Every time I see something like this, it amazes me that some people still have a very narrow view of what a frequent flyer or first class passenger should look like.

I was waiting for the boarding announcement for a DFW-ORD flight yesterday evening. The usual bustle of activity 10 paces from the red carpet is building up when these two guys, both dressed very casually, one with a backpack and one with a small rollaboard become the first to actually walk onto the red carpet. Two seconds later, some fellow is all up their butt with "This lane is for First class and elites only". One of the guys replies "I know - I'm allowed to be in this line" and turned round to continue speaking with the other. Then the fellow says again in a much louder tone, presumably so that the GA could hear him "If you are not in First class you need to line up over there [points to the boarding line without the red line]. This time both guys hold up their boarding passes to show the guy that they are First Class passengers. He shuts up.

Best part though is when the GA calls Global Services and First Class, the two guys board then the obnoxious guy presents his BP. The GA tells him "We'll be boarding our hundred thousand mile fliers after our Global Service and First Class passengers have had the chance to get settled in their seats." Those of us still waiting to board had a good laugh at his expense.

Evidently, the GA DID hear him.

Sad sad sad... Stay tuned for my painful experiment very soon.

On a related note....(as I typically am wearing jeans, t-shirt, beanie, etc....ANYTHING but business attire when I travel).

Myself and a fellow musician were flying SNA-ORD-JAX, all in upgraded F on the 26th (guitar bag & trumpet case in tote-adding to the "vagabond" look). Sensing that boarding was about to begin, we moved over to the area near the red carpet, but not IN/ON the red carpet. We were certainly some of the first folks to move up to prepare for boarding, as as usual the "px circle" formed around us as others moved in to prepare for the inevitable stampede.

Note that at this point no clear line had formed.

The GA calls boarding for GS, F and 1K and of course the stampede began. We were patiently making our way up to the beginning of the red carpet and this woman comes out of nowhere and begins to push her way in front of me. At first I didn't yield to her intentions, but then she turned and looked at me and started to say "first", as in: "Excuse me, I'm in first class". But as she was turning her head she looked right at my BP, saw that I was in F as well and buttoned her lips. I stopped and waved her in front of me with a very animated hand gesture and a loud, "By all means, after you".

My buddy and I laughed, and then enjoyed our flight sitting behind her as she ate her humble pie.

Very funny story indeed.

Sadly, there are many F pax out there that fit the profile of "the man" to a tee. That's why I hate waiting by the red carpet, because so many people, it seems, are trying to get a peek of the next guy over's boarding pass. Seriously, it's as if people never outgrew the high school locker room (pardon the pun ).

As I don't have the corporate look, and prefer to board late, once last year I was mistaken as an NRSA. But it was a TED flight so I blew it off.

last week from SFO-EWR there was a SIBT standing on the blue carpet for a good 45 minutes before scheduled boarding. Good thing he was actually in First.

I've learned you can never judge status or class on the plane by looks. I've seen some biker looking guys in F and I've seen some Walmart looking people in F. I'm usually not in F so if I'm not boarding anyway I have no room to call someone out on status.

If I see a big 3 or 4 on someone's BP and they are trying to sneak in I still don't really say something or I make a comment like "there sure are a lot of elites/F pax on this flight." delta posts who cleared on a monitor so you use your existing BP to board and a new bp prints then.

Not my place to enforce anything since you usually end up with egg on your face.

Are you saying you don't participate in the 'post your Elite Qualifying Miles' threads?

Really? No, seriously, how big is yours??

If I would put a 1 dollar bill for every time I had experience judgement because I dont look like a FC pax... I will have bought a Quantas F tix from LAX to SYD, and still have some money left for a nice dinner....

My most recent story goes like this....I woke up late on Sunday morning and I barely made it to my flight from LGA-IAH-SNA. I was dressing very sport, with my sweater from my L.A University and jeans; anyways... everything went fine from LGA-IAH....

Now, in IAH when the GA announced that FC passengers "only" can start boarding, I was 2nd in line... suddenly this "woman" cuts me off and in a very arrogant way gives her BP to the agent... the GA declines to take her BP and told her "We are boarding FC only", the woman in a very upset way answered: "I’m FC"... then, the GA replied her: "So those people in line, we just started boarding FC, so go back to the line"...
The woman continued her arrogance and told the GA “Are all those people in FC…?” (Looking at me and the rest of the passengers…like we were less than her)
The GA replied: “Yes, so please go back to the line” (The GA was upset for her arrogant behavior too)…
In the FC cabin this “woman” ended up sitting next to me, when we sat, she started talking to me and trying to apologize… I was very upset, I didn’t feel like talking to such an arrogant person so I put my noise cancelling headphones and ignored her the whole 3 hours flight into SNA.

It upsets me that people like this woman, think that because "we don’t dress up for FC", "we look like college students", and "we are not white"... we can not possibly flight in F, or afford to pay for it...
So...don’t judge people for their looks!! or for the way they dress... You can be surprise…

Photo of First Class Passenger

Over 1.4 million miles logged in First Class. A week from tonight I'll be in 2K on a British Airways 747. The beard's been trimmed a wee bit since the photo, though...

I don't get too much of it. But I'm on short hops all the time (rks-den-dfw).

Jeans would be dressing up some days.

Another trip report to look forward to?

It's happened to me a few times. I always get the 'oh, what a spoilt brat ' sneer when they find out I'm really in J/F.

Cheers,

You're saying you pay for your own plane tickets then, right?

I go out of my way to look like complete garbage when I travel as it decreases the level of harassment I receive from the TSA.

I find my old Adidas track suit and rubber sandles is the most effective TSA repellant. The young woman with her boobs falling out behind me gets a secondary, the guy ahead of me trying to look like he escaped from a fashion show gets his carry-on emptied and I sail on through with multiple freedom baggie violations undetected.

What do you mean by "Walmart looking people". By saying that you are no better than the person who assumes you cannot be in FC because of the way you look.
I think you need to take that back.