Originally Posted by
pinniped
As long as adjacent is defined as "middle" - meaning not aisle-saving-another-aisle - then no one in the BS/EBCI/A-List crowd is negatively impacted.
The first person negatively impacted, in theory, would be someone in the C group. And each person after a certain point would basically be impacted by 1 row. (e.g., you'd get 17B instead of 16B)
One person saving one middle seat is a non-issue to me. Mr A20 or A40 or whatever doesn't want that seat anyway.
The people in the C group have the same rights an incentives as those in any other group in terms of the check in race. C10 has the right to board ahead of C15..so in essence other pax become negatively impacted. It doesn't matter what group it hits.
We cannot assume people in the A groups would reject middles either. They may be traveling together. They may even prefer middles. I myself know someone like that. They are still entitled to a better shot at them compared to those behind them, so if A10 wants to hold a middle for their companion at B12, the value of everything past A10 drops.
At this point, WN should just have assigned seating.