Stripe

An excellent post. I hope your "greener pastures" involve writing. You certainly do it well.

I wonder how your experience compares to GA's at other airlines.

rw55

There's more information here about how this all really works than all the articles I've read in the past 10 years. ^

The only complaint I have is that it's clear from the description, like the fact that there the GA as a ton of decisions to make, like doing a whole series of upgrades before it shifts to gate control, because he/she knows that more people will check into Y, that I can't control it. There's a lot of peace in that realization.

Can we come up with a new top 10 ways to get an op up?

1. be lucky
2. pick the right flight
3. have status
4. have a "dim" GA, and use the "top ten" from the magazine

ORD4R

Great Post - Thanks for sharing your wisdom

DullesJason

I'm sure many times you knew the exact status of people who got op-upped when you didn't, but perhaps at times you didn't quite know for sure? I used to have customers make assumptions about why I was giving business class out to them and not other people and their assumptions often weren't correct, etc. It's hard to tell as an observer. BUT. . . I think the discrepency is explained by the fact that some agents are big believers that all the full C fares should move up to F ahead of anyone on a D or Z, regardless of status.

I've always wondered how and where you resourceful travelers get cheap Z class tickets. I might wanna join that party. Is there a handy thread? I usually only see expensive stuff on Orbitz and Travelocity. I'm still kinda new to this revenue ticket game.

OK, to the paid-ups thread, but why wait? YOU can start the thread and I will answer questions. Deal?

Make sure to let me know when the thread comes into existence. I miss a lot that gets posted on FT.

Excellent question. I like how you refer to it as a dance as that's often how it seems.

As to whether a couple is skipped--generally, no. If the need is just for just one seat, then whether the couple is skipped sort of depends on the agent. If there is a competing customer on the list behind the couple with the same status and same booking code, many skip. But if the couple is around and answers the boarding call the first time, I pretty much always gave the couple the opportunity to split up and let one person take the upgrade.

There are plenty of times when more than one Y seat is still needed and when you get the couple on the list together with the same status level, it's great for the agent because it's like killing two birds with one stone. Different status levels for the couple? The higher ranking one gets offered one seat.

Usually there is not enough time to "wait" and know anything "for sure." The flights where you have time to wait and know things for sure are the flights where operational upgrades are not needed or given.

Split statuses--no. If I had 2 seats and the next person on the list was a 1K who was traveling with his 2P wife, the 1K gets the seat. The next 1K on the list got the 2nd and last seat.

Wow. I didn't expect so much action so soon. I was gonna watch a DVD before going to bed tonight but it looks like that's not going to happen! But that's fine, I'm happy to answer questions.

I wrote the long post in a basic text editor on my computer, but for curiosity, I pasted the text of the long post in Word and looked at the word count. It was exactly 4,300 words! Yikes. I wonder if I'll end up doubling that by the time I've answered questions.

OK, I'm pan-searing a tuna steak. I'll be right back.

Jakebeth

DullesJason - THIS is why we love FT! Thank you SO much for taking the time to write that out. I know I speak for many of us when I say I really, truly appreciate it!

couscous

Great post !! Thanks for the insight. ^

WindFlyer

Thanks for your very informative post ^


I wish more agents thought like you on this... few things annoy me more than having UA waitlist my upgrade for months, only to clear at the gate (with certs taken), and then see op-ups are handed out...

pkx

Holy crap!

Thank you very much for taking the time to make this post and putting it all into perspective!

woodway

Great post, great thread. Should be dropped into the UA FAQ.

Thanks Jason!

DullesJason

Thanks, but United will just simply have to make do without many agents like me. United is okay with that, I'm sure. By 2006 it wasn't the same airline or environment it was when I was hired in 1997 (started gates in 2000) If they paid me/us more, perhaps I'd still be holding out and working there--it can be as little as only 4 hrs a day (5.5 hours when you count commuting and employee parking--I only live 15 miles away).

With staff cuts on top of pay cuts on top of benefit cuts, it eventually got to the point where, for me, it wasn't worth it anymore. And very tiring too, both physically and mentally. I'm reminded of something one of my first trainers back in 1997 told me: "United wants its money." Of course they do, so sometimes having good agents isn't worth the cost. It's not like United wasn't smart enough to realize that many good people would leave. The exodus of good employees has not been unsubstantial, but there are plenty of gate agents who remain that are excellent and who are better than I was. The feather in United's cap in this regard is many people are "addicted" (for lack of a better term) to the airline industry. I was one of those people. But I got over it eventually. Not to sound overly dramatic or anything, but it took me many years of thinking about it before I pried myself away from that job--which I enjoyed, most of the time. Eventually I was able to convince myself I had to go. Staying would have had serious repercussions in areas like funding my retirement, etc.

That's not to say I was/am bitter (except some outrageous senior executive compensation activities at a time the company was losing money) because I understood all along that the dynamics of the industry changed. I don't regret working there, or the lost opportunities and income. But I also don't regret leaving.

hiyo

Thanks for the great post and the PM calling my attention to it. I hope you continue sharing your "Stories from the other side of the podium," which is one brilliant turn of phrase. ^

DullesJason

The magician to whom you refer is, as you might have guessed, the gate agent. I did it like that too. Let's day IAD-CDG is 12-49-197 capacity and booked at 9-42-236. Not uncommon. If I look at the flight 3-4 hours before departure I can usually tell that I will need to do *at least* say, 7 upgrades. So after dinner, I might want to go ahead and upgrade 7 to start off with, even before some of them have checked in. There are things in the reservation that can tell us whether you're likely to show up for check-in. A proactive gate agent does it like this. Some before check in, some during boarding.

So next time you check in and you've been upgraded for free at the counter, chances are a strong gate agent is working as the lead on your flight--and was planning it in advance of your check in time. But these days it's less common for that to happen as gate agents have less down time between flight to "pre-plan" in this manner.

sftrvlr

Wow! Excellent post. Thank you.

UA840

Can you elaborate? What would some of these indicators be? Does UA keep statistics on individual passengers show/no-show rates (that would be impressive)?

As a previous poster noted, this thread should be added to the sticky. Mods...

Thanks again DJ, great and informative post. I would love to see some more "GAs Perspective" threads from you. ^

linsj

This is the kind of factual information that makes FlyerTalk so valuable. Thanks, DullesJason.