Howste

WBCBBC?

GRALISTAIR

HMO

canadiantransplant

A couple of amusing stories from my quick trip to Chicago this past weekend.

Story 1 (more Special Snowflake than DYKWIA):
Arrive at marine terminal for the 8:15 am to girl in her early 30’s and her mom complaining about their “stupid uber driver” who couldn’t find the marine terminal. Get to security and the interaction goes like this:

TSA Agent: Ma’am you need to remove your boots.

Younger woman: I don’t want to

TSA: Are you TSA Pre? No? You will need to please remove your boots

Younger Woman (whiny voice): But they’re Praaaaada and are hard to get off

TSA: Well, I’m not the one who chose to wear complicated boots this morning, now am I?

I begin laughing. Mom shoots me a look that could stop traffic.

Girl removes boots while whining that I laughed at her.

Fast forward to boarding:
Call for extra help, young children, etc. so I stand up to get ready to board with premium

When they call Premium mom while smirking immediately says in a loud voice while looking to see who is listening: “Sweetie – I think you made a mistake – they are boarding FIRST CLASS”.

Me (smiling sweetly): Thanks for letting me know. I’m in Seat 1A.

Needless to say, they both gave the death stare as they boarded with Zone 2….

Random sidenote - some woman was actually able to board the flight because she thought it was the DC shuttle (which was delayed until 10 am). Still trying to figure out how that happened.

Story 2:

Massive delays getting into LGA last night due to high winds so our 1:30 pm flight was cancelled and we were rebooked onto a very delayed 5:30 pm flight. The 6:30 and 7:30 flights were cancelled. To kill time we hung out in the Sky Club where I came upon the following scenario:

Man on the phone with Delta berating the poor person on the other end of the phone:

“I’m Platinum Medallion, blah blah blah blah…I need to be put on the 5:30 pm flight. I don’t care if there aren’t any seats. Surely there is a Silver in FC – just pull them off the flight. Don’t you know who I am??? No? I want to talk to your supervisor. They aren’t there? Then I want to speak to THEIR supervisor…”

I had to step away at this point because I am lowly silver so far this year who had paid for a seat in FC so didn’t want to see if he would actually get away with it. Thankfully, I got home several hours late and he is probably still being a miserable jerk in the Sky Club.

SFBayGuy

Now this is a DYKWIA story. Literally. ^

I would say that they don't pull passengers off flights to give a "higher-status" passenger the seat, but I'd almost certainly be immediately contradicted with a "This one time..." tale.

KDCAflyer

I wonder if DL 360 members could do that. I know someone whose mother is an AA Concierge Key. She needed a seat at the last minute, so AA bumped someone out of first class.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's basically what happens with guaranteed full-Y availability on SkyTeam, right? If a flight is oversold, and you book a ticket, I assume someone gets booted off the plane.

I don't think I could do that, personally. Who's to say that what I'm doing is more important than the person I'm bumping? Maybe they're going to a funeral or something.

canadiantransplant

Thankfully I didn't have to find out! DH and I were travelling on separate reservations due to different arrivals into ORD so I was glad to not get bumped due to having a lower status.

KDCAflyer

You probably would have been fine regardless. DL may not see FOs as being all that important, but you're still higher up the chain than kettles.

United747

And RM still has the final say. If a flight is already massively oversold, they may deny a seat, even to a 360. I tried to book a flight for my UA 1k dad on a flight. They get guaranteed Y and M seats. I called up and the agent was like "the flight is already over by 12, my supervisor and her supervisor can't get RM to force a seat".

CHOPCHOP767

Not even Sky boarding? Love it when it when this happens!

What is it about the ORD Sky Club? Seems to be a regularly featured venue on this forum.

MSPeconomist

SKY? They weren't even zone 1.

GRALISTAIR

I have done the reverse - paid nearly 4000$ for a last minute ticket to see my father alive one last time - someone got bumped - hopefully voluntarily. It was May 2014.

BeatCal

I once read the wrong time on a ticket from Mexico, got to the airport and my flight had left hours before and everything full for that day and the next. Told agent I was stupid and politely pulled my 3 million mile/FC status and got on the next flight

canadiantransplant

I will admit - in my pre-caffeinated state it was a sweet victory to see them boarding among the last group...

SFBayGuy

There are basically two ways you could have approached this:

1. "Well, I'm in FC and I am a 3MM, so you need to figure out a way to get me on the next flight!"
2. "Yeah, I messed up. Is there anything you can do to help me? Would it help if I told you I was paid FC and am a 3MM?"

The first approach would make you a DYKWIA. The latter a nice guy. You were the nice guy.