Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
If others aren't on your PNR, they're not supposed to get free C+ seats but there are reports that unpublished policy is to give ONE such free C+ seat for a traveling companion, assuming that the elite is also in C+ (and for example, hasn't purchased a G A P fare).
Yes sir! They do have the (unpublished) policy. I tried that with a colleague and requested that he be seated closer to me, and that's when the PM desk tied his PNR with mine, without me asking (exact same itinerary) and got him a C+ seat (she was a fantastic phone agent!
). Since it's a benefit (and corporate policies might not allow everybody to be on the same PNR), I feel it's okay when you ARE travelling on the same flight.
However, that said, one should NOT take advantage by doing this with, say 5 different non-elites on a different reservation (I believe there's a policy?), or booking yourself with non-elites on the same PNR to get C+, and cancelling/changing the elite's ticket last minute, so that the non-elites still held onto those premium seats (there was a thread here sometime back).