45 minute CUT OFF--Dont be late!

[USFlyer]

Well I think in a previous post I said that if you were having kiosk trouble or something airline related that YOU were not in control of then a consideration should be made. The company should then make every attempt to get you on your original flight.

Well, and another agent said just the same thing. He kind of had the "oh that agent is a pain" attitude, so who knows. All I know is in the end the US1 desk and the second agent came through, but that in the beginning I was at the mercy of US's poor systems and staffing models.

 

[tadjr]

Other airlines DO have cutoffs and they are different in each city. I know from first hand experience that several of the airlines in my city DO NOT waive the cutoff for anyone. You're late, too bad. (I missed my flight and they said to see if you'd take my ticket).
I think its interesting (and I was thinking about this just today) how customers seem to think that we dont talk amongst ourselves (airline agents or employees in general). This NEVER happens on airline X. Funny, the Airline X employee on the bus this morning said they had a customer who said the same thing about Airline Y who said the same thing.....
There arent any US agents married to NW agents or DL flight attendants or former US agents who now work for B6/WN/KX or current US agents who worked for FL/CO/NW.
We dont all ride the same employee bus in and get to talk to each other about work. We dont all eat in the same employee cafeteria and hear about each others work. We never go to the other airlines breakrooms to meet with friends and hear about work. We never socialize outside work and hear or talk about work.
Every carrier does it. Some may be able to "work their system" like we used to, but people dont know when to be appreciative that we managed to get them on with 20 mins to spare and they must come get their bags that didnt make TSA screening and the trip to the ramp so now everyone gets to suffer if you are 1 minute past the POSTED cutoff that can be found online or obtained at the airport or rez.

 

[USFlyer]

And I think it's interesting that airlines don't seem to realize that customers fly many carriers and see the glaring differences among them. Again, you're blaming customers for being unable to meet our reasonable expectations. Kiosk didn't work, no staff available to help, missed the cutoff as a result by 30 secs. This is not reasonable.

And, yes, others have cutoffs, but there is discretion, not "working the system". Do I regularly expect to show up 25 mins before departure in every city and be able to make my flight? Not if I'm checking luggage, yes if I checked in online. But, I did show up 40 mins beforehand and spent 10 mins fiddling with US's poor systems and lack of staff before I gave up and got in another line.

Compare this ... talk to other airlines about their technology. NW's kiosks and web site have NEVER, repeat NEVER, failed for any transaction I've needed. US's kiosks routinely bomb, the web site is barely functional, etc.