LegalTender

In an IRROPS scenario like the one I just had, it's best to fly non-rev.

DL 2819 SEA-ATL today had issues finding a working 739. Fearing cancellation, and in hopes of making it home that night, I re-booked SEA-SLC-ATL. But leg 1 suffered a mechanical. I would have missed the last connection home.

The DM line told me DL 2819 would go out 75 minutes late with unclaimed seats. I sprinted back and pleaded with a redcoat to be re-issued a 2819 BP. Neither she nor a supervisor could unlock DL's unrelenting system block. Inside 30 minutes before a re-scheduled IRROPS departure, it automatically denies new seat assignments.

Or does it?

A Delta non-rev had no trouble getting a late BP on 2819 after I was denied. Show an ID, get a BP.

Hardly an equitable outcome.

davetravels

Widgets. . . . . Are you around? ? ?



We should get him a beeper!

wlau

Good lord, story of my life. Delta has always been good to loyal paying customers but lately, the tide has turned. Delta has gone the way of United complete disregard of the regular and most profitable customers...

lamont2718

As a customer in the same situation before, I have had gate agents successfully add me to a delayed flight shortly before departure.

This sounds like a one-off problem with DL2819 and/or the gate agents responsible for it, not a general problem with DL policy favoring nonrevs over paid customers.

Widgets

If the nonrev was already on the standby list, then he or she can be seated at any time. Did you ask to be put on the standby list, or did you ask to be confirmed?

WidgetKid

This. The nonrev you saw was probably already activated on the airport standby list and just hadn't been seated yet. Very different from being rebooked onto the flight.

davetravels

Here's my recent similar story - if you haven't already read it, where I was trying to get on a delayed flight on stand-by AFTER the scheduled departure time, and the GA was willing to take a non-rev OFF THE FLIGHT. I declined.

The main difference with this OP is that the OP was originally on the same flight to begin with.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...on-monday.html

LegalTender

Wasn't allowed on the standby list. Nothing could be 'activated.' The IRROPS was purportedly under gate control but the redcoat and gate agent said they had no authority. Both were stymied by phone supervisors.

DL 2819 had unclaimed seats 25 minutes before it departed.

The non-rev might have been standby, but there was no pre-printed BP for him at the counter. After presenting Delta ID, one was generated. All other standbys had been accommodated during the delay.

Widgets

It takes a couple minutes to list a nonrev on a flight, and the gate agent would have to ask for his employee number and phone number. If this didn't happen, then he was likely already cleared and just needed the boarding pass printed.

If you were at the gate, then you shouldn't have had gate control problems since the gate agents there are the ones with control. If you weren't at the gate, then any employee wouldn't be able to help.

Even after arriving at the gate, the primary gate agent would have to reissue your ticket for a later nonstop flight (which might require a call to ticketing support) and then add a standby segment for the current flight, and then activate the segment so you can appear on the standby list. An active employee who arrives at the gate only needs to give his employee number and phone number. A jump seat rider provides even less.

If you're trying to be added to a flight within 30 minutes of departure, it's usually wasting time to ask for help from anyone except the actual gate agent.

Once on a delayed flight 6 minutes before departure, I added and seated an OAL flight attendant but had to refuse an OAL revenue customer requesting help since reissuing in time would have been impossible.

The fact that accommodating nonrevs is overall faster than accommodating revenue passengers is unfortunate, but it's a structural difference since accommodating someone who doesn't need a ticket is inherently simpler than someone with a ticket.

LegalTender

My guess is that ticketing control limits re-issues from a one-stop BACK to the non-stop. But they denied me. Period.

You could say whether IRROPS impacts the gate agents' authority, but a lack of it was the line they gave me. And both were working their butts off to get me on board.

Tugging a serviceable 739 to a gate from the hangar can take an hour with crews now working ramps on three concourses. Rapid SEA expansion has at least that downside.

N639DL

AFAIK you can't try to get a flight after the original departure time has gone by, even if the delayed ETD hasn't come yet. Most likely the nonrev was already checked in for the flight and was just getting a seat assignment.

appleguru

The last time I was in a similar situation, the GA told me to "just board" (wrote a seat number on a piece of paper for me), and that she would sort it out in the system after the fight departed. Took about 30mins for my itin to get correctly sorted on the DL app. Not sure how common this is...

ATOBTTR

My personal experience is different. Last year I was scheduled to fly SFO-LAX-PHX. SFO-LAX was oversold and I volunteered to bump. They told me they couldn't get me to PHX that night via LAX or SLC. Across from my gate was a delayed SFO-ATL flight (the last flight of the afternoon until the redeye block way later) that was delayed. I checked on my phone and saw it would still arrive in ATL in time to connect to the last ATL-PHX flight of the night. It took the agent a while to process but they managed to get me on it. Had it left on time (about an hour earlier this would have never been an option for me.

javabytes

Can't be true. As a PM, I was flying ORD-DTW-SFO when ORD-DTW was delayed due to weather. I had only a 45 minute connection to begin with, and tweeted DeltaAssist in the air to see if there was anything they could suggest. They could offer nothing, but somebody at DeltaAssist clearly had a few friends at DTW, for reasons that would soon become apparent.

Upon landing in DTW, my connection to SFO - the last of the night - was blown, but there was a delayed MSP flight (zeroed out) that could still connect to a flight to SFO. As soon as I got off the plane, I got a call from a Detroit area number on my cell phone... it was the Performance Leader for DTW (which as far as I can tell is the next step above a Red Coat), who asked if there was anything I needed. I told him of my plan and that I was on my way to the gate for the MSP flight to try and see if I could get on. He said he'd meet me there.

I beat him by a few minutes, and as I waited, the gate agents were telling other passengers the flight was full. He met me shortly thereafter and started talking to one of the gate agents. She did some typing as he watched over. She must have needed approval for something, because at one point she pointed at the screen and he said "do it." A few minutes later, I was confirmed, and in F. (I had booked an expensive coach fare and been upgraded on the original flights.)

I have no idea what they did, but they got me on that seemingly completely full flight after its scheduled departure, and in F. I was blown away... all I did was send a fairly routine "I'm going to misconnect, what are my options" tweet to DeltaAssist. Never could I have imagined what would happen next...

And to demonstrate how wildly random and arbitrary Customer Care is when writing in, I sent a glowing compliment about what is unarguably the single most positive experience I've ever had flying Delta. The rep who received the email latched on to the fact that my flight was delayed, and gave me a five figure sum of miles. That I didn't ask for. For a weather delay.

apolloms

2819 today wasn't even close to canceling, it was just a matter of getting the airplane from the hangar to the gate. It's unfortunate we delayed that long for it and I'm sorry they couldn't get you on the flight. As others have said, non-revs cant even be checked in by a gate agent less than 30 min prior so that person had to have listed prior. We managed to end up only 40 minutes late to ATL. I hope you were able to make it home.