Veeerrrry interrresting… seems like it’s at least worth a try. I had enough FF points to upgrade to first class on the way there (whooohooo! I’ve never done this before!) but not for the way back. Maybe it’ll be worth a shot to be nice and ask for it. I’ll keep you guys updated.
As a dependent of airline employee, I flew standby on a national US carrier back and forth during my college years for nearly 100 flight legs. Though a majority of the time I was happy to just get a seat (ANY seat), I found that the following worked for me. YMMV.
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Get to the gate early. EARLY early, several hours early. I did this as it helped (very little) in the standby process. I’d greet the agent, chat during slow periods, and make myself known.
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Dress the part, as numerous people have already said. This wasn’t an issue for me as I had to dress the part if I hoped to get a standby seat on a crowded plane anyway. Shower. Be clean-shaven. Don’t put on a walkman with loud music while you wait.
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Smile. Be polite. Don’t be too aggressively friendly. Say “please” and “thank you”. Mentioning the bad luck you’ve had traveling sometimes works, but don’t blame the airline you’re currently flying on. “Man, the baggage handlers on my last flight with you just sucked. I’m having a horrible day.” doesn’t really endear you to them.
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Be lucky. What worked for me coming back from Sweden was to struggle through the conversation in Swedish, even though the agent’s English was probably better than mine. I smiled a little unsteadily, stumbled over saying “I’ve had a great time in Stockholm, my Swedish is not too good, is there any room in first class?”
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And finally, don’t be upset if you don’t get it. You’re hoping for a free upgrade. If they say “Sorry, no room” and insist you take your seat in coach, even though there may be seats in first class left available, just accept it and move on. They’re losing money on you taking a first class seat and giving you first class service and only receiving coach class fare from you.
I have never been on a plane that has first class…
But if you work for British Airlines & do standby, you can fly from UK to USA first class roundtrip $75.00
I have received a surprise upgrade a couple of times, both on international flights.
Both times, I was traveling with a female companion, and we were (I guess) acting like a stereotypical “happy couple.” We were also being friendly and patient with the gate agents.
I don’t think there is a system or sure fire way of getting a free upgrade. It all depends on how busy the flight is, how you carry yourself and the mood of the agent at the desk.
I travelled between S.F. and Toronto for 2 and a half years every other weekend, while my wife would travel the same route the opposite weekends - so that we were together on weekends despite me having to work in California and her in Toronto.
We got to be such familiar faces in the crowd with the check-in agents that they got to know us by name. We collected massive amounts of air miles but after the first few months, getting upgraded to business/first was an automatic thing as long as there was at least one seat available. We paid coach and flew first class almost 80% of the time. The airline appreciated our business and took care of us.
In our experience, frequent flying on is the best and most reliable way of getting an upgrade. Though I wouldn’t call it free, you wouldn’t believe our travel expenses per month. Fortunately, my client covered these expenses.
Not to be a bitch, but, seriously? Am I the only one that is bothered about this comment?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Sapphire Bullet *
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Just to clarify –
I was most certainly NOT condoning my parents’ behavior! I should have been more clear. Sorry for the confusion.
I totally agree that yelling at the agent is wrong. It’s not their fault if the flight is overbooked or delayed, and as a former waitress, I am all to aware of the paybacks overly complaining customers are apt to get…
–tygre
Una, well I figure it depends if its a statement of fact, or a justification of such a act. I take it as the former. And since damn near every service industry operates on this type of code (if merely to keep unruly customers in line) the threat (idle or not) comes as no suprise to anyone.
If she’s trying to express that she condones this act by her colleguage then we can feel free to flame away. Two wrongs et al.
Sigh. Yes, you are correct, and I knew that, What bothered me is that it appeared that the action of tampering with food and drink in retaliation for being rude was being put forward as an accepted “fact of life”, and this by a “former agent for American Airlines”. Doing this is wrong, in any service industry.
I posted long ago about many of the atrocities that happened to me in my nearly 5 years delivering pizzas to pay for college. I suffered many times the abuse than any airline ticket personnel have had to.
And yet, somehow I never thought that tampering with a cutomer’s food was an accepted form of retaliation. In fact, I caught a fellow employee one night who was putting sawdust in a pizza, and had him fired as a result. I caught another one about to put Skittles candies in a pizza, and stopped that immediately. Tampering with food can make someone seriously ill, and should be punishable by jail time if members of the flight crew ever did do that. Or a pizza delivery driver or cook, for that matter.
That’s my only point. These are things that should not be a fact of life. They may be, but they should not be. People should not be rude to the ticket agent, but they are. This is wrong, but dealing with unruly customers, for better or for worse, is part of their job. Same goes for the flight crew - dealing with unhappy and unruly customers is part of their job. It’s a very bad part, true, and the rude and unruly bastards should be punished very severely under the legal remedies already available to the airline and it’s employees.
Maybe one has to go on as many bad flights as I have to get indignant about being treated poorly by the airlines and their employees, I don’t know. In any event, I guess this post fits the bill for this forum - IMHO. Perhaps it’s because I am never rude to the ticket agents or flight crew that I am so upset when they are rude to me? Perhaps I will be starting a Pit thread in about an hour or so? Who knows?
Okay, that’s good to know. OOC, though, would the agent at the gate been perfectly within her rights to tell me that I was too late and that I’d have to catch the next flight? If so, damn, I wish I could go back and thank her, consideration like that is hard to find…
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by tygre *
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Tygre-don’t worry. Rest assured, I definitely did NOT believe that you did.
Whoa. I go away for awhile and all hell breaks loose! 
I definitely do not condone this kind of behavior. Unfortunately, in any service industry you have to worry about being held hostage by the worker if you tick them off. Let me be clear: I have never witnessed this type of behavior from American Airlines employees, but everyone hears stories. My comment was simply a statement of fact. You can’t trust people anymore. I think it’s disgusting.
Great response Sapphire, and I agree. Thank you very much.
Una
Let me just throw in a small fact…it’s highly unlikely an airline attendant could mess with someone’s food. Unless you’re already in first/business class. If not, the food is pre-wrapped on trays, and the flight attendants just pop the hot item into an oven to warm it up, then add it to your tray. The hot sections are still foil wrapped when it gets to you. There is usually NO prep done on food for coach onboard the airline.
Just my $.02.
I’ll just quickly add that in all my travels (admittedly not anything near what a business traveller does) I find it very unlikely that the busy and detatched ticket agent would commuicate with the flight attendants. Of course I’m used to big busy airports like Denver, Dallas and O’Hare. I suppose in closer knit terminals the story might be different, but I personally am not going to lose sleep over it. But then again I am typially a very pleasant traveller since I’m usually on a leisurely vacation too.
Actually, there is a high level of communication btw GATE agents and the flight crew. It is the only way to ensure an on-time departure. You are right, tho- the tkt agents have no way of telling the crew directly, but they can put a msg in the passenger’s record that the gate agent sees and can then pass olong to the flight crew. We have our ways…mwa-haa haaa haaaaaa
I used to work at airport security. The txt agent would take care of the customers, and then head back to a radio and talk to the crew about baggage weight and passenger placement.
Many a time, the txt agent would say something like…“you’ve got a real winner in seat F-19, shake his beer or tell him you don’t have any pillows left if he asks.” It really happened quite often.
Perhaps it was just with the twits that ran AirBC??
…but, with the very real possibility that I may be flying to Florida in a few weeks (knock on wood), I’d like to ask another question about upgrading to First Class.
If I were to slip the ticket agent a couple of twenties when I showed my I.D. and my ticket, would that help? Or is that a crime of some kind?
Thanks.