The whole point is that in the 1970's we could use our common-sense and if you could fill a flight sector with people booked on a later flight who wanted to go earlier and were ready to go, that's exactly what we did, up until the moment that an LMC was no longer possible. The accompanied dash through emigration to the gate was not a rare occurrence.
Once the doors were closed, we worked on filling the seats on the next flight on that sector that had suddenly become available for sale.
Win-win, I think the term is.
Now all I see is poorly trained puppets at the check-in who are too scared of their own shadows to do anything unusual. They are scared with good reason because doing anything unusual might cost them their jobs, regardless of the fact that it may please a customer and be potentially profitable for their employer.
The blame lies fair and square on modern middle and senior management, and their toxic mix of poor leadership, lack of knowledge and front-line experience, and enslavement to emails and spreadsheets. In short, they have all the characteristics of people with "MBA" after their names.
Last edited by Capot; 26th Oct 2013 at 10:20.