MSPeconomist

Yes, they got the BE meal service, although I don't know whether they received their most preferred meal choices.

This was the ATL-EZE route on the 767-300. The dog got upgraded on board southbound and the larger group moved up to BE on the return.

PRWeezer

OT but at the risk of letting the dogs out...I've seen this happen on an international flight and it was nonrevs who moved. The flight had a weight & balance issue such that they wanted to minimize weight in the forward cabin for takeoff and landing. The captain, GA & on-board leader discussed it and as nonrevs were cleared they were told the procedure to follow - sit in coach until cruising altitude, then moved to a designated seat in J.

Of course I can't say that's what happened on your flight, simply providing some context having seen it happen before.

MSPeconomist

That's was my suspicion, but weight and balance issues on a 767 would seem odd. Also, I wonder whether in such a case, the non revs would have coach or BE seat assignments according to the official flight records.

Nevertheless, if dogs aren't allowed in BE, then a nonrev shouldn't be allowed to bring a dog into BE, nor should the dog be out of the carrier during the flight.

Similarly, if a nonrev is traveling with small children who are too young for premium cabin nonrev seats, then such children should not be allowed to move into BE during the flight.

djk7

Not sure about how, but it happens. My brother was on a flight that was delayed (after boarding) and a couple of passengers decided they didn't want to fly and disembarked. The cabin crew then did a positive bag match of the overheads to make sure they hadn't left anything behind. During the match, they found a small dog in a carrier in the overhead. The dog and pax were removed from the flight.

relangford

Wow! Putting your dog in an overhead? Doesn't luggage sometimes move around up there? What if a bag had crushed the animal? It would seem that the owner really didn't "love" the dog that much.

craig44485

I guess so much for letting the BE cabins go out with empty seats. If they are going to let people poach BE seats then why not just start offering them as upgrades? Why would the FAs not send theses peoplembaxk to their assigned seats? On top,of that, serve them BE meals? Hardly seems fair to someone who actually paid for their BE seat.

baccarat_king

I "think" this is an outlier situation. But, I could be wrong.

MSPeconomist, have you seen a situation like this more than once? and out of curiosity, when did this occur?

Most of the BusinessElite cabins I've been in lately have been rather full, based on seatmaps and ExpertFlyer (codeshare KLM #s, which I know can be a bit suspect).

MSPeconomist

About six or seven weeks ago, with dog woman (and maybe a couple others, I didn't pay attention until I noticed that there was a dog in BE) moving into BE on ATL-EZE and about a half dozen moving into BE on EZE-ATL.

I saw this once before and mentioned it here on FT, with an adult and small (lap, so presumable a bit under 24 months) child (later screaming in the aisle) moving up to join another adult in BE after takeoff. It was a 777 TPAC flight, but I don't now remember the route or approximate date. The group boarded late and there was some discussion on board about who would sit where.

ADDED: The circumstances, including timing/seat maps/discussion upon boarding caused me to suspect at the time that they were NRSA but weren't all given seat assignments in BE because the child was to young to fly nonrev in a premium cabin, so that kid and one parent were given coach seats while the other adult was given a BE boarding pass by the GA.