Saw something odd on a LAX-BOS-LAX MR yesterday/today:
On the outbound flight, #192 on 5/30, it was the standard 757 nightmare. There was a young man who had seat 9C (Port side aisle). 9B was unused throughout the flight.
On the inbound flight, #25 5/31, it was a 763. On this flight the same passenger (I'm pretty sure, but it's always possible I'm wrong) was in 17B with 17A unused throughout the flight.
The 1hr. 20 min. turn around makes it pretty clear this was a pure MR.
How does one manage to put a block on highly sought after seats like this? I
know that several customers asked about Row 17 availability on #25. We had and were told they were taken (at Noon PDT on Saturday ~17 hours before the actual flight); I heard at least two sets of customers ask at in BOS: at the AC and the gate; and, I spoke to another FTer during the flight who I think indicated he had inquired about a seat in 17 as well (I'll let him confirm or deny...) There were at least 6 XPLTs in front of us on the UG list (according to the BOS AC desk), so there were plenty of them in the back with us.
Could the young man have bought 2 tickets? That would be counter-productive to cost minimizing on an MR. (If he had done that does he get AAdvantage miles for both seats?) How else could this have happened? Could he have managed to find a "super-block" of some sort?
I was very happy with all of the AA employees -- LAX AC, BOS AC, and BOS Gate -- they worked hard to get us good seats throughout the weekend (I was happy enough to hand out 3 AApplause chits). So this is not purely sour grapes. But it is pretty annoying. I'd like to know that there's no hidden trick or policy that allows one person to hoard seats that make flying in Y less painful.
If he bought two seats because he likes his space and he played by the rules, I'm fine with it. But I just suspect that's not the case. What other possible explanations are there?
Jim