIN/YYZ/YUL
Programs: DL, AC, Bonvoy, Accor, Hilton
Posts: 2,918
I believe that you brought your bias to the checkin and to the lounge. Nothing the staff did was inappropriate or incorrect. People often make mistakes and it is quite right that the gate agent asked. Usually people who know where they are going, will not be indecisive as you were.
For the sake of perspective, was this a paid First class flight or a redemption/upgrade? I ask, because most people who fly First don't arrive at the lounge early, nor hang about for long. The employee would have that experience and that is why he/she would ask.
For the sake of perspective, was this a paid First class flight or a redemption/upgrade? I ask, because most people who fly First don't arrive at the lounge early, nor hang about for long. The employee would have that experience and that is why he/she would ask.
Apr 7, 2018, 1:07 am
#54
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: London UK SE1
Programs: BA Gfl / GGL + CCR , Amex Platinum, Amex BA Premium Plus
Posts: 156
Apr 7, 2018, 1:37 am
#55
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2018
Posts: 198
What was the purpose of the original post, anyway? If it was just to report an incident that happened, well, you did that. Now get on with your life. If it was to make a complaint, you need to include your request for compensation or miles in order to make it valid. And tell the airline, not FT. All you'll get here is sympathy and some maybe "worthwhile" advice, but FT users can't issue you any points. Contact the carrier if you wish, then get on with your life.
Apr 7, 2018, 2:44 am
#56
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: London
Programs: Hilton, IHG - BA, GA, LH, QR, SV, TK
Posts: 17,008
Yup,these threads crop up quite regularly. It's funny how often the "jeans and Tshirts" stories end with variations of
I settled into 1A while he struggled through to economy
I reckon many of these tales are products of over-thinking compounded by extreme sensitivity and insecurity.
I've travelled shabby and I've travelled young in every cabin class. I've never encountered any patent form of disapprobation or censure. Perhaps I'm too thick-skinned to detect it. I'm used to being asked for confirmation of entitlement to access to a lounge: it's what the gate people are employed to do. I don't take offence. And if crew want to look at my boarding pass to direct me to my seat, again, that's their job. I don't bristle with outrage.
There have been dick-heads in the boarding lines, and on board: but these were fellow passengers, and I'm hugely aware of how travel-related stresses can bring out the worst in people. I'm not exactly zen-like, but i generally cut people slack.
Apr 7, 2018, 2:48 am
#57
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: London
Programs: BA LtG, Flying Blue Plat
Posts: 274
I do actually get this a lot - from staff not so much these days because they know me, but from other busybody passengers thinking they can queue jump me and actually have the audacity to tell me I’m in the wrong queue.
I don’t use bag tags, am a woman, 25, and travel alone most of the time. I am also GfL, and travel in F/J every week. I don’t fly as much now on OW so am not GGL anymore (don’t see a difference really), but for me this issue has manifested itself in the cabin greetings - the amount of times I’ve been walked by, ignored (when crew are fawning over the old men) - it’s not like I’m longing for a welcome, but it is not nice being passed over. I just don’t think crew know how to interact with young adults sometimes.
I don’t use bag tags, am a woman, 25, and travel alone most of the time. I am also GfL, and travel in F/J every week. I don’t fly as much now on OW so am not GGL anymore (don’t see a difference really), but for me this issue has manifested itself in the cabin greetings - the amount of times I’ve been walked by, ignored (when crew are fawning over the old men) - it’s not like I’m longing for a welcome, but it is not nice being passed over. I just don’t think crew know how to interact with young adults sometimes.
Apr 7, 2018, 3:31 am
#58
Join Date: May 2017
Location: Glasgow and Asia
Programs: BAEC Gold, Hotels.com Gold
Posts: 510
Apr 7, 2018, 4:42 am
#60
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold / Hilton Diamond / IHG Diamond Ambassador / Marriot Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 2,532
To be fair children on planes are THE WORST. The only way I can cope emotionally is by reminding myself that is a nightmare for the parents too, if the parents could shut them up they would, and we need children to forward humanity. If any airline was brave enough to have a no children policy for certain long-haul flights, I'd happily pay extra for the privilege.
On over 30 years of flying the worst passengers have always been adults. Never met a drunk 5 year old, never encountered a kid with body odour ( other than babies...whole new thread that one) or had two kids engage in a punching match in club or First in flight! No have I ever a kid need restraints or a kid being hauled off by the police from a 14 hour flight.
My own two have only caused me two anxious moments when flying. A two year old screaming fit on take off from LHR to ATH with a very unhelpful BA crew, and a very distressed infant flying SIN LHR just an hour out of SIN. That was the closest I ever came to requesting a diversion and landing. It was horrible and caused by a horrendous delay on the ground and not getting away till almost 5am. For a kid that slept 8 hours a night from birth they just could not cope with the disrupted night but at the time I had all sorts of things running through my head.
Kids are not the worst but they can grow into them...if allowed........and if never exposed to life in all its glorious facets.