CNN: Air marshals surveyed about misconduct, retaliation within agency
Mar 2, 2011, 11:38 am
#16
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As to the former, you are absolutely correct ^. As to the second, it does happen and quite often-just depends on the routes one flies and what class of service one is in
Mar 2, 2011, 12:54 pm
#19
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How about a box taped to the wing?
Not all airlines.. I always select the first row of Economy when booking my tickets. UA does not block the entire row for ADA..
Mar 2, 2011, 5:13 pm
#21
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 733
Please direct your attention to Post #10, whereby it was described that an "everyone who has posted on this topic" readily admitted to stealing seats from members of the FT community for a FAM.
We regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Mar 2, 2011, 5:16 pm
#22
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 843
I apologize that the inability to think and read critically has resulted in a situation whereby it was completely missed that an individual has already provided you the requested information while posting on this topic.
Please direct your attention to Post #10, whereby it was described that an "everyone who has posted on this topic" readily admitted to stealing seats from members of the FT community for a FAM.
We regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Please direct your attention to Post #10, whereby it was described that an "everyone who has posted on this topic" readily admitted to stealing seats from members of the FT community for a FAM.
We regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Mar 2, 2011, 5:25 pm
#23
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 733
I dealt with the aftermath of the FAM having been booked into the seat.
I took the phone call from a heated passenger, at the corporate management level, and quelled the heat.
I went into the native airline record for both the affected passenger and the FAM to positively identify the source of the seat switcheroo.
And then I would recite a memorized litany of code phrases wherein it was never admitted that a FAM actually had taken the seat, but we, as the airline, took responsibility for, and apologized though never compensated for, the inconvenience.
Customer service was not my primary job function, nor did I deal directly with the FAM program, nor did my job function encompass the entirety of the airline's customer population which in the entire American air system holds a relatively small footprint to begin with, and I handled at least 7 individual phone calls a week wherein a seat was taken from a passenger and given to a FAM. At my airline alone, I personally handled hundreds of these calls in a year, and it wasn't even within my purview to do so, which means there were hundreds more.
And therefore we can extrapolate that there are thousands a year across the system.
Did my seat ever get taken by a FAM? No.
Did I facilitate it to hundreds of passengers? Yes.
And, yes, I knew it was an air marshal because it said so, plain as day, in the native airline reservation.
I was told so neither by the Air Marshal, nor the gate agent, because I was the one telling the gate agent that the coded notes s/he was seeing in the masked air reservation record indicated the passenger's stolen seat standing in front of him/her was that of the Air Marshal s/he had previously boarded.
No, they didn't tell me, I told them.
It happens, and it happens far more frequently than you suggest.
Mar 2, 2011, 5:30 pm
#24
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 843
I dealt with the aftermath of the FAM having been booked into the seat.
I took the phone call from a heated passenger, at the corporate management level, and quelled the heat.
I went into the native airline record for both the affected passenger and the FAM to positively identify the source of the seat switcheroo.
And then I would recite a memorized litany of code phrases wherein it was never admitted that a FAM actually had taken the seat, but we, as the airline, took responsibility for, and apologized though never compensated for, the inconvenience.
Customer service was not my primary job function, nor did I deal directly with the FAM program, nor did my job function encompass the entirety of the airline's customer population which in the entire American air system holds a relatively small footprint to begin with, and I handled at least 7 individual phone calls a week wherein a seat was taken from a passenger and given to a FAM. At my airline alone, I personally handled hundreds of these calls in a year, and it wasn't even within my purview to do so, which means there were hundreds more.
And therefore we can extrapolate that there are thousands a year across the system.
Did my seat ever get taken by a FAM? No.
Did I facilitate it to hundreds of passengers? Yes.
And, yes, I knew it was an air marshal because it said so, plain as day, in the native airline reservation.
It happens, and it happens far more frequently than you suggest.
I took the phone call from a heated passenger, at the corporate management level, and quelled the heat.
I went into the native airline record for both the affected passenger and the FAM to positively identify the source of the seat switcheroo.
And then I would recite a memorized litany of code phrases wherein it was never admitted that a FAM actually had taken the seat, but we, as the airline, took responsibility for, and apologized though never compensated for, the inconvenience.
Customer service was not my primary job function, nor did I deal directly with the FAM program, nor did my job function encompass the entirety of the airline's customer population which in the entire American air system holds a relatively small footprint to begin with, and I handled at least 7 individual phone calls a week wherein a seat was taken from a passenger and given to a FAM. At my airline alone, I personally handled hundreds of these calls in a year, and it wasn't even within my purview to do so, which means there were hundreds more.
And therefore we can extrapolate that there are thousands a year across the system.
Did my seat ever get taken by a FAM? No.
Did I facilitate it to hundreds of passengers? Yes.
And, yes, I knew it was an air marshal because it said so, plain as day, in the native airline reservation.
It happens, and it happens far more frequently than you suggest.
Mar 2, 2011, 5:32 pm
#25
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Mar 2, 2011, 5:35 pm
#26
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Mar 2, 2011, 5:36 pm
#27
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It isn't just about my F seat-- and I'm not sure I ever recall losing one for any suspect reason-- but it is about the airlines as well. If you recall, the airlines complained rather vocally sometime last year about the FAMS love of their premium seats. FAMS changed their tune without admitting anything, certainly not that the airlines' complaints had anything to do with it. The timing was very suspect. At one point, UA was putting 6 F seats instead of 8 in their initial inventory for A319 flights in and out of DCA. Some overseas flights, business class will fetch $5,000 oneway and first double that; that's real money.
If the airlines had to choose, do you think they'd want FAMs on any of their oversold flights?
Last edited by Ari; Mar 2, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Mar 2, 2011, 5:51 pm
#30
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Don't do that.
I didn't say you were . . . just re-hashing my initial point in hopes that you might respond to it.
The FAMS seems to take less premium seats now . . . the 'tactics' seem to have 'evolved' right around the time the airlines complained (though a temporal relationship does not necessarily establish a causal nexus).
As far as my assertion that tactics seem to have changed, I heard that from a credible source whose identity I cannot reveal for obvious reasons.
Regardless of the cause of the shift, including what appears to be more VIPR, losing the public support of the airlines would have been very bad for the FAMS. That the airlines were willing to complain publicly says something-- they don't usually complain about anything the TSA does.
Refresher: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...473932878.html
I didn't say you were . . . just re-hashing my initial point in hopes that you might respond to it.
The FAMS seems to take less premium seats now . . . the 'tactics' seem to have 'evolved' right around the time the airlines complained (though a temporal relationship does not necessarily establish a causal nexus).
As far as my assertion that tactics seem to have changed, I heard that from a credible source whose identity I cannot reveal for obvious reasons.
Regardless of the cause of the shift, including what appears to be more VIPR, losing the public support of the airlines would have been very bad for the FAMS. That the airlines were willing to complain publicly says something-- they don't usually complain about anything the TSA does.
Refresher: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...473932878.html