pbjag

Heh- and when I landed in ATL today my first thought was - bet the GAs wish they had some FTers to help out in this mess! Even at the SkyClub- there was a line of 50 people waiting to get into the B25 SkyClub- never seen that before.

itsaboutthejourney

To which I later changed his handle to RAKWIA (Richard Anderson Knows Who I am)

Dorlee

Once, during a terrible weather delay, they wouldn't let me enter. An agent was posted outside the door, and said it was "full". I told her I wouldn't stay, but just wanted to go to the desk to get reticketed. Sadly, the answer was still, "no."

itsaboutthejourney

Wow! That was an amazing experience. I feel humbled and have much much greater appreciation for everything the GAs have to balance.

Some things I got to experience:

• An unruly pax and the huddle between the Lead FA, Pilot and GA about what to do with the pax.
  
• We had another flight go mx, so after scanning about 1/3 of the BP's, I had to "unboard" them again.
  
• We had a pax who ASA told "you're tix will get fixed in ATL" that we had to deal with.
  
• In the meantime, lots and lots of shall I say "annoying" questions such as gate locations, restrooms, weather, upgrade positions, etc.

I gave a bit of a debrief to a DL exec on Sunday, but here are some quick observations:

• One GA isn't enough for some of these flights.
  
• Rules keep changing; filing reports/paperwork and system updates are all things that change weekly and GAs have to keep up.
  
• GAs clearly got the message about SkyPriority and HVCs, but remain less knowledgable about the loyalty program, which is ok since they know to refer people to SkyMiles rather than look at old info or give wrong/outdated info.
  
• The wheelchairs take up a lot of time. The vendor who handles isn't always on top of things, pax get impatient, and sometimes the FA gives the wrong count of who needs wheelchairs. I'm pretty sure we had a couple misconnect because of the slow to arrive crew to take them to a far concourse.
  
• I too have huge appreciation for pax who have their BPs ready, unfolded and dry to scan. It's amazing how many pax don't understand the barcode is key. Having myself been in many all hands full situation, I didn't hesitate to take BPs out of peoples hands (not mouths), scan and put back in their hands. I got a lot of thanks for that and the GA told me she could see I've been in that situation. I told her my luck is always an important phone call while boarding and holding a cup of coffee, dragging my roller and balancing my backpack so I really appreciate GAs who help me a bit with handing over my BP for scan.
  
• GIDS are pretty automated, so not a lot the GA has to do, howeve they are not exactly in sync with the GAs system in terms of standby and upgrade lists, especially as we already know when someone boards before the UG clears.
  
• There were a LOT more staff and buddy passes than I ever thought. Some were very polite and didn't "lice" the gate, but others were. Shame to see fellow employees not have patience with the GA as she worked very hard to give them realistic expectations. At one point just after I had handed final paperwork to the pilot, my GA had me run and grab the 2 staff she had let on as 2 paying customers ran up to the gate.
  
• There is literally no time for the GA to go to the bathroom sometimes!

And what a cool idea atldlff! I agree, this was a very very special and unique opportunity for DL's best customers to get their hands dirty and see the operations close up.

me4yankees

I am late to post, but I will be brief.

I had a fun time in the simulator, but honestly, the best part of the event for me was working as a gate agent for about four hours on Saturday morning with Antonia at T2. Two of us were assigned to T2, since not all of the T gates had flights, and my frequent flyer partner and I worked two flights, one to Seattle (a First Flight) and one to Belize, so we experienced the domestic and international boarding experience.

We worked a third flight to San Juan until I discovered a gate change when I looked it up to check the status, due to our Belize flight that took a delay at the gate. Delta gate agents are not notified of gate changes, they have to figure it out themselves by looking it up manually on their terminals, or by seeing it behind them on the gate monitor, or on the widescreen monitor. When Antonia called the tower to confirm the gate change, the person there said, "I meant to call you," but Antonia said they never call!

We scanned boarding passes, checked passports for the Belize flight, made announcements, answered LOTS of questions, checked upgrade/standby lists, and took the paperwork to the pilots and flight attendants, accompanied by Antonia, of course. I also learned the various commands for checking flight departure/arrival/gate info/schedules and passenger records, to name a few. I had someone ask me to look up the schedule/aircraft for the Cincinnati Bengals charter.

I am going to write a complimentary letter to Delta about Antonia, as well as suggest a pop-up notification on their computer terminals for gate changes.

Flyin'Mom

Yesterday I was back in ATL connecting from a LAS redeye on my way back home. The train was down so I was walking from T to B when I spotted a redcoat who looked familiar. It was Michael and we ended up chatting all the way to B.

Once at B I had just enough time to walk around looking for my gate agents because I had some Starbucks cards for them.

I never did find Tamika or Leroy, and Melony was off yesterday, but I ran into another red coat who remembered that I am a FOFO! Had fun chatting with him for a bit.

I gave out my gift cards anyway to a couple of gate agents; I'll restock before I head out this weekend.

Still in awe over the whole experience....

N639DL

YES

Is that the concourse you were in?

BizJet

If I understand correctly, participants were given a cheat sheet with common codes, etc., for the Delta computer system. Would it be possible to post this if it exists? Very curious to see what all that typing is for!

Vuelos

We were not

Burj

I didn't get a cheat sheet and I didn't hear of anyone else getting one.

secretsea18

What is a FOFO?
There was no sheet.

Vuelos

BUT if you were enterprising... you created your own

Sez_Who

I believe Canarsie or atldlff said something about maybe getting one but it never happened. Perhaps next time when we work as ticket agents.

[QUOTE=secretsea18;15064428]What is a FOFO?

First on, first off.

EasternTraveler

We were not given a sheet. The agents don't have a sheet. There is a lookup in the computer. However, my agent cld someone when he needed to do something with an NWA FA that he had not done before.

If there had been a sheet, I would not post it here or on any other public forum. I respect our DL confidentiality agreement. I would think everyone else would as well.

travelingsalesgal

Agreed. There is no way I would post this sheet, as we were not given a sheet. We learned some basic commands, but under the direction of our GAs.