Cory6188

I’m generally a pretty big DL fan, but it continually drives me crazy how incredibly unfriendly so many of their ATL GAs are - especially for their flagship hub (not that it should matter which airport they work at!).

I flew BOG-ATL-BDL, and BOG-ATL came in a bit early. I wanted to try and get on an earlier ATL-BDL flight, but it was super tight, so I called the DM line while on the ATL Plane Train from F to A rather than even take a moment at the counter after ATL immigration. The agent was awesome, and moved mountains to get me a confirmed seat on the earlier BDL flight. She said, “You’ll need to go to the gate agent to get her to finish up your ticket, but you have a seat - I can hold on while you head to the gate, if you’d like.” Super, super helpful.

I get to the gate for ATL-BDL, give the GA my original BP, and she dramatically sighs and says to the other GA, “Why does reservations always have to do this?” She sighed again, asked me for my ID, and totally ignored me when I tried to thank her while she continued to mutter to the other GA at the gate with her until she just pointed at the scanner.

I realize ATL is the antithesis of relaxed to work at, but I’m just continually amazed how antagonistic the ATL staff can be compared to…any other DL station.

Is it a big deal, no, not remotely - yes, I made it on to the flight, safely arrived, etc, but it just puzzles me that DL either can’t or doesn’t care to try and focus on the experience there.

Anyway, I know there have been a ton of comments here on FT to this effect over the years, so rant over - just adding on to the pile!

Mr. Tickets

I will venture a guess here. GA's can be very busy and their time is tight trying to keep a flight on time, doing upgrades, rearranging seats etc. They are also not always fully trained to reissue tickets. I would think the issue is the DM line is at fault. They should have completed what had to be done (reissue the ticket or whatever). They have a bit more time and if they don't know how to do it, they can call a help desk. If they had told me to let the GA finish it, I would have insisted the DM agent complete it. Of course, there could have been other issues.

UnevenGray

GAs are very territorial about when they're working a flight. It's their flight. Especially if it means a "delay" to D0, then the delay code blame game happens. Is it on Res for making this last minute change? Is it on the GA? Is it on someone else? All of that adds fuel to the fire where GAs don't want anyone messing with "their" flight to protect their own metrics.

Cory6188

That’s extremely fair, and I totally appreciate the time pressure GAs operate under. I think I was just aggravated at how many frustrating experiences I’ve had in ATL over the years I haven’t run into at DTW, MSP, or anywhere else, for that matter, and it was just yet another example.

Ordhater

To be fair, most of the gate agents in ATL are great, but the few bad apples tend to be the most memorable. And every bad experience with a gate agent that I can remember was in ATL. I once arrived there on a badly delayed flight but had about 20 minutes to make my connection. The connecting flight showed on time but not yet boarding, which it should have been if it was going to leave on time. So I tried to ask the gate agent at my arrival gate if she could call my departing gate to find out whether they were boarding just so I knew whether or not I needed to run for it. Without letting me finish my question, she interrupted with, "They won't hold the plane." I tried again to make clear that's not what I was asking, and she again wouldn't let me finish my question. Of course, this is ATL, so the flight was actually delayed but not showing that in the system, so I made it with plenty of time.

In contrast, in a similar situation with a very tight connection in MSP (the app did show that plane as boarding), I asked the arrival gate agent to call the departing gate and let them know I was running for it. When I arrived at the departure gate, the agent thanked me for having the other agent call.

underattack

totally agree with the OP. I had a lot of indifferent and sometimes outright incompetent gate agents in ATL. Seems more common in ATL vs. other airports. Mumbled announcements, ignoring passengers, messing up standby issue during IROPS are regular problems in ATL. I guess it may be hard to hire the right people in ATL given the size of the airport? I do find the red coats to be very helpful (if there is one) and rebooking agents in the Skyclub or after immigration are great. Maybe these jobs are preferred and GAs who know what they are doing are moving into these positions quickly in ATL?

ChevyCruze

I thought it’s because the Popeyes chicken in ATL was spicier! /s

Robert Leach

I frankly think that being under the gun to depart on time flight after flight, day after day, wears on them. Maybe they should screen folks better for attitude before selecting them for that position, but if every day you were under the gun to get the flight out on time, without exception, and if you were often there by yourself or with only one other agent, it might not be the stress of any individual transaction, but the cumulative effect of thousands of transactions that just wears you down. Hence, the attitude.

I don't really like it, and I go out of my way to avoid interacting with gate agents because of it, but in a way I do empathize with them. It's not unlike the wear and tear on healthcare workers, where clinically excellent folks can become grumpy.

Orange County Commuter

It’s directly proportional to the number of DYKWIA passengers in Atlanta. After all the passengers in Atlanta are all diamond and they all know all the rules and they all are convinced the gate agents are ripping them off and not giving them upgrades etc.


Considering how often I see passengers with diamond tags hanging off their luggage treating the gate agents like trash I’m not surprised they’re not incredibly nice. sometimes we reap what we sow

diburning

I feel like this is an issue with any airlines' main hubs.

United gate agents at EWR can be rude
American gate agents at DFW can be rude

The grass isn't greener on the other side.

TravelerMSY

As the Freakonomics guys would say, the incentives are all incorrect. Agent incentives are to get the flight out on time. All other goals are secondary, even providing service to a high value customer. No one customer’s business is that important to an airline, no matter what their marketing schemes might suggest.

ull

ATL is too big and too busy. So many things going on and it probably makes people working there frustrated.

unitedbusiness

Absolutely not just you that noticed it… they all seem to be hired on their ability to be the most unhelpful and be the most completely customer UN-friendly.
if you want something; just ask for the complete opposite of it… otherwise, you typically won’t receive what you’re asking for amongst most DL ATL gate agents.

TATLTAIL

I agree with others that it's a difficult job and that there will always be a "bad player" here and there. All of this is based on impressionistic thinking, but FFIW:
- ATL is by far the largest hub, therefore with the most GA. There is a higher probability of running into a not-so-good GA there, as they also must move between different gates, sometimes with no warning (i.e. frustration and time pressures).
- YMMV: it is always about the last impression one had with such things, meaning the most recent input is always the strongest for psychological reasons. This works in the other sense too, e.g. I had a terrific experience in LAX in the past two month, although the ground staff there seems to have a (IMO) not so good reputation.
To me, it always helps to ask, how I would feel if I could imagine myself in that situation? There are a few very bad employees at any large company, but for the most part, it is simply someone having a bad day, often for reasons that aren't clear to the outsider.

hotturnip

I made another post about how none of the counter agents at checkin at the Intl Terminal were able to deal with a simple re-routing issue due to a delayed flight. They were completely flummoxed.

But it's probably true that just because it's such a big hub and so frequented, that you're more likely to run into bad agents.