Delta terminated four Korean-speaking Agents for offering unauthorized upgrades
Jul 19, 2018, 5:58 am
#16
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 2,426
Could vincentharris or one of the FTers who liked his/her explain in plain English what AJC stands for? I looked it up in Acronym Finder and there was not one acronym that fitted (out ot 98 listed).
Jul 19, 2018, 9:38 am
#19
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 1,884
Could vincentharris or one of the FTers who liked his/her explain in plain English what AJC stands for? I looked it up in Acronym Finder and there was not one acronym that fitted (out ot 98 listed).
Jul 19, 2018, 10:24 am
#20
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I assume they upgraded other Korean speakers.I also assume that is a likely reason why Delta managers asked them to "please limit speaking Korean".
Jul 19, 2018, 12:10 pm
#21
Join Date: Mar 2010
Programs: DL PM, Bonvoy Gold
Posts: 8,414
Whether not not they were following any op-up policy by the books is not the only thing that matters. What matters is if the specific way these agents were doing it is a widespread by practice by lots of agents or not. If what they were doing was against the rules, but many agents actually do it all the time and only the four of them were targeted for discipline, this could indicate bias. Note that I am not defending an agent not following the rules, but making the point that rule enforcement needs to happen in unbiased ways.
Jul 19, 2018, 9:47 pm
#22
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: SEA
Programs: Delta TDK(or care)WIA, Hilton Diamond
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I wonder who they upgraded. To say that free upgrades are SOP on overbooked flights doesn't mean that GAs are supposed to personally pick who gets the upgrades when DL gives them a priority list to follow......nor that GAs should upgrade more passengers than the number needed to resolve the oversell.
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
Jul 19, 2018, 9:58 pm
#23
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Seattle, WA
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Coming from Prague to JFK, I got upgraded by a GA. I gave her my boarding pass, she scanned it, the reader rejected it, said I had the wrong seat, and spat out a boarding pass for a seat in the front. GA handed me the new BP and said, "You must be a Medallion."
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
Jul 20, 2018, 12:45 am
#24
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Coming from Prague to JFK, I got upgraded by a GA. I gave her my boarding pass, she scanned it, the reader rejected it, said I had the wrong seat, and spat out a boarding pass for a seat in the front. GA handed me the new BP and said, "You must be a Medallion."
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
Jul 20, 2018, 6:10 am
#26
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Atlanta
Programs: Delta Diamond; HHonors Diamond
Posts: 655
Coming from Prague to JFK, I got upgraded by a GA. I gave her my boarding pass, she scanned it, the reader rejected it, said I had the wrong seat, and spat out a boarding pass for a seat in the front. GA handed me the new BP and said, "You must be a Medallion."
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
Fifteen years ago, Delta was vigilant about firing GAs for these offenses, and they were exceedingly rare. I'm not sure if the company is as strict these days based on the uptick in anecdotal reports of strange results after upgrades have been processed. Hopefully word of the termination of these agents will spread through the GA population and cause them to think twice before trying to place their buddies up front instead of following the upgrade list.
Jul 20, 2018, 7:42 am
#27
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Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: NYC
Posts: 27,230
Exactly - the beep and the boarding pass spitting out of the reader merely saves the GAs from having to page passengers in the gate area to come get their new boarding pass, which could be for any number of reasons, not just an Op-Up.
Definitely a smart implementation of technology.
Definitely a smart implementation of technology.
Jul 20, 2018, 12:43 pm
#28
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: SJC, SFO
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Coming from Prague to JFK, I got upgraded by a GA. I gave her my boarding pass, she scanned it, the reader rejected it, said I had the wrong seat, and spat out a boarding pass for a seat in the front. GA handed me the new BP and said, "You must be a Medallion."
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
THAT's how GA's give out op-ups; they don't make the decision themselves - or influence it in any way, apparently
There is definitely a window for GA to manipulate this...
In fact, one perfect example is an late arriving pax with no seat assignment and there is no economy seat left. GA should find the highest medallion ranking member to move him/her to D1, then put late no-seater pax into the freed up seat. But in my experience, that almost never happens because the GA just want to board everyone and close the flight so it can be door-closed "on-time". So the GA would save herself a lot of hassles by just give a D1 seat to this late pax. If the GA would to op-up a DM at that point, it will likely cause a chain reaction as then there could be a DM/PM/GM waiting for that free'ed up economy seat for status upgrade, which in high probability is a comfort+...
