Air Marshals are generally one of the quieter branches of the TSA. According to Wikipedia, their number is estimated to be in the thousands.
They generally fly undercover, however, and there’s no way to accurately judge the number actually on flights. While they carry guns, the Air Marshal’s job is to blend in with other passengers, unless an inflight incident actually occurs.
Last week, however, a client of mine ran into a situation where he ended up unhappy with his flight and the Air Marshal’s cover was blown anyway. Here’s the story:
This was a very quick, three day, two-city trip to Europe, and as such, we had worked hard to find flights with comfortable business class seating so he could arrive and return in good shape to work the next day on each end.
On the way back, that meant deliberately choosing an upper deck aisle seat on a 747, where he can usually sleep because it is quiet. But when my client got to Frankfurt, he was given a boarding pass for a middle seat on the lower deck.
“I told the gate agent there was some mistake, but she replied “I didn’t change your seat.” Not a helpful response. I then clarified that I had an upper deck aisle seat booked, and could she tell me why that changed. She talked to her supervisor, and then came back and said, “This is the seat we have for you.”
I then pulled out my printed confirmation, which indeed showed my upper deck aisle seat confirmed on my itinerary. At that point, she finally tried to find out why I was in a new seat, and reported that a Federal Air Marshal had taken my original seat, and I had been reassigned.”
The client is a pretty reasonable person, albeit exhausted at that point, and as he said he “understood that an Air Marshal can do what they want.”
On the other hand his company had spent over $10,000 on his full-fare business class ticket, and he is a Global Services member, which means over $50,000 of business class tickets on United a year. .
So he asked if they could move him to another seat. (Only 6 out of the 52 business class seats on a 747 are middle seats, and there are 20 upper deck seats.)
No go. The agent’s curt response “everyone else already has their seat.” And said there was nothing she could do. He didn’t even get an apology, or any kind of a customer service voucher.
(For those who don’t fly regularly, United Airlines often hands out a little card when they have a small problem with a valued client — a missed connection, a seating problem, a shortage of food in business class, etc. The cards have a code that entitle the recipient to their choice of something like a travel discount or bonus miles. One client got such a card just because there was no champagne on a flight to Europe.)
Now, I understand many people reading this post will think, hey, I’d happily sit in a middle seat in business class. Yes, if you don’t fly all the time, any seat in business is a treat. But, as many of the most frequent travelers I work with can attest, when you are on a business trip with a crazy schedule and serious time zone changes, even the best first class seat isn’t that much fun.
Plus, downstairs on a 747 near coach IS much noisier.
Now, I don’t know if from a security point of view there is some advantage to having an Air Marshal in business class. He or she would certainly be more comfortable. However, presumably sleep wouldn’t be part of the Air Marshal’s plan.
On a 747 the cockpit is upstairs, so such a seat would be closer to the pilots. But, the upper deck seat are quiet precisely because they are isolated. A downstairs seat or seat in coach would give the marshal a better view of more passengers. Plus, by the time any potential terrorist made it upstairs, who knows what could have happened in the main part of the plane.
But whatever the reasons behind the seating choice, United certainly could have handled it better. (It cannot have been the first time they’ve done this.) An apology up front for the situation, or at least an effort to change my client’s seat again, perhaps with someone who had upgraded from a discount ticket, would have at least made him feel like they cared about his business.
And airlines wonder why they ranked 47th out of 47 industries in a recent customer satisfaction survey…..
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
