I wasn't offering an excuse. Just an explanation. I think for the most part, the GAs are doing a great job. I think many are experienced to handle the load. Others, not so much. But something is going to give if one person is assigned three gates to work with departing and arriving planes. That's why sometimes you arrive at the gate and sit. No one to open the door. Some stations are better than others. With more complaints from the passengers, hopefully the company can do a better job with staffing levels.

A few weeks ago a similar situation happened to me, and I notified DL. Below is my letter to DL and their response:

My letter

I recently flew from A to B via ATL. As a Plat medallion I was upgraded and sat in the F cabin. Although the upgrade list was long, two seats were available in F in flight A to ATL on date1 and another one in flight B on date2.
I do not know why, but similar experiences are being reported by other Medallions on forums such as FlyerTalk. Personally, I find it UNACCEPTABLE that fellow Medallions are denied their upgrades! I encourage DL to go back to the system of a few years ago, when the flight attendants would go into the Y cabin and inform Medallions that a seat was available in F.
Thank you


DL's response

Dear DP-340

RE: Case Number ###

Thank you for sharing your concerns regarding the service provided while traveling with us from A to B via Atlanta. On behalf of everyone at Delta Air Lines, I sincerely apologize for the concern caused with our airport first class standby processing.

I am truly sorry for the concern caused when you observed vacant first class seats on your recent flights and you feel the upgrade process is not consistently applied and that your fellow Medallion members are being denied their upgrades. I researched one of your flights in order to determine what may have occurred. Our records indicate that on flight B from Atlanta to Los Angeles on date2, there were 21 people on the stand-by list for first class. Of those 21, only 5 showed up and were accommodated in the forward cabin. Regrettably, I am unable to provide a general statement as to why this may be occurring.

Additionally, we appreciate receiving your suggestions on how to improve our airport standby upgrade procedures. Many customers share their feedback with us, and these observations oftentimes form the basis for improvements in our service. Be assured I will be sharing your suggestions with our SkyMiles Marketing and Airport Customer Service
leadership teams for internal follow up.

DP-340, we value your support as a Platinum Medallion member. Thank you for taking the time to write about your recent upgrade experiences.
Be assured, we will make every attempt to serve you well; we are focused on the future and look forward to our continued business relationship.

Sincerely,

Cindy Bachand
Coordinator, Customer Care
Delta Air Lines/KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

Sounds a lot like a river in Egypt to me!

OK. IAC I think we should:

1. complain to DL when we see that there are empty seats up front on DOM flights and
2. request that FA be again allowed to upgrade passengers to FC when empty seats are available

As a backup give the FA a copy of the upgrade list so a plane never leaves with empty seats. I had this happen to me. I was sitting in the baulkhead, I saw the empty FC seats and I was waiting for the GA to come on and do the upgrades. That was a few years back. ON CO now on flight status you can see how many FC seats are open and the upgrade priority list. Only one issue, they do sell FC seats at the last minunte giving
people the opportunity to get a confrmed FC seat at a cost.

I have seen plenty of empty F seats recently with nobody on the UG list and they tried to sell UGs at the gate ... w/o success. Of course in the good old days I could have gotten a companion UG for my wife, but Delta being 'best in class' doesn't do this anymore

We all have to report this behavior to Delta, this is the only way it's going to improve.

+ 1

Translation: Rule 1: the customer is always wrong and can't possibly understand our procedures. When in doubt, refer back to rule one.

I too think it should be reported. Not to try to get any one in trouble, but if this particular GA gets in the habit of ignoring the UG list and gets no feedback good or bad, it will become too easy to ignore it in the future.

I would prefer they be coached in ensuring that the UG list is processed whenever possible given the need to dispatch a flight on time. No need for a reprimand or "letter in the personnel file" sort if thing, just a reminder that UGs absolutely need to be done, time permitting.

Maybe really big guy bought 3 FC seats and other seats were unavailable?

Or Ivana Trump buying up the surrounding seats again. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...377-today.html

I agree, it should be reported by all of us. Personally, I think it is happening a lot. I have only flown Delta 8 times since 1/1/2010 (I am now sending a lot of my business elsewhere these days) but I have seen already 4 times out of 8, a long upgrade list and empty seats in FC.

The first time I thought it was a computer error or something like that. The second time a medallion was allowed to leave the cabin after everyone boarded, talked to the GA, and came back with a brand new FC boarding card! The 3rd and 4th time I was angry and complained to DL (as reported above).

Thanks for the entertaining link. I was hospitalized at the time & completely missed this story.

On most outstantions you cannot even see the upgrade/cleared list, so it is often hard to tell (once you are upgraded). It is just the tip of an iceberg ... no idea how bad it is. My guess is that most DM/PMs are not seeing much of this, but GM/FO are really affected by such behaviors.