I've seen this happened several times consider I am flying DL internationally constantly. I even chat up with the late pax a few times and most of the time they boast how lucky they are and that they are not a high-ranked medallion member.
Last edited by wlau; Jul 20, 2018 at 12:51 pm
Jul 20, 2018, 1:54 pm
#29
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: SEA
Programs: Delta TDK(or care)WIA, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,869
NO!!! Just because the scanner printed out a new BP doesn't mean the system upgraded you. Unless a status upgrade, someone at the GA has to manually assign seat to pax with no seat assignment. On a oversold flight, the GA has to free up economy seat by doing Op Ups... This is already done before you scanned your BP. Several hours before the departure, the GA is the god of the seat assignment, system cannot overwrite him/her.
There is definitely a window for GA to manipulate this...
In fact, one perfect example is an late arriving pax with no seat assignment and there is no economy seat left. GA should find the highest medallion ranking member to move him/her to D1, then put late no-seater pax into the freed up seat. But in my experience, that almost never happens because the GA just want to board everyone and close the flight so it can be door-closed "on-time". So the GA would save herself a lot of hassles by just give a D1 seat to this late pax. If the GA would to op-up a DM at that point, it will likely cause a chain reaction as then there could be a DM/PM/GM waiting for that free'ed up economy seat for status upgrade, which in high probability is a comfort+...
I've seen this happened several times consider I am flying DL internationally constantly. I even chat up with the late pax a few times and most of the time they boast how lucky they are and that they are not a high-ranked medallion member.
There is definitely a window for GA to manipulate this...
In fact, one perfect example is an late arriving pax with no seat assignment and there is no economy seat left. GA should find the highest medallion ranking member to move him/her to D1, then put late no-seater pax into the freed up seat. But in my experience, that almost never happens because the GA just want to board everyone and close the flight so it can be door-closed "on-time". So the GA would save herself a lot of hassles by just give a D1 seat to this late pax. If the GA would to op-up a DM at that point, it will likely cause a chain reaction as then there could be a DM/PM/GM waiting for that free'ed up economy seat for status upgrade, which in high probability is a comfort+...
I've seen this happened several times consider I am flying DL internationally constantly. I even chat up with the late pax a few times and most of the time they boast how lucky they are and that they are not a high-ranked medallion member.
I think my misapprehension of the way things were done would be a reasonable way to do things and would prevent op-up Shena.
Jul 20, 2018, 3:05 pm
#30
Join Date: Apr 2014
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I work professionally with a rediculously large Korean manufacturing conglomerate... I have years of experience with the Korean “style” of business..I’ll bet my 401k that Operational Upgrades were being improperly applied in a method that became so entrenched that other Korean speaking staff were sucked in. It wouldn’t surprise me if it is connected through abusing the KE partnership...
In theory Operational Upgrades take into account medallion status of the particular carrier’s passenger. On KE metal I have no effective status beyond Skyteam Elite+, and vice versa...codesharing creates lots of room for Shena...
Alternatively I have also seen manual seat assignments written in pen on boarding passes to D1 both on normal and non rev boarding passes...in one case the gate agent came on board with the passenger and manually wrote on the manifest given to the purser...I was mildly interested but since I was in a nice seat I didn’t care enough to ask but did ask a friend to pull up the flight manifest later, it showed the seat empty...
i fly out of a large southern city known for its Coca Cola!
In theory Operational Upgrades take into account medallion status of the particular carrier’s passenger. On KE metal I have no effective status beyond Skyteam Elite+, and vice versa...codesharing creates lots of room for Shena...
Alternatively I have also seen manual seat assignments written in pen on boarding passes to D1 both on normal and non rev boarding passes...in one case the gate agent came on board with the passenger and manually wrote on the manifest given to the purser...I was mildly interested but since I was in a nice seat I didn’t care enough to ask but did ask a friend to pull up the flight manifest later, it showed the seat empty...
i fly out of a large southern city known for its Coca Cola!