Standby/Upgrade Question
 

I was sitting at the airport, waiting to board a 738 with a confirmed F seat. There was a Platinum Elite, waiting at the counter to be cleared for coach. He was having a fit with the gate agent because the flight was booked full in coach but there were seats available in first class. She (the gate agent) told him he was number one on both the Upgrade and Coach standby lists, but, she couldn't put him in First Class unless coach cleared first. Coach didn't clear and seats were left open in First Class. Is this proper procedure?

So the guy didn't get on?!:confused: However you slice it, that sounds wrong.

This is probably technically correct, although it's stupid. It's also a byproduct of the demise of the CO culture over the years -- where employees are more focused on rules than doing the right thing. The agent probably could have helped the Plat waiting to get on the flight, but if she did, she might have to do some explaining.

The easiest thing to do from her perspective was to screw the customer.

So, if there are no elites in the back, seats up front are open, and I'm on the standby list for the flight, there's a possibility they won't clear me?

Wow.

If the agent had to explain herself after clearing the pax into F, it is definitely a systemic problem. I'm sure this makes the agents feel like they're damned if they do and damned if they don't.

You MUST clear standby into coach on a coach ticket before being eligible for upgrade (I've been told that numerous times by GAs over the years). What is odd is that there were no more elites to upgrade (thereby opening up a coach seat for the passenger). I doubt that this occurs very often.

You know, OP, you could have done a companion upgrade for someone (anyone), and all would have been well.

But why should the OP or any passenger for that matter have to do anything? (not saying they shouldn't out of kindness)

I'm sure that what channa is talking about that would get them in trouble is clearing a coach pax for F, putting the Plat in the Y seat, then running the upgrades and putting the coach pax back in Y.

To me, there is nothing wrong with that but I bet it is frowned upon by CO managers.

I agree that there should be some mechanism to do that.

+1 and I dont blame the GA, in todays ecomonic situation the last thing anyone wants is to have their job on the line for something like this

its COs fault for not having in place something besides Companion upgrade that would have allowed the OP to get on that flight. But as long as CO doesnt have anything then the GA wasnt looking to screw the Passenger nor were they looking to screw themselves

Do we know why he was standing by? I know most airlines will op up to take more standby pax in IRROPS situations. The concept being that it's best to get people moving than to make them wait around and use valuable space later.

But fundamentally, the problem is that CO doesn't have an F standby list. I'd be curious to see if sfogate has run into such a situation and how she'd handled it. Then again, out of SFO, I doubt empty F really happens much. ;)

I did run into a similar situation on CO out of SMF a while back, but the agents were running op-ups to get everyone the plane. But SMF was staffed by DL agents at the time, so they may not have been as rules-focused as proper Contihansa agents.

I never leave a customer behind. I would have cleared the passenger into F because he was good for the upgrade, if there were not any Y seats available. I will not jump the stand by elite over the other elites waiting for an upgrade, that were originally booked for the flight.

Does the GA have the power to "force" the standby pax into Y, thereby overbooking Y temporarily until he/she can process the upgrade?

So there are no issues with doing this? I wonder why other GAs (who apparently aren't quite as wonderful as you) don't do this as well.

My question then is, do you upgrade all elites before clearing the standby passenger for Y or do you clear the upgrade list to open up a few seats, clear the standby pax, and then upgrade him based on his status?

Ah ha...sfogate suggested that this is done when there are additional elites to upgrade. What about when there are no more elites to upgrade?

The OP stated that he not allowed on the flight because there were no seats left in coach and all the elites were upgraded. Technically this is correct but since the OP was eligible to be upgraded based on status, I would have just bypassed the sit in Y rule first and upgraded him directly into F. No harm, no foul.

If the situation was that there were Elites waiting to be upgraded, with lower status than the OP, I would have upgraded the original waiting to be upgraded Elites first, seated the OP into the newly vacant Y seat and if F was still available the OP would have been upgraded in F.

I didnt read that from her at all.

I read 1- I would have put the OP into F as long as there wasnt any other Elites booked on the flight that were still sitting in Y. So if say there were 3 empty seats and 3 Silvers still in Y that were booked on that flight , sfo would have UPed the 3 Silvers and then given the OP a Y seat that was left empty by the Silvers being UPed.

2- if there were no Elites whatsoever in Y then she would simply put the SBY straight into F ( dont know if she'd do it if the SBY wasnt Elite and there werent any other Elites in Y either).

3- what she said she wouldnt do is put a Plat waiting for SBY into F while any Elite booked on the flight was still sitting in Y. So even thou a person is a Plat that wont get them a F seat unless there werent any other Elite sitting in Y. She also said she would do whatever she had to in order Not to leave anyone behind

Yes, you can overbook a flight to seat a customer but if there are no seats to seat them in they become added to the oversell list. And then you can process the seating. It just takes more typing to do this. There are easier ways to accomplish getting someone into F (when available) when Y is totally seated.

Thanks for the info! :) ^

As always, your input is awesome.

That's correct.

I do not jump over Elites booked on the flight for Elites that are standing by for the flight. I honor the original booking unless the Elite standby is holding a F class ticket. But if that was the case this thread wouldn't been started.

Why don't other agents do this?

Thanks for clarifying how this situation would have been handled.

What would happen if the pax were not an Elite? Would there have been an op-up to free up a seat? If not, would IRROPS play into the situation (e.g., some cancelled flights that day, best to get him on the flight even if it means F)?

Because it involves more thought and more typing.

that is really sad

If the passenger was not Elite, I would start looking for an op-up to free up a seat. I look for the highest ticket paid person to upgrade or an CO Elite on a reward ticket to op-up before I place a Kettle into that F seat.

+1
^
now why can't everyone just use common sense like this!

The GA's job isn't always easy. Most of the time it's a very simple job. Change of few seats and let the FA's down to the aircraft.

I have alot of experience being forced to think outside the box. I have worked many out-of-control flights, grossly oversold flights, medical emergencies in the boarding area and 100 non-revs staring at me in hopes of getting a seat to know how to wing it. This all comes with experience and my own self critiquing my performance.

It's all a learning experience and hopefully each GA learns from their errors.

This is a good mantra. Though in this case, the GA unfortunately doesn't think she did anything wrong.

I wonder if the OP can alert CO Insider to it, so that the GA can be coached.

It's been said before, but it bears repeating: you should be running training or supervising all the GA's that CO has. Having you do your excellent work on a few flights in SFO is not really getting the full value out of what you offer CO.

Thank you for the compliment. Unfortunately becoming a trainer means moving to a hub and that is not something I wish to do.

There must be plenty of great GAs out there and each station needs to find them and have those people buddy up with the weaker ones. We have a great number of Elites pass thru SFO so being at this station isn't a bad thing. I pass on my knowledge to others and I know those people pass it on. I'd like to believe that SFO has very few problems with GA functions because most of us are willing and do learn from each other's experiences.