Zorak

I fly in/out of BWI about once a month, most recently out on Monday. Don't always check a bag but this time both the Sky and regular line overflowed their respective corrals, and there was only one agent helping the Sky line. While we were waiting #4 in line jumped out to use the first class kiosk, and when he was done the agent helped him finish, so in some sense he cut the line, but I guess anyone else was free to do that as well. Then when I was on deck the customer in front of me started talking about his ticket, then the agent picked up the phone, and we all knew that wasn't a good sign :/ There were two "false hope" moments -- at one point the agent moved over to the next station and started typing and for a brief moment I entertained the fantasy she might try to multitask and take other customers while she was on hold although that seems to invite confusion; then an agent helping the self-serve kiosks nearby looked over at our line, asked "are you all first class/Sky Priority?" (duh) and I thought she might take some of us while the other agent was on the phone but that didn't happen either.

On the bright side, I did get to use CLEAR and bypass ~15 people in the PreCheck lane. I don't doubt others' experiences but I've never found Pre closed at BWI-D (but I'm usually flying out between roughly 9a and 1p). Have also not been able to claim the 2500 peso bag guarantee yet either (legitimately, I measure from and screenshot the "ARRIVED" time on the app)

My one minor nit, and this absolutely totally 100% belongs in the "hall of rants" or the DYKWIA thread, is that when boarding a one-cabin RJ they don't always announce PREM/Diamond separately

pokeable

Just use Waze. Although if memory serves (we go up/down 95 quite a bit to DC) most of the speed cameras you have to worry about are on the DC side. Just construction zones in MD (and I haven't seen any cams recently on 95 between Baltimore and DC).

flyerCO

Those 1 question surveys are deceptive. You click on the rank for the answer then it loads the actual fill survey that takes 5-10 minutes to respond to.

inthecloud

I have also been told many times by ACS agents that Twitter is the best way to get your opinion heard. I had an infuriating experience a few months ago with both a gate agent AND her red coat, and I spent my newly extended layover debating how to address my concerns.

I grabbed a GA on F who was at an empty gate. I asked his opinion, and he told me exactly that. Twitter will get you somewhere higher faster.

I went back about 20 minutes later to give him a JWD, and we had another 30 minute chat. He said the biggest issue with all of ACS right now is staffing constraints. Most likely, 95% of the issues that make frequent fliers furious are a result of an understaffed station, or gate, or ramp, or check-in counter, etc.

Understaffed ramp = late bags, delayed arrivals, delayed departures

Understaffed gate = rude agents who are trying to get a plane out on time while answering dumb questions about seat assignments and upgrades

Understaffed check in = late bags, late passengers, missed flights, etc

I agree that Delta has lost its touch with the off-the-plane customer experience as it invests heavily in the in-flight experience, and hopefully someone is listening to all of us.

FWIW: I don't fly through BWI often, but good LORD, RDU could use all the help it can get

KDCAflyer

They are in DC, for the most part. The ticket I got about six months ago was from DC. They don't put points on your license, which is good. If they did, there'd be riots.

bubbashow

That employee should be terminated immediately

Steven NH/BOS

The wait time for TSA and security has gotten much worse now that Spirit has been added to the gates of Terminal D. The Dunkin Doughnuts is now especially crowded since it has been discovered on the United/Spirit side of the terminal. I am about half-way between PHL and BWI and find the security experience and wait better at PHL now. They did remove the DD from the PHL terminal though but we have the Skyclub at least.

KDCAflyer

When did Spirit move to D? That explains everything.

jrl767

iirc there was at least one departing NK flight when I got to BWI extra early a couple months ago (you can ignore the rest of the thread :/)

SamuelS

Under what grounds?

Caring about their station and customers enough to want to make things better, even if that means explaining to customers the reason (cuts/short staffed) why lines are consistently long...?

No, I'd rather retain an employee that cares than one that says nothing to customers because they're so jaded that they just don't give a $*@& anymore.

Agree with those that say DL needs to move now from the in-flight experience focus to a look at the ground services operation instead.

bubbashow

Disparaging the company.

In my company, ANYONE rallying customers against what the company has done would be terminated immediately.

KDCAflyer

I don't think the employee was asking customers to oppose the company, but to simply tell them that the BWI station needed help. I would think that DL would want to hear if there was a problem, particularly at an airport where DL is competing against a bunch of WN nonstops.

TrojanTraveler

This has been happening in my US airline travel for years. And this generally happens when employees (especially on the front line) feel like management is not listening to them at all. I'm not sure how you define it, but "disparaging" is saying something essentially very negative. That is very much different from responding to unsatisfied clients/pax/customers, and telling them the truth that it's better for them to complain if they want to see any changes happen.

Not all employees want to be in unthinking, moronic lockstep with every decision management takes. They are stakeholders too, and many of them want to see their company succeed long term. Which often makes them different from senior management: rank and file employees are more likely to plan to stay at a company longer than senior management at many publicly held companies.

ND76

I flew from BWI on Saturday 7/30/16 on the 0630 departure to MSP. I got to the terminal around 0515. Both the Southwest (Piers A and B) and Delta (Pier D) counters and entrances were absolutely mobbed. There were close to 100 people in the pre-check line, some of whom clearly didn't belong there. After waiting about 15 minutes, TSA found another of its staff to check IDs , so by 0530 they had two ID checkers. Once past them, there was no wait to go through the WTMD and have carry-ons x-rayed.

People were streaming on to our flight right up until they closed the door. I was lucky to have had pre-check. Had I been in the regular TSA line at 0515, I might not have made the flight.

I came back through BWI mid-morning Monday, and the mobs were largely gone.

One area where Delta could improve was baggage claim; priority tagged bags were not coming onto the carousel first.

CMK10

Get over yourself. The employee wasn't "disparaging" anything, he was enlisting help to try and make the experience better. He didn't tell us to fly other airlines or to use other airports, he needs help to do his job better and passengers would benefit from it too.