Originally Posted by
jarusoba
The problem is as highlighted above. What the OP is complaining of is that the staff got these seats BEFORE paying pax. And some of them hog up the overhead bin spaces before anybody start to board.
Not to misinterpret the OP, but what I believe he meant is that they should not get the upgrades at all - the bin-hogging is just a byproduct of that process.
For what it's worth, my rapidair this afternoon on a non-XM'd 763 with 25 seats had 12 employees (1 flight crew in uniform, 10 FAs, 1 captain out of uniform) in J. There were also 3 empty J seats, so they must have had an employee shortage.
For those that like the stats, that's 55% of occupied and 48% of available J seats. Pretty high loyalty opportunity cost there.