Originally Posted by
Readynow
I didn’t Check the upgrade status board before leaving. I was certain the seats would fill at the last second. Never did. Flight is light everywhere. Most people seem to have open middles in coach. Maybe people missed connections due to weather in the North East?
Yep, odds are this is what it was. ATL's had 3 ground stops tonight (2 weather/1 security) which in turn caused significant misconnects. If the GA waits until the last minute to drop seats for connecting pax in hopes they may make it (many ATL agents wait until D12 to drop seats), has to have the boarding door closed by D10, and flight closed out in the computer by D6, there isn't a lot of wiggle room to move 6 people up to FC. It's a completely different situation on a non-IROP day vs. an IROP night like tonight (first ATL thunderstorm groundstop in weeks) when there's added pressure to get out on time.
Edit: not trying to make excuses or anything, just trying to give an idea of the pressures a GA is under within these last few minutes of crunch time, particularly on an IROP night.