After having worked in this industry for nearly 2 decades, not much surprises me but there truly is no excuse for a nonrev who ignores the instructions of the gate agent. If they are employees, time to speak to their supervisor. If they are guest pass travelers or oal employees, time to report this to employee travel. Maybe if they get their hand slapped a bit they won't do this again.

I just nonreved on oal this weekend. Wide open flight when I listed, filling up when I got to the airport and downgraded by the time I got to the gate leaving them oversold by 6. You really see how people handle things if you sit near the podium and listen. I simply asked how the flight looked (and they gave me the loads) so I said I'd hang out just in case and started making my alternate plans. One person (spouse of employee) was freaking out and probably approached the gate agent 6-7 times in under an hour. Some guest pass holders were completely thrown and couldn't decide what to do next. After the flight was closed out (they got 2 nonrevs on after all), the gate agent started rolling folks over and the guest pass folks were so indecisive when she gave them their options that the gate agent actually turned to me and said "you know how the loads change, right?" and I told them to take the flight she was recommending to get them as close to their destination as possible because they could always drive the rest of the way if needed.

What did I do? I smiled and waited until everyone else had been helped and asked them to roll me over for the next flight. That took about 2 minutes tops and I thanked them and headed out to grab some food while I waited the couple of hours left. I learned that way too many nonrevs don't follow the protocol that was drummed into our heads when we were hired. Failure to do so makes way too much work for the gate agent.