FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - 737-900ER - Which seats are held for gate?
Old Feb 1, 2019, 8:54 am
  #5  
ethernal
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
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Originally Posted by bubbashow
I am on an EXTREMELY full flight tonight on everybody's favorite flying sea of seats. F was gone at booking, as was Comfort Plus. I am #1 for C+, but have an aisle seat in the bowels of Y. There are 2 y+ seats showing available, and I need to determine what seats those are (if possible). Seating chart shows full, so I am assuming these are the typically held seats for agent use for bassinets. This will determine whether I stay on the list or ask to be removed.
A word of advice: if you're able to get to the gate early (gate agents usually get there at T-65 minutes before departure but I would aim to be standing and waiting at the podium at T-70 at the latest) and "claim" those seats I would recommend you do so (especially 10C).

I'm #1 on the C+ upgrade list a lot on 739s, but my upgrade success rate into 10C is probably only about 10% when I'm #1 on the C+ list on a 739 (which means I end up stuck back in Y) despite the intuition that the upgrade should clear most of the time. I have a pretty good sample size too (at least 20-30 instances in the past year) so this is not a fluke or anything.

While obviously there are occasionally pax with disabilities, the majority of the time this is not the case. Gate agents seem very amenable to either:
1) People already in C+ asking to be moved to an aisle (when they have a middle seat)
2) Cranky non-statused pax trying to sit next to someone when they are split (or any variation of the "but I need an aisle!" spiel)

The end result is that often times there are no window/aisle C+ seats left by the time C+ upgrades clear - meaning I stay at #1 and no one clears (even if I select all seats, gate agents generally don't clear people into C+ middle seats unless you specifically ask).

I spend a lot of time in 36C on 739s... good luck!
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