Originally Posted by
howahya
People can even "poach" seats on Southwest where they aren't assigned. By some miracle, probably involving different time zones, I ended up boarding in the A group on a Southwest flight even though I hadn't paid extra for that privilege. I get on the plane and ask to sit in the window seat of row 3 or 4 and the woman in the aisle seat says, "sorry, but that seat is occupied by a person who just went to the lavatory". I knew she was lying, and I thought of saying, "OK, then I'll take the middle seat". But who wants the middle seat? And I knew the flight wasn't full.
I seat myself about 3 rows back on the other side and sure enough, her friend boards about 15 people later and takes the window seat. Grrrrrrrrr. I think this can be a problem on Southwest, with one person of a group paying the extra money and then trying to save seats.
Whenever I get the "Lavatory" line from a seat saver on WN I simply look up at the lighted lav door indicators over the aisle. If it is green, nobody is in there. Pointing this out usually gets a reluctant admission that the person has not yet boarded and a plea to spare the seat. No way, if I paid EBCI or have BS..or even an A...it's first come first served. I have only ever had this issue with exit row seats.