Originally Posted by
k374
if there was nobody else assigned to the forfeited seat then why not? Happens all the time for empty adjacent seats to be encroached on by passengers. Why are the FAs creating a problem when there isn't one?
Per my understanding DL did not re-assign the no-show seat so what is the issue here?
DL did reassign the no-show seat. They were trying to clear a standby into it, because the seat showed as empty after the older son failed to show up for the flight (or was cancelled off of it).
Originally Posted by
k374
I would like it to be something reasonable such as - if there are 3 passengers on the same ticket and at least 1 of the ticketed passengers shows up then the person who shows up can claim the other 2 empty seats. The airline can only re-assign seats if all passengers on the ticket are no-shows. In this case though it's more about a non-ticketed passenger (the child) boarding the plane, how the heck does that happen.. looks like a gate agent did not do their job. And if the child did not require a ticket then I fail to see any issues.
That works right up until there are 4 or 5 or 9 people on the same PNR. Or when a PNR gets split mid-trip. Or someone gets sick and wants a partial credit for their ticket. Or work colleagues are together on a refundable fare and the no-show can't get a refund because the other guy decided he wanted both seats.
If we want to empower GAs and res agents to use common sense, or perhaps make name change fees more reasonable and set an advance notice requirement, etc., that's fine. There have to be guidelines around just free-for-all individual judgement of course, but hard and fast formulaic rules are often just as problematic.