Renard

Perhaps. However, only one side of the counter was at work. Airline employees 'who flip out' easily should be working behind the scenes.

This doesn't mean that customers can be abusive to others at the airport. (Speaking generally here) You walk in the airport and you leave pretty much most of your rights at the curb in the current environment. Saying the wrong thing to the wrong person and you can find yourself back on the curb. It may not be right. It may not be just. It just is.

cruisr

I am sorry for your situation and the lesson to be learned here is NEVER get in an arguement with a GA. THEY have the power, not the passenger. NEVER lose your temper with a GA. They have the power, not the passenger. NEVER curse at the GA. They have the power, not the passenger. See a pattern here? I'm not saying its right. It is what it is.

I also do not know why they would ban the rest of the family from flying. Guilt by association? I hope the OP gets some resolution to the situation.

Flyer_70

I've never heard of anyone getting kicked off a flight just because the ga was irritated? The post smacks of wierd to me but I am sure all the details aren't there.

fly co to see the yanks

yeah, my crystal ball tells me that there is probably more to this situation. but, CO's newark agents are pretty abrasive.

jonu

I am not a CO frequent flier (but looking into this for an upcoming relocation), so my two comments come from that perspective:
1. IF the OP and family were kicked off a flight for only what has been stated, and there are no other pertinent facts, then the OP has every reason to be angry at this outcome, and the GA deserves to be fired.
2. The behavior and response that the OP has admitted in his post reflects poorly on the rest of us and affects our ability to be heard when we have legitimate complaints. Specifically, not knowing how something works and yet demanding it (cash upgrades) and the accusatory and profanity-laced response. You lose the moral high ground when you sink to that level.

rkkwan

Apparently, this Joe guy is indeed a supervisor and has real power. [If you read the original post, this guy is called out by the GA.]

So, the lesson is that pissing off and verbally abusing a GA is one thing. Pissing off and verbally abusing a real supervisor has serious consequences.

thegeneral

"Some of these families will be of lower economic status, and some will be from foreign lands. These families may not have the financial resources that we have; they may not have the ability to get home of their own accord. What are you going to do to protect these families from a �customer service representative� who apparently has not learned to interact with the public in a non-discriminatory and calm manner?"

Yes, no doubt these people will be wanting to upgrade and spend $3k to upgrade their family (kids included) on a flight. Given that you had so much money lying around, why didn't you just buy a first class ticket? Your story seems like quite a bit of BS to me. You can't buy upgrades on CO and good luck finding a flight from EWR to Vegas that has 5 seats left open at the last minute in the front cabin.

You're the one who didn't get on your flight and told the people you were working with to shove whatever it was up their .... You easily could have gotten on your flight and .....ed to larry about the 'scam' that the employees were running. You didn't and I'm sure you realize that it was your fault that you had to spend that much. Quite frankly, nobody put a gun to your head and made you spend that much on tickets. I'm sure there were cheaper alternatives.

fly co to see the yanks

ouch. so, what are your real thoughts?

divrdrew

I've had problems with GAs before at EWR, but never like this. Please post the response you get from CO. Here are my observations:

1 - you shouldn't have said what you said. You cursed at the GA and said CO was running a scam.

2 - never p*ss off a GA

3 - the GA obviously over-reacted, especially banning your entire family.

4 - never p*ss off a GA

5 - you should have written your letter to customer care as well as Larry. Hopefully you'll get a response from Larry's office, but without any status at CO, it's doubful.

mikeef

Sorry, I missed the part about racial profiling.

In terms of the upgrade, I don't fly CO, so I don't know about the lack of revenue upgrades, but the GA might have taken the question to mean "How much extra would it cost me to reticket these seats in F?"

I've met enough GAs to believe that there is at least some truth to this (Note to OP: A lot of us have seen it all from both sides of the fence, so questioning any he-said-she-said story, but particularly those from newbies, is not only common but also healthy, as it keeps all of us honest.) and am encouraged by the fact that the OP has hung around to answer our questions. We get a lot of "one-and-out" posts where an OP posts a story of a nasty experience and never returns to answer it.

Please keep us up to date and let us know what happens.

Mike

J.Edward

lvteacher - sorry you had a bad experience through EWR.

I agree with your logic than one should follow up with superiors for good and bad employees but I think you're falling prey to your emotions.

CO does not really have a revenue upgrade mechanism (revup) like other carriers (e.g. US) they can of course upgrade your ticket, but doing so is a fairly extensive - and complicated - procedure. My guess is that the agent who you talked to at EWR did not understand the nuances involved with upgrading your family’s tickets and that's why the price kept changing.

The ground staff at EWR should have taken the time to explain the fare differences to you and the chances are if Joe had taken a different attitude the situation would not have escalated. But telling the EWR personnel to "can shove this scam up your ..." was a mistake; granted hindsight is 20/20 but with all due respect you should have risen above the inferiority of Joe and his colleagues and addressed what happened by writing into CO. Your outburst will cost you credibility and this will hurt your argument against how you were treated in EWR as they can easily paint you as an irate, abusive traveler who had no business to be flying.

Likewise calling for the termination of Joe, despite as appropriate as the action may be, paints you in a poor light. That coupled with the other emotional appeals made throughout your letter will harm your case as you come off as acting on anger and motivated by vengeance vis-à-vis a customer who had a bad experience and was treated unfairly by the ground staff.

Please, don't read this as me saying you should not be angry, upset, disappointed, furious, etc. over how you were treated -- I'd feel the same if I were in your shoes. EWR has an established reputation regarding customer service and I doubt it surprises anyone here that the staff (supervisors or GA’s) failed to meet a customer’s service expiations. But when you write in to complain, especially to C level management, do so in a clinical...almost sterile manner. Sight how the employee(s) failed in their duties, how they failed to meet your expiations, what happened as a result and what you would like to have happen to rectify the situation (e.g. pay for the extra expenses...but don't mention firing staff!) I suspect emotional outbursts in person and in writing will do much to sway the powers that be to compensate you or motivate them to take corrective actions with the offending employees.

If you have not yet sent your letter I would urge you to consider rewriting it to tone down the emotion and focus on presenting what happened in a sterile manner and refrain from calling for termination.

Nicksterguy

Welcome to FT.

I am very sorry to hear of your plight.

Unfortuantely, we as travelers have far fewer rights today than ever before.

But - if you curse at an employee - they have EVERY right to have you removed from the flight. In fact, I would want you to be removed from the flight.

The airlines have to be careful to protect all people flying these days. If a customer is angry as they board - then what will happen in the air? One can not be too safe. (Does not matter whether it is CO or anyone).

You should have just said - thanks but no thanks.

Telling an employee to stick it up his ... will not get you anywhere - as you found out.

The purpose of an airline is to get us from point A to point B. If we MUST have First Class seats, buy them ahead of time. As a Platinum member of OnePass, I am not always upgraded - BUT I get to where I am going! This was not your case.

Then ---- you mention the race card. I am not even going to go there.

I hope that my post does not sound too terse - but these are my feelings.

tincan

Misconnections can open up these seats.

HeathrowGuy

Don't mean to sound crass, I wouldn't touch this if I was LK, b/c through the letter, the OP has presented himself in a fashion that suggests having him on a future CO flight would only lead to further problems for himself, CO staff, and perhaps other CO customers.

geoffco

After reading this story twice, I hope Joe gets a promotion.