Canarsie

First, although longing4piedmont took excellent photographs of the event, even he could not be everywhere at the event and still enjoy the event himself.

For example, your photographs of dinner at the Georgia Aquarium are the first ones I have seen. I hope there are more floating out there somewhere.

Second, many of your photographs were taken from a different point of view.

Last, I enjoyed reading what you wrote even more than the photographs themselves.

Thank you, ND76!

Cholula

Boo, hiss!!

secretsea18

Great slide show! I enjoyed reliving the event looking at your pictures.

Thanks for posting.

Traveller

Great pictures ND76, thanks for posting them! ^

BondAir007

Great photos! Thanks! It was a great event. ^

bdnyc

Thanks to Steven, Brian, Wes, Dave, and Kirk for an excellent "thank you" lunch and Walk-a-Mile event. (Hope I didn't leave anybody out.) It was so good to see everybody again.

Steven was right - four hours of Walk-a-Mile seemingly flew by in minutes.

My agent, Jontue was great. She's tough, smart, demanding, understanding, competent, safety-conscious, and totally aware. She pushed me hard and let me drive --- up until something more serious happened. (You'll see in #7 below.) I was happy to step back at that point as Jontue went into warp-speed.

For your amusement, here are a few things I learned while walking a mile in Gate Agent Jontue's shoes:

1. If an aircraft has 34 middle seats, there will be 34 people on line at the counter when you get there.

2. To change a passenger's seat, type A*S[segment number]$@[new seat][enter] then type ER[enter], then [F9] to print the new boarding pass. Next, politely say "here you go Ms. Smith" and hope that it is Ms. Smith you're talking to.

3. If your 80-year-old grandmother doesn't speak English, and has never flown before, and is traveling alone, and you ever want to see her again, you shouldn't have her connecting in ATL.

4. Dropping paperwork from the jetway to the ramp guy involves all sorts of wind calculations.

5. If the flight has already departed and somebody calmly approaches the gate, type JLAN on the terminal. They're looking to find a flight at a different gate.

6. Did I mention A*S2$@10F[enter]ER[enter][F9] "here you go Ms. Smith."? Simple. Who needs SNAP?

7. The worst problems sometimes have the easiest solutions. Here's the scenario:
-All previous flights to STL were cancelled due to weather, so this next flight is hopelessly overbooked with many passengers having waited 8+ hours.
-Jontue is asking for volunteers --- nobody.
-The inbound arrives with news of mechanical trouble and the substitute aircraft has even fewer seats.
-It's a "re-con" (re-configure) and lots of A*S[segment num]$@[new seat][enter]ER[enter][F9] "here you go, Ms. Smith" will be necessary. Many unsuspecting and unhappy STL passengers will need new boarding passes, exit row considerations might change, and some passengers will get bumped.
Sounds bad, eh?
Solution: Because our mechanical is occupying B29, the substitute aircraft arrives instead at B33. It's their problem now.

8. It is not considered bad form, after #7 happens, to get some iced-coffee at Starbucks and walk over to B33 to watch the carnage.

9. Gate agents rarely get to meet Flyertalkers who already know how to work the system and don't often need help.

10. Now, if your mother-in-law doesn't speak English and has never flown alone before, then definitely connect her through ATL, especially if her final is STL. Another problem easily solved.

11. Like so many people at Delta, Jontue LOVES her job and wouldn't change it for anything.

12. When the jetway moves, a loud bell rings to alert the ramp guys. That makes the ramp guys yell "stop ringing that bell."

13. Jontue mentally does calculus for jetway x-y-z coordinate movement (left-right, forward-back, up-down) and she moves that jetway in all three dimensions simultaneously, easily lining up with the target stripe every time.

14. Jetways have horns, except at B29. All kidding aside, never move the jetway until you get the thumbs up from the ramp guy. No jokes when it comes to safety.

15. Jontue really knows her $h*t and is the definition of "multitasking." She can simultaneously take gate phone calls, make announcements, listen to passenger requests, and type arcane commands on the secondary terminal all while catching my mistakes on the primary terminal.

16. When the flight is closed and paperwork needs printing, you type A*TD. It's better not to accidentally type A*TD while changing people's seats.

17. Jontue is lightning-quick on the terminal, but I am one wicked-fast boarding pass barcode-scanner-reader-person.

18. If the flight crew is ex-NWA, and during a hug you quietly whisper in the ear of one FA "long live the Redtail," Jontue will hear you wherever she is.

19. On the wall in the TSA office, they have pictures of all the executives. Of course, we don't know if that means they get better treatment or they get extra scrutiny in that private room.

20. We don't joke about security. And we don't joke about safety.

21. All abuse of GAs by passengers stops when you mention you're not really a Delta employee. Previously-irate passengers become curious and ask how they too can be a gate agent for a day.

22. When you advise a passenger that you're not really a Delta employee and you might make mistakes, they all expect you're going to accidentally upgrade them. Jontue wisely did not teach me how that is done.

23. Now I think it's safe to type A*TD

longing4piedmont

Absolutely a classic! So true and I laughed till it hurt on a couple of points! Nobody and mean nobody is going to top this post......

Great post and I truly enjoyed seeing you again. Until next time.....

USirritated

Wunnerful, wunnerful!
(yes, I do know how to spell WONDERFUL, I just felt the need to quote Lawrence Welk for some VERY ODD reason)

Now for those of us who might be missing something, was this Walk-a-Mile you were giving us the wunnerful accounting for the same one that many of us participated in back in October 2010, or was this a new and different Walk-a-Mile that was orchestrated and operated sometime in more recent times, such as maybe March 2011?

bdnyc

Same event as Oct 2010, but this one in March 2011 was for a few of us who were unable to participate in the first event.

USirritated

Ah, so you participated in the same event by time transportal from March 2011 back to October 2010? (You did say it was the same event as Oct 2010, or was it?)

Burj

AWESOME POST!

The design of jetway controls definitely show they were developed before the concept of human factors engineering came into being!

umbrella007

Forgive me if this has been posted already, but are there any plans for a 2011 Delta event? I am considering the Chicago Seminar in October, but would do the Delta event instead that month if it is being held again. Thanks!

Dovster

I have been told by some of the organizers that there definitely will not be a 2011 Do.

Canarsie

If there is a third annual Delta Air Lines FlyerTalk Event in 2011, it will not be organized by atldlff or myself.

Cholula

Canarsie, your answer is somewhat vague.

Are you or are you not going to organize the third annual Delta Air Lines FlyerTalk Event in 2011??