I_Can_Fly_US_Airways

Anybody ever had this happen to them...

Flying DEN>YWG last week (metal was a CRJ, aka The Devil's Chariot). I get to the gate about a minute before the flight is about board (now that's perfect timing in my humble opinion) and line up on the Red Carpet.

The rather brutish looking GA, looks me straight in the eye & says..."We're not using the Red Carpet today as to make it easier for the Duty Free guy" You'll be boarding with Group 1". Huh???

You mean the Duty free guy MIGHT have to take one extra step to hand me my duty free purchase. At this point, 2 thoughts go off in head...

#1. No big deal. (Pre Flyer Talk)
#2. BATTLE Time!

So, I politely (and rather loudly say to the agent) "You expect me to board with The Gate Lice"??? Oh the look she gave me us was great (-;

She was actaully speachless for a second! While she was trying to think of a retort, I looked at her again and politely said "Wow, that's a policy change I was unaware of? Why don't we get a Global Services Supervisor down here so she can clarify? It was like holding a cross to vampire (-:

She then REVISED her announcement to says that "1K & Global Services members will be boarding thru the Red Carpet"....

GA=0, Smart Ft'er=1

pigx5

Last week, I was at F gate to board a plane to come home.
I was late so they were boarding Group 2.
But, everyone who was not GS nor 1K was boarded through Red Carpet.

exerda

I have seen UX GAs board even full CR7s with general boarding calls () before. Not unexpected, but annoying nonetheless.

But the "duty free" excuse is a new one to me!

gengar

Yep, I've also been on a few CRJ flights where they did free-for-all boarding. Very annoying when overhead space becomes an issue.

The new thing at UX T2 in ORD (experienced on my last 3 trips through there) is lumping GS/1K/1P into Zone 1 and boarding all of Zone 1 at the same time.

cwe84

I can remember when i worked gate in ROA we had flights to ORD that were all GS/1k/1P.

exerda

Weird thing is that most of my ROA-IAD and v-v flights had no elites at all, or at most a couple, regardless of days/times I flew (those two, despite that I haven't flown them in a couple of years, remain my top routes by # of flights to this day ). Guess the ORD route was the opposite (I only flew that one a handful of times).

todorovic

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry 9000 (Bold): BlackBerry9000/4.6.0.297 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.1.20.0)

I'm sure everyone was congratulating you and wanted to be your next BFF after the "gate lice" comment.

murphyUA

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 8.12; MSIEMobile 6.0) 320x240; VZW; UTStar-XV6175; Window Mobile 6.1 Standard

Now, now...I thought it was pretty funny (Not that I would have done it)!

Overall, it wouldn't have been a big deal if there hadn't been red carpet boarding because the OP was already at the front of the line. It's the fact that the GA made up some stupid excuse that would get me mad.

elitetraveler

Wow, if I heard somebody say that, I would have thought, "wow, what an axxhole."

I hope you didn't really say that.

LessO2

Good grief, was this really necessary?

I don't blame the GA for being speechless. I'm sorry, this is not only embarrassing, but this angers me.

The GA did something wrong, no question about that, but your behavior was even worse. Where do I start?

Since your flight was one minute from boarding, a good majority of your fellow passengers were there in the boarding area. And you called them all "Gate Lice?" Which chapter in "How To Win Friends And Influence People" was that from?

Again, the GA was wrong on the red carpet thing. But the proper response would have been to suck it up and actually call Global Services after the fact and let them deal with it. And it would be likely she wouldn't pull that again.

Classic case of winning the battle but not winning the war. By your boorish behavior, you "fixed" your problem, but you did not assure that this will not be a problem for other people (including Flyer Talkers).

Thanks a lot for that, as if our privileges aren't watered down enough, you go "do you know who I am" all over this GA who will likely think negatively on UA elites in the future.

Over walking on a red carpet.

Seriously?

SkiAdcock

The 2nd response re: the change in policy was appropriate, given it pointed out what the policy was & GA wasn't following it. The gate lice comment - not cool unless it was obviously said in a joking manner that all would understand. If not, then put me in the I would have thought someone saying that was a jerk camp.

Cheers.

cheepneezy

I consider this an embarrassment to FT.



+1.

drummingcraig

*That* was appropriate and all that needed to be said.

If you did indeed preceed the former with this comment......a bit uncalled for, regardless of any humor you may have seen in it. And folks wonder why the traveler is often treated with disdain by the frontline employees...

I just hope you weren't flying an FT baggage tag on your carry-on.

MileHighGuy

50 bucks says he had his flyertalk logo on too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JerryFF

I've had numerous problems with UX GA's at DEN. Here's one a friend had -

He had a ticket on South African Airways from Johannesburg to IAD, connecting to United from IAD to DEN to BIL. All 3 BPs were issued by SA in JNB. Flew SA to IAD, cleared customs, rechecked bags with UA in IAD through to BIL, and flew to DEN.

Then, when he went to board UX from DEN to BIL, GA said his BP was not valid and he should have had a paper ticket! He argued for almost 15 minutes, pointed out that he had already flown UA from IAD to DEN and that UA at IAD had checked his bags through to BIL. Finally, just as they were about to close the door, she let him on. Unbelievable.