Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: The road less traveled
Programs: UA Gold MM, AA EXP, Delta Platinum, Marriott Titanium, HHonors Diamond, Natl EE, Hertz Platinum
Posts: 5,118
The only time I've seen this (and recognized it) was on a short ORD-IND flight. Again, a business-casual man sauntered into the cabin as one of the last people to board the flight. His eyes drifted down towards the back of the plane and non-chalantly swung back to the front where the flight attendants were laughing with each other. He slowly took the F seat directly in front of mine where he remained until we arrived in IND. Granted, the FAs could have see on the list that he was not supposed to be there, and may not have made a fuss about it because it was such a short flight with no service to speak of.
IMO, there's no other way to see this than dishonest. It's taking advantage of a service/benefit for which you have not surrendered appropriate payment; i.e. it's stealing.