Hi all,
I wanted to get FT's thoughts on what the proper etiquette is when clearing an upgrade at the gate just before boarding. If paged by name, should you wait behind the line at the desk, or approach the agent making the announcement directly?

I encountered the following situation this past weekend:

My upgrade cleared at the gate a few minutes before boarding was due to begin, and I was paged by name to re-check for my new boarding pass. I was the only person to clear. There were three GAs at the desk working the flight, and I walked up to the paging agent while she was still making the announcement with my old boarding pass and ID ready. Unfortunately, the agent never looked up at me and walked off towards the jetbridge door.

There was a long line of passengers waiting for help from another GA at the desk, and one of the waiting passengers took it upon himself to remind me there was a line. I turned around to explain myself, but the GA handling the line immediately asked me for my name and handed me my new boarding pass.

I completely accept it if I'm in the wrong here, but wondered how the veterans here would approach it. Thanks for any responses!

Just say "they just paged me"

In this specific case I'd just go into the boarding line based on the new seat assignment. The BP reader will remind them to give you the new BP. Or just mention it at that time.

The optics of cutting in front of others in the line just isn't worth it IMO.

First, don't engage with other passengers. You don't owe them an explanation for anything. Just ignore them.

Second, you haven't told us which carrier, but it's more than likely that as noted above, you can simply claim the new seat assignment as you board.

Ignore the line. You were paged, and your business is between you and the GA.

I like the suggestion of going though the BP reader as a low-impact way for getting your new BP, but "optics" shouldn't really matter in this case.

Knowing the page was for an upgrade I would get in the queue and wait. If paged a second time, while waiting in the line I would approach the desk. If a complete mess and they called my boarding zone I would board telling the GA handing the BP that I was paged and hope the scanner does the upgrade.

That said some airlines, like Delta often have a screen with a cleared list. So no paging is required.

Since she wouldn't look up like a kind human normally would, I would have followed her to the jet bridge door and politely ask her for the new boarding pass.

On united, you can refresh your mobile boarding pass in the app to get your upgraded BP.

Or sometimes not. The app, like all else with UA is flakey. I recently had both an upgrade come through and also a gate change. Nothing I did would refresh the mobile boarding pass. In my case I just had them print me one at the club.

In the pre-mobile-app world, the GA usually had the new BP's printed before they paged the upgradees. No need to queue...you just say "you paged me..."