The Gatekeepers
Airline agents are the key to upgrades and choice seating.
It pays to be nice to gate agents. Perhaps more than any other
airline employees, the folks at check-in have broad powers to make
your flight magnificent. Or miserable.
In the frantic hour or so between check-in and boarding, gate
agents are practically all-powerful. They can upgrade you,
downgrade you and even remove you from a flight, often at their
whim.
"When someone rubs you the wrong way, you stick them in the
back of the plane between Big Bertha and Andre the Giant,"
admits former gate agent Tim Rivers.
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Are gate agents allowed to punish passengers they don't like
and reward the ones they do? Not really. At US Airways, for
example, gate agents are trained to "treat every passenger
equally," says spokesman David Castelveter. "Every
employee goes through training that tells them how to treat a
passenger professionally, regardless of the circumstances. It
precludes any emotional response."
Maybe so, but we're still betting you'll have a better
trip if you treat gate agents nicely.
Christopher Elliott is a writer in Annapolis, Maryland.
Contact him at http://www.elliott.org.