A conversation with a nonrev seatmate...
 

While waiting to board a transcontinental (XXX-ATL, you'll see later why I'm not saying) flight a few weeks ago I noticed a young guy in the gate area who happened to be seating directly across from me. He was carrying a day pack that featured prominent signage re Delta, and was wearing what appeared to a work ID pinned to the sleeve of his T-shirt.

I'd started out at 13 on an upgrade list of 40-odd, and moved up to 8 after the GAs had worked the list, so when zone 1 was called I boarded and took my emergency exit row aisle seat in coach. Another pax was already in the window seat, and the middle seat was empty. Boarding was pretty much done when the young guy that I'd noticed in the gate area showed up and took the middle seat. He was clearly pretty happy to have scored this seat, and he proceeded to explain that he lives in ATL but has family and a girlfriend in XXX and so travels frequently between the two when he gets a few days off in a row. He does occasionally run into trouble getting back home in time for his shift to start, though, as it's a busy route and the planes are frequently full. On the other hand he sometimes manages to score a seat in first class. When I mentioned that I'd been pretty far down on the upgrade list he agreed that it was a medallion heavy route, but that sometimes the GAs could still manage to finagle a seat in first for him. And that if he didn't get a seat in first they'd at least get him some drink tickets. He'd found that he could often get a couple of drink tickets from GAs who weren't even working his flight by just cruising up and down the terminal and asking.

I have absolutely no way of knowing whether or not he was telling me the truth about his having been seated in first ahead of medallions (and yes, that's exactly what he said had occurred) but when the drinks cart arrived he did have a little red drink ticket (or maybe it was two tickets, can't recall now) ready to hand over for a (or possibly two) bottle of Jack Daniels. Except that the FA waved him off, and he pocketed the ticket(s), presumably to use somewhere down the road.

Rest assured, she made quite sure that she'd collected my drink ticket. No funny business when it comes to the customers.

Oh, and when I asked him what sort of work he does at DL he answered that he's one of the guys who mishandles my luggage. I pointed out that he doesn't mishandle mine as I never check it.

next time get his contact info so you can name drop with the GA and score a nonrev 'companion' upgrade

*sighs*

And this is why we get a bad rep -

He broke the FIRST rule about non-rev travel - "Thou shall not brag about pass privileges, but shall practice discretion at all times."

My badge is only displayed to the gate agent when I check in at the counter, or at security. For all intent and purpose, I'm just another frequent flyer...

To the OP is there a point I'm missing? Unsure why the NRSA decided to get chatty but I'm doubting he spouted that off on its own.

Curious... why display a badge at all?

We were on one flight recently where a non rev FA started to rearrange some of the luggage in the overheads .... no one was happy with her, including the on duty FAs.... and she flashed her ID badge and said I'm one of you.


Bob H

Doubt away, but I can assure you that he spilled it all with essentially no prompting at all on my part. I even pointed out that his story about being upgraded ahead of medallions is the sort of thing that makes us pretty testy. I don't recall specifically saying that I'm medallion, and I don't display a luggage tag or anything similar.

People do tend to be pretty chatty with me, and that's why I often use ear plugs on flights, both to keep out the noise and to keep the chatter to a minimum. In this instance I hadn't yet put them in (as I wait until the FA has come over to ask if I'm willing and able to help with the emergency exit) and he decided to share. A lot.

Current check in ID at the gate - shows I'm flying as a pass rider and that I'm actually there, and not just listed.

And do pass privileges include free alcohol?

Transcontinental to ATL... Lemme guess, LAX? Or SFO? Every flight to ATL is medallion heavy lol. I believe the OP's story but I wonder how often the guy gets a seat in front. Perhaps once in a while when there are very few medallions, or only a list full of you 'low level' medallions who don't expect an upgrade anyway due to your 'low status'.

Do you suppose he was a new hire, still enamored with all the bennies? :p

ugh it's always the few that ruin it for the rest of us. Anytime I hear buddy passes on my flights gloating to their seatmates about not paying much and having a buddy pass, I kindly remind them of the rules.. Just like when I see someone wearing 10,000 IDs/lanyards/etc obviously excited that they're an employee, I make sure they're treated no differently than the passenger next to them.

If memory serves (and I'll point out here that I did have a Glenlivet myself on the flight) he'd been at ATL for about six months, but I gather that he'd worked for DL for some time before that.

Despite being PM it was clear that I wouldn't be getting an upgrade, so that wasn't the issue on this flight.

He didn't say that he routinely gets a seat in first, just that he sometimes gets one, and that when he does it's because the GA has managed to keep a seat available that would otherwise have gone to a medallian. Even, possibly, one of those poor, sad silvers...

So you definitely weren't the FA who comped him his liquor (and then proceeded to process my coupon with military efficiency after I'd witnessed the comp).

I don't mind being a second class citizen so much if others don't go out of their way to point it out to me.

A good friend of mine is a Delta retiree. He tells me that he is often put into an F or J (on international) seat ahead of fare paying passengers trying to get upgraded. Its all part of the good ole boy/girl network that developed at the legacies over the years. Lots of folks insist that this behaviour doesn't happen or cannot occur.......yet it frequently does. Shame really.:(

International upgrades are a different beast than this discussion...