Don’t you know who I am? A United Airlines passenger at Newark airport pushed up to the front of the boarding line of a Denver flight, when the airline called up their ‘Global Services’ members.
He explained that he wasn’t Global Services anymore – but he used to be one before the pandemic. (He also may have once scored four touchdowns in a single game in high school.)
His upgrade didn’t clear, so he needed them to give him an aisle seat on this oversold flight. And he needed bin space for his five carry-on bags.
Naturally, he got nowhere with the gate agent. He shouldn’t have gotten anywhere, but his chances at Newark were even worse than that. He had to check three of the bags. And, they explained to him, he didn’t clear his upgrade since he did not have any elite status.
He responded, what good is having an airline credit card “if I cannot get upgrades, aisle seats, or even pre-boarding to stow my MODEST” bags?
[T]he very large person touting five bags, yes large Tumi bags fully packed, right up prior to pre-boarding. Starts demanding to board with GS since he “used to be GS before COVID”, and that he really needs an aisle seat, since his upgrade didn’t go through, and he was not going to check any bags, “I don’t care what the policy is.” GA did a good job looking at his ticket to see what the GS problem was and says, “Sir, you do not appear to have any status and show up very low on the upgrade list. This is a full flight, I cannot move someone for you, and yes, you will have to check 3 of those 5 bags.”
His response got several laughs, from the Pre-boarders, “Well what good is the explorer card if I cannot get upgrades, aisle seats, or even pre-boarding to stow my MODEST (yes he said that word) luggage.”
Air travel is tough and frustrating. But it pays to attenuate your expectations. This passenger… did not. As for what good the credit card is, he needed to check bags, and the card helps cover the cost of those!
Now that was a day starter. Airlines are responsible for the “entitled” attitude they started when they introduced their status programs. They long ago forgot their business is transportation. They are not in the business of stroking the ego of those they transport from one city to the next. When they started telling passengers they are more important than the person next to them, they created this monster. People were flying long before all of this status crap and they would continue to fly if it were to somehow disappear. Just another way for the Airline to do the money grab.
I was working an oversold flight out of DEN. This was in the Stapleton days, so no GS back then.
Guy comes up and wants an upgrade to first because coach is full and he doesnt like that. I explain that FC is full, so I can’t offer him one. He gets mad, calls me and UA some choice names, and proceeds to pull the “Do you know who I am?” routine. I’ve had quite enough of the guy at this point, so I say no, I don’t. He puffs out his chest and tells me he’s the highest 1K in the system and I should move someone in FC to his coach seat and give him their seat. I told him that wasn’t going to happen, that those folks had actually paid for first class, and that he could have booked it himself if it was so damned important. He informed me that he would have my job.
His comment letter must have gotten lost in the mail. I never heard a peep from management, and I retired 25 years later.
When things go right, status is overrated; when things go wrong, it’s nearly worthless. That said, people watching at airports can be fun…
He probably stayed at a Holiday Inn Express as well.
Didn’t I already read this like 6 times on different blogs plus the original on FlyerTalk?