As I've been reading this forum, it seems that a lot has been said about "East" agents in PHX. I feel it my duty to discuss the "West". My worst experience was this past August. We were flying home (PHL) from Australia and the non-stops from LAX were oversold. The back-up plan was a connection in PHX. Since we had just completed a 14-hour SYD-LAX, we were tired and just wanted to go home. Since we were going to be in the air and unable to "check-in" for the "West" flights, we had arranged for a family member at home to do the on-line check-in 12 hours before the LAX departure.
Upon arrival at LAX, the "East" agents (people I have known for years) confirmed that since things were so heavy (lots of rev standby), non-revs had almost no chance on any of the flights. Therefore, we went to the HP gate to check in for the PHX flight. Since, as a retiree, I have no access to either SABRE or HP's system, I am left with the need to ask questions. Since I worked at the gates for many years and have non-revved for more than 20 years, I know the questions that will quickly give me the best info as to which flights to try for and/or avoid.
There were two PHX flights, 15 minutes apart, at adjoining gates. Havng checked "theHub" before leaving Australia, the later one looked best so I listed us on that one. I was happily willing to "wait my turn" for a seat. Since there was more than an hour till departure, I approached a not-busy male agent at the gate and asked my two questions:
1) How does the PHX-PHL flight look? (It makes no sense to go to PHX if the connection flight is full....)
2) Am I on the list for your flight? (I had gone thru security on an "East" boarding pass and had not checked in at the "West" counter)
He looked at me as if I had insulted him and replied that he had no time for "non-rev problems". I asked for a supervisor and it turns out....he WAS the supervisor! He yelled at me for being in the gate area without having checked in at the counter. I showed him the "East" pass and said that the "West" flights were the back-up. Without answering my two questions, he pointed across the hall and barked, "Take it up with THEM!". Of course, this made no sense as the "East" agents currently have no access to "West" flight loads or lists. Thankfully, I found another "West" agent at another gate who gladly answered my questions. It took her.....maybe a minute or two?
The flights and crews were beautiful but trouble came once again in PHX. Checking-in at the gate for the PHL departure, I was accosted by the gate agent. In front of a long line and a full boarding area, she yelled at me, accusing me of being a retiree. She was apparently upset because I handed her my retiree travel card. It seems that as mentioned above, "East" agents manually list your status whereas I had checked-in for HP using the internet. Nowhere does it ask for status. It seems that the computer had me listed as an employee. Not MY fault! She snatched back the boarding passes and said she would report me for falsifying my status. She also said that she would have to re-list us which would throw us to the bottom of the category, ignoring our FCFS time. She made us sit and wait till the last second (after even the "buddy passes") before angrily calling us and telling us to get on and sit down fast.
Why was I yelled at and treated so poorly twice in one day? In two cities?
From 20+ years of working in the airport, I can only guess. From what I understand, "West" CSAs got a nice pay raise because of the "East". As a retiree (Jan 2006), I know the job as well as the agents I dealt with. I know there is great frustration with heavy flights and too few agents per gate. Since the PHL flight was not oversold and the non-rev list did not fill all of the empty seats, she could have mentioned the issue and asked me to contact the travel office from home.....but there was no excuse for either agent to be rude, angry, or indignant. Non-rev or not, I am still their customer! I can only think that this is another in the continuing "East/West" issues.
To all of you reading here......CUT THE CRAP! Like it or not, we're ONE airline and when we have this "us/them" attitude at someone, non-rev OR rev, it is bad business. Neither CEO asked us if we wanted to become one airline and the decisions of the future are being made without much of our input. As Doug Parker made perfectly clear recently (and is a topic in another message board), for many of you, this is no longer a career.....simply a job.
I was in ORD a few weeks ago and they swapped the gate for the PHL and PHX flights from their usual terminals. ("East" uses F-Terminal and "West" uses E-terminal.) Since, like a few other "frequent fliers" I was used to F. I had not paid attention to the boarding pass that clearly said "E" and went to F-8. At 15 minutes to departure a few of us thought it odd that there were no agents at the gate, there was no plane, and the flight was not posted. A few went to the next gate where the "West" agents were boarding the PHX flight. As a man asked if they knew anything about the PHL flight, a male agent yelled at the man (a revenue passenger!) that that was one of "THEIR" flights and "Just check the monitors......we don't know anything about THEM" As we sheepishly looked toward the monitor (and ran to find E-8), another revenue passenger pointed to the agent's ID and said, "You know that your badge says USAirways....just like THEM!" When we got to E-8, not only had the "East" agents posted the gate change for PHX, but were making regular announcements for PHX passengers to go to F-8. The "West" agents couldn't have cared less....
In all of my years, with all of the "treat the customer nice" courses, the emphasis has always been on the "paying customer"....and screw the non-revs. Although this posting has been about my issues with a few "West" agents, I have had my issues with many of my fellow "East" folk over the years.....but that is for another posting.
Any and all of the agents I trained in my years were given the "golden rule" of "Always remember that the non-rev you mistreat today might just be the agent/crew member that can either make or destroy YOUR next trip".
We must always remember that unlike our revenue passengers, who are protected by the contract of carriage, we non-revs are those most vulnerable......because in our travel, we are guaranteed and protected by NOTHING!