Red Coats. What exactly do they do?
 

No I am not talking about British / Canadian soldiers, though some of them think they yield significant powers ;)

Do we know what their job description is supposed to be?

Consistency varies. I have come across some very helpful and kind ones (esp at EWR and IAH) and a mean and nasty one a certain major airport in California, who probably should get another job. I had to call the elite line on this person, who put something in my record, and another agent accomodated me in an IRROP. The red coat at EWR would have done this in 2 seconds.

Years ago I paid a Y up fare and when I ran to the gate with no checked bags I was told no room in first. When I got on board there were empty first class seats. I was so angry I got off the plane and left my brief case on board. Fortunately another flight was leaving for the same destination (very odd this was not a high traveled route) within minutes and I asked to be put on that flight. The red coat met me at the destination gate with my brief case.

Red coats are what other service companies call supervisors. They have a higher level of authority to resolve issues.

Red Coats. What exactly do they do?
 

Gave me (and the rest of the flight) a meal voucher for 3 1/2 hour delayed EWR - ATL flight last night. This surprised me as this was clearly a weather delay and I expected nothing. ^

I like it, so far everyone who has responded has had mostly positive experiences with my fellow red coats. We are actually now called Team-leaders officially in the hubs but most of us that have been around a long time still address ourselves as red coats. While we are not supervisors and we are not agents we are there to ensure that the operation runs smoothly, we often assist the agents with issues or questions they have and our customers as well. We are the first line of contact when a customer has a issue that needs attention. Usually we are empowered to make decisions to resolve any customer service issues but in the cases that we aren't we often enlist the help of a hub-manager / supervisor.

Red coats are the only people at CO empowered to use common sense. Aside from CO Insider, of course.

Every time I run into one of those clueless agents (you know the type, with the glazed-over eyes who doesn't want to or know how to do anything) and actually need to press the issue to get something done, I just get a red coat involved, and they usually use common sense and resolve the situation.

I flew EWR-HKG in April. I was on standby for upgrade to BF. The agents at the gate advised that these 'red coats' will arrive 30 mins. before boarding time to clear the waitlist. Sure enough, I was paged to check gate counter and presented with the upgrade. After I boarded and was comfortably seated...they were onboard doing may be head count, etc. The gentleman stopped, addressed me by name, warmly welcomed me onboard and thanked me for choosing Continental Airlines. It made my afternoon!

Shawn...

I, generally, have had excellent experiences with redcoats. They can move mountains, if you're nice to them.

I was stuck at ORD for a thunderstorm, trying to get home to IAH, and my flight was delayed. They had cancelled most flights, but not mine. I spoke with the redcoat on duty, and she informed me that my flight wasn't going to be cancelled, as the crew that was flying the plane to Chicago was a new crew. All of the crews on the cancelled flights had timed out.

My flight was scheduled to leave ORD at approx. 5 PM, but at around 9:00, the plane was still sitting on the ground in Houston (where it was coming from). All of the boards and the PDA site were just pushing back the departure time in 15 minute increments, so I had no idea what to expect.

She looked at the schedule and her weather reports and told me that, although they weren't going to cancel, it would most likely not be leaving ORD for IAH until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning. She looked up every flight the next day (including F, even though I was flying in Y), and the earliest flight she could put me on was at 1:30 PM. She felt sure she could do better, so she made a couple of phone calls and found out that there was going to be a new flight added to the schedule sometime mid-morning (one of the cancelled flights from earlier). However, that flight wasn't in the system yet. She booked me on the 1:30, had my bag pulled from the baggage area, and told me to go to a hotel and call back every couple of hours until the new flight showed up in the system. I hopped on the shuttle to the Renaissance ORD, and called back a couple of times before midnight. Once the newly created flight was available, I was booked on it, departing at 9:00 AM with no problems.

I got a full night's sleep and was home at 11:30 the next morning. Had she not done that, I would have spent most of the night at ORD and arrived back home at 7:30 (when my original flight finally got to IAH), sleep deprived and angry.

It was a weather delay (not CO's fault), and my original flight was never actually cancelled, but she still went out of her way to make sure I was taken care of.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't the "redcoats" for NRT flights "greycoats"? It seems that every IAH-NRT flight that I take has the head honcho in grey.... :confused:

The gray coats are International Concierges -- the polar opposite of the red coat in that the gray coats basically do nothing. They should renamed oxygen thieves.

Although I disagree with you a lot you crack me up.. :p

From every experience I've had to date with a red coat to date, it seems to me that their job is to be surly, non-supportive, useless and a general pain in the suitcase. My preference is to hit the PC agents and to avoid red coats whenever possible.

Same here, usually good experiences with red coats. Seems like supervisors when they're there.

Not all red coats are equal. The red coats at EWR and IAH are among the best, there is one at a certain airport in California who is plain awful. (and mean)
Thus this thread.

I think there may be internal employee politics involved, but there is an agent who I prefer at this particular airport, who probably should be a red coat.

Red Coats ae becoming more valuable as they continue to shrink the training program for new employees. While in EWR last week I had the pleasure of encountering a new agent after I had missed my 7:00am flight to IAD. I was there at 7:30am and asked to be placed on standy for the 8:30am flight. The agent wanted to charge me $150 until I reminded him of the SDC - Same Day Change policy that says if you miss a flight and present yourself within 2 hours, you can go standby on the next flight for free. I called a red coat over and she just looked at the agent and said "You're killing me! Put the guy on the flight!"