Sitting in First when its your daughters seat
 

OK
My family of 5 is traveling to Mexico.
So I booked 3 fares using miles and the other 2 fares for my husband and 10 year old child on a companion ticket to Mexico.
We are travelling with other adults/kids.
Here's my question:
I can upgrade my husband and daughter to first class using MVP gold upgrade certificates, but not myself and my husband as I booked myself using miles.
So I was going to upgrade my daughter and husband...then have my daughter sit with my other kids (in my seat) and other adult travelers in coach.
Will this be a problem? I know sometimes the FA will call you by name etc.. and have a list of passengers. The name thing is fine, but she is 10 years old and I don't know if they will have that info on the card...or care for that matter.
Thanks for any input

I haven't done this on AS, but on DL I have given my first class seat to someone else to sit in back with my wife. The airline didn't had a problem with it. I asked the gate agent to call up the person seated in the seat next to my wife and when he didn't show she just said to get on and if he gets on offer him my first class seat. Being that I ply the route so often the first class crew knew my name on the manifest and in fact came back to coach to see if I was okay.

Thanks..Hopefully they will be OK with it.
I'm not sure if they would like it mostly because I am flying on a miles award ticket which is not allowed to be upgraded to FC.

Not sure they will care. I upgraded one of my travelling companions but my son used the first class seat-was a complete non-issue. Our companion was happy to stay in Y with his girlfriend. We just all boarded together-(same situation as my son was on an award ticket although the family name was obviously different)

Unless you try to start swapping seats part way through the flight (so that everyone has a "turn" up front) they really aren't going to care.

What about swapping at the stop over?
Depends on if a new crew comes on board?

Everybody gets off of the airplane at the international gateway city (LAX, or wherever it is) with all of their luggage so that a security sweep can be done of the airplane. You'll then reboard the aircraft at 30 or 40 minutes prior to departure. I don't see why you couldn't change who sits up front at that point since it'll be like you're taking a whole new flight (re-storing your carryon bags, etc...).

The airline has no idea who is supposta be sitting in any given seat in F since the FAs don't check ID... And they're also used to people swapping for logistical reasons.

On both UA and AA, I have been elite for years but my wife isn't. I still apply for upgrades, etc., and my wife and I just trade off on who gets to sit in F for whatever particular leg. Never been questioned... and in fact, on one occasion, I've been given a beer from F as a "you're a smart guy" consolation prize. :cool:

As long as there is adult supervision of the kids, I doubt AS will care and/or notice.

It doesnt matter who in your family sits in which seats. Within YOUR family you have these seats "x x x x x" and HOW you seat each person in your family is up to you. Same thing if your son held a window seat boarding pass but he wanted the aisle.
Hope that helps.

Yes, anyone can occupy the First Class seat.

We do discourage changing of seats (First to Main Cabin and back) and this would definitely not be allowed on any International sector.

I, sadly, have to do this all the time.

You see, i upgrade my wife because she HATES flying with our two kids ... but sometimes this doesn't work out well and we end up swapping seats and back in coach she goes with the kids. oh darn.

I always ask, but FA's have never cared once. Actually, an FA once asked me if we were on the same itinerary (making sure i wasn't some random coach guy trying to steal a first seat) .. which i replied yes ;)

Actually that is incorrect. The FA do know who is 'supposta' be in each FC seat. They receive that information on the final paperwork, however thats not to say they would ask if the person in each seat really IS the same person as on the paperwork unless there was a problem of some sort.

Yeah, the passenger manifest has a lot of information ... who's non-rev, what fare type you have, status, etc.

Did this too last year over turkey day with my mom and sister- Mom sat in my sister's seat in F, and sister in Mom's coach seat SEA-ORD... Mom was on a BTT too- (Sister was in F on the way back, as my Mom went nonstop back to ANC)

I would rather take the Y seat. It's a small sacrifice to ensure that the 10-year-old is sitting next to someone she knows.

As for trading seats, nobody really cares -- people do it all the time. Your party has 2F + 1Y seat, so if anyone asks, just say you traded.

The only problem I can foresee is the 10-year-old thing. On some carriers, splitting a parent from their child in a different cabin would trigger an Unaccompanied Minor fee. I don't know what AS's policy is on this.