It's always who you know not what you know.
Travelling on a staff rebate standby ticket I was waiting at check-in with what turned out to be a stewardess on duty who had been given her EY boarding card, but was waiting to see if her mother was going to be able to travel with her on her standby concession.
Ticket clerk then upgraded duty stewardess to First, who turned to her mother and said that she could now have her original EY seat.
Oh no, I intervened, good luck to you getting upgraded, but that only releases one seat for the next person on the seniority list - and it might be me, p**s off.
In the end we all travelled, but had I not overheard the exchange, and there had been only one seat - guess who wouldn't have got it, rules and seniority mean nothing - who you know, not what you know, wins, fortune favours the bold.
Much later, travelling on another standby ticket with a "partner" airline, I was given seat 86Z, or something near the tail. Glad to be at least on the aircraft I was grateful for anything, but mentioned that I used to fly these aircraft for my own company, and I didn't realise that there even were seats that far back. The girl then asked me more, and it turned out that she had also once worked for my old airline, and we had mutual acquaintances, so she asked me for my boarding card and re-issued it with a seat near the front of the cabin. In the departure lounge a fare paying passenger was paged - and told that he had had to have his seat changed - and was given my origianl one down the back - I had his!
Not what you know, who you know. Favouritism is alive and well.
Last edited by YorkshireTyke; 5th Feb 2014 at 07:25.