I post my fair share of criticism of various aspects of Delta... But I recently had a very good experience with a Delta gate agent and wanted to share.

Perhaps it is a bad sign that a good experience is interacting with a gate agent who is competent and actually does their job...but here goes...

Was ticketed for Delta flight 1239 on Nov 10th, leaving from DCA to SLC.

On-line it said I was #20 on the upgrade list for 19 free seats in first class, D'oh!

My original seat was REALLY bad so I thought that if I didn't get upgraded, maybe I could get a good seat from someone who was upgraded...

I went to the gate about 75 minutes before the flight.

Much to my surprise the gate agent showed up about 70 minute before the flight.

I let an older woman talk to her first. Apparently she was also on the flight but was having problems with getting her boarding pass for her connecting flight. The gate agent quickly got her information off of her current boarding pass and printed out her connecting flight pass.

I then pleaded my case and if there was any way to get a better seat, preferably an aisle with the middle seat open. To my surprise she seemed sympathetic and said she would do what she could but couldn't promise and then she asked for the stub of my boarding pass and proceeded write a note to herself on it "aisle seat, open middle"

In all my interactions with Delta gate agents I have NEVER experienced this!

As I waited various people came and talked to her and she did the same thing for several of them who were looking to change seats or get on as stand-by, etc...

Sure enough after process the upgrade list I wasn't upgraded, BUT she called for several people to get new boarding passes, including myself and she gave me 20-D and said "You should be all set...do you need the boarding passes for your connecting flight?"

She did boarding by having zone 1 and then zone 2 board and after that was done I was able to motion from the desk and asked if first class had BOARDED full, and she took a second to look at the computer and said "Unfortunately yes, everyone in first class has boarded."

I then tried to make my way to the boarding line and she opened up breezeway and called for Zone 3. So I was able to get one very quickly thanks to breezeway.

Sure enough 18-E remained opened much to the delight of myself and the pax in 18-F!

Thinking back now, it just makes me realize how far a good gate agent can go in making a passenger feel valued and appreciated and making our trip a little less stressful!

That's great. I've had a lot of good experiences with the DCA GA's, both in A and in B.

Did/will you forward that on to Delta?

Why do I have this funny feeling that Delta might not want their GAs to be so accommodating?

Why do you? Maybe you have the stomach bug!

Definitely....posted the above right before boarding my red-eye to JFK...will copy and paste what I wrote to Delta later today...

I did discretely give her an "Above and Beyond" certificate after she confirmed that first class had boarded full. She seemed a little surprised and happy and said thank you and shook my hand...

Again it is really amazing how a good gate agent really made the experience positive despite missing the upgrade.

Hi Burj,

It's always good to see good experiences too.

However, not to pick:

Not sure how you enjoyed 18E all the way from 20D

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

HA...thanks for pointing it out...I have FINALLY gotten a decent nights sleep and was about to send a message to Delta about my (rare) good experience...so glad you caught my mistake...