Experience 033. Who's who at the zoo - part 1. Staff hierarchy at the airport. The Seat 1A Podcast.

The Seat 1A Podcast

In this experience we look at the different roles of people that normally work at an airport – who's who at the zoo?

In most cases the airline is either at a home base or it is at an outstation. When at the outstation the airline is either with its own staff or outsourced.

We move our way from the curbside outside the airport into the terminal – what staff do we encounter until we reach the check-in counter?

At the counter we have the check-in agent, the bag drop agent and the ticketing agent. The ticketing agent is someone who can make magic happen in times of crisis.

To whom should you bark if you need to bark? Quite often a supervisor if you want to get things done. Running parallel to the supervisor is the ops coordinator or dispatcher. Are supervisors dressed differently? (answer – generally yes).

And remember if you're in an outstation, the people working for the airline might not be on the airline's payroll. And they may not have a specific airline uniform.

Remember things can – and do – happen at the counter. There's a right way and a wrong way to go about things.

What happens if it gets above a supervisor? May we introduce the station or duty manager.

Vinod made sure when he was in New Delhi (DEL) that he searched for the right supervisor to help him with his baggage issue. On the other side of the globe, he found the supervisor at Heathrow (LHR) to help with Olympic quantities of baggage.

Remember everyone, the representative generally wants to get to an amicable solution as much as you do.

When you're at security, the provider depends on what airport you are at – sometimes it's even the army. Many of those shops are also governed by one company.

We take a quick look at the ramp operations and some cases where the airport's duty manager may need to get involved.

What happens at the gate? And is this the best spot to look for an upgrade? Vinod shares a crazy story getting from New York (JFK) to Edmonton (YEG) – with a strategic ballpoint pen.

We'll save the crew hierarchy for a later experience.

News Items:

• We share our condolences for the victims of the PK8303 crash.
• Skift article "TUI to Restart European Flights at the End of June".
• airwaysmag article "Delta To Launch New Atlanta-Cape Town Route"

If you have a story about airport staff hierarchy, a question, or other experience that you would like to share, please email us at stories(at)seat1a.org or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Patreon. Show notes are available online at http://podcast.seat1a.org/