As WN states no formal policy on seat saving, no rules are violated by taking a seat someone "claims" to be saved.
If the are saving the last aisle seat, I am taking it if I have a lower boarding number than the person they are saving it for. Same with the exit seat. Let them try to stop me physically, and I will initiate a lawsuit against the pax and perhaps WN.
I really don't care if I "seem like a jerk". I don't know these people and I am never seeing them again. It's like my anti-poacher policy on airlines with assinged seating..."a lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine"
I know EB has increased this practice, and in turn devalued the EB incentive for those "denied" their first available choice of seat by a saver.
EBCI is so rife with problems that it seems to have been rolled out as more of an experiment than a revenue source.
1: It is a product with monetary value that cannot always be necessarily delivered. Line jumpers and inattentive GA's lead to the person with A47 getting on before a person at A33 EBCI. Seat savers who buy one EBCI and attempt to save a seat for someone without EBCI...an issue WN seems to not know what to do about...render the product I purchased somewhat useless. Sure, no t24 pressure, but that's it..they ALSO advertise it as a better boarding position..which means nothing if seats are saved for people further back in line.
2: So far, it doesn't seem to even work that well. WN will frequently "lose" ECBI status on a ticket, or assign non-EBCI BP's boarding positions infront of EBCI tics. Nothing like checking in at the airport and getting C30 after EBCI..and inquring with a GA only to find out the system did not see my EBCI..but it still took my MONEY!!!
3: So far as I know, and I may be wrong on this now, the gate software has not been programmed to prevent BP's too far out of range from getting on, and doesn't seem to notice deviations from the standard order of BS, A List, EBCI and Regs. No reg tick should be scannable without an override BEFORE all known ECBI's are checked in.
4: As a product, it's kind of a crapshoot. You can buy it and still get B30, or you can NOT buy it and still pick up A22..depending on the flight and time.