Hi everyone,

I don't normally post merely because most things seem to be covered on this board but I'm interested to see if anyone has ever had
anything like the following experience:

I was checking in at Stansted Airport for my flight to Amsterdam with KLM-uk. The airport was incredibly busy (probably dealing with 'catch-up' flights from the previous day's ATC disruptions) - luckily the Royal/Silver/Flexi line was non-existent with the exception of the couple actually being checked in. So I waited, relieved that I wasn't to suffer the long, long lines in the economy check-in, especially as I had travelled on the Stansted Express, which inevitably "wasn't" and took much longer than advertised. As I went to greet the check-in clerk, I was tapped on the shoulder :

"Excuse me, we've been waiting for half an hour, you've just jumped the queue."

Er, no - you are in "that" queue. I'm in "this" queue.

"No - this is the queue - you just jumped in"

No, you, er, don't understand - this is a
frequent flyer check...

"No, you jumped the queue - all these people
are waiting"

and so on...

Anyway, the check-in clerk was very good and explained the situation but it wasn't good enough and the gentleman stepped back muttering "Who does he think he is" type sentiment - of course, seeing as 50% of the people on the flight were in the queue at the time I was extremely self-conscious on the plane!

So - over to everyone else! Anyone with similar experiences whilst flying?



[This message has been edited by steadman (edited 05-21-2002).]

You are not alone! My wife and I were checking in at Montego Bay with AA. Lines were horrendous - finally found a poorly marked F line. Got into it same situation as you. Had some loud mouth yelling at me from the economy line saying that the line was over there. I pointed out the sign to him. His response was that in America (never mind that we were in Jamaica) everyone is equal! I ignored him and went ahead checking in. As luck would have it as we were walking down the concourse - he was walking near us - I enjoyed the look on his face as we went into the lounge!

Had the same thing happen to me at PHX with AA. Economy line was about 75 people deep, and noone in First Class line. Walk up to FC and wait until an agent becomes available and he walks over to the FC check in area. People in Economy line give me the "stink eye" and start asking what I think I am doing. The agent handled it for me, saying that since I was in the elite line, he had waved me over and was taking care of a special situation for me that only he could handle.......actually just checked me in for my flight. But it calmed down everyone else. I was very appreciative that I didn't have to justify why I was able to jump in front of all of them and he did it for me.

When I flew on UA out of Taipei in late March, I was deposited at the threshold of terminal 1 by the "Dalmatian Dog" bus and found myself standing at the beginning of a very long coach/non-frequent flyer line. Given that I was a 1K travelling in F, I had already figured out on my own that I was in the wrong place but just in case there was any doubt, another passenger shouted out "the back of the line is that way!"

I simply replied that I was looking for the back of my line, not the back of his line as I glimpsed the empty F-class check-in around the corner.

As this thread isn't tied into mileage, I'm going to move it to the "TravelBuzz" board.

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Craig6z
Buzz & United Moderator
[email protected]