OP here. Thanks for all the great responses.

Fwiw, My flight was a domestic US Airways Express flight operated by Republic, DCA - BNA - DCA. E170

I know that may seem lame to most FT'ers but these two domestic flights had better service/rapport/communication than most of my/our mainline domestic flights on pmUS, AA, UA, etc. in any cabin. Go figure.

Thanks for all the insight regarding the manifest and such.

So after reading the responses I will conclude the manifest currently does show who paid for what. It shows who is EXP, Gold, paid F, paid upgrades, upgrades with miles, non rev, etc.
And I conclude, and concur, some FA's may review that document, and perform based upon it, and some don't.

And I also understand why the manifest will be ignored at times too.
I also realize the manifest needs to be ignored at times too.
And the case why it should be ignored in general,for all, regarding the path to the front cabin.

The OP topic as usual found a path of its own and touched on international activity among others. That's expected, understood, and always a fascinating read.
Thanks for all those contributions too. I know it feeds all the lurkers and the regulars too.

And the food delivery order up front is always a great thread. Thanks for that insight too.

I know FTer's love specifics, so .... if interested......

We booked paid F R/T 2 -3 months out, USX, E170, seats 3 D & F, I noticed on both craft the two seats in front of us, 2 D & F were booked already. No other seats were booked according to the seat maps at that time. I know.......

Anyway, the same 2 pax were with us out of DCA, and also on the way back to to DCA exBNA. This was a 7 or 8 day trip. Weird I thought. So we chatted a bit with them on the way back briefly. They booked 18 months out, or the earliest they could.
We flew with the same two pax out of DCA infront of us, and also back to DCA 7 -8 days later too. Ironic I thought. Turns out Kevin Bacon rules apply. 4 layers out we have connections even though they live 100 miles to the south of DCA, weird, ..... scary really.

Sorry, ... point is, us and them, in rows 2 and 3 had much better service/attention than the others from my observation, however brief it may have been. That is what inspired the question specifically.
Although I have always wondered the same aboard mainline US3.

continuing the topic of attention up front;

IMO it was blatant who got the attention. Let me point out now, we (2 pax) requested nothing for both flights from the FA's except maybe a napkin IIRC.

Now the folks in front of us were having drinks. They received constant refills even unrequested,
Although we requested nada, they still asked us every 20 minutes if we needed anything.

Remember this is a short hop.

This direct and deliberate attention was only focused on one other pax up front, which I will assume was a EXP. That of course is great.

I know. Perhaps the other 4 pax ask for peace, quiet, and not to be bothered.
That is an entirely possible event though they may have been EXP.

I know, .... it worked the way it was supposed to. Those that wanted service received service, those that didn't want service, were ignored as requested.

This is just my observations of a couple flights on USX, please no flames, just trying to post my purposeful observations. However twisted they may be.

Trust me, I'm normally not as creepy as this post sounds aboard, stalking and observing other pax within said cabin.

Data point; phenomenal service on USX in F. Impressed. Will spend again.

RW rocked those two days.

Should have wrote a letter to RW. I suppose better late than never.

Too few use the easy resources to praise.

Why is it mostly negativity posted. Nevermind. Lol.


Again, Thanks for all the reply's.