Originally Posted by
lincolnjkc
As with any case when the premium cabin becomes overfull there's the "right way" and the "fast way".
The correct approach is to downgrade (or offer alternate flights) in inverse order of fare class (with status being one of the tie-breakers, IIRC, time of check-in is another) and then put the FAM-displaced pax in whichever seat opened up. This takes time and most GAs won't (from a non-scientific sample size) necessarily do this, especially as it gets closer to departure.
The fast way is to just DG the displaced passenger and hope they don't raise too much of a fuss. (see also proactive vouchers, etc.)
This happned to me once. I had just flown LPQ-BKK-NRT-LAX and was on the last domestic leg home to DFW. They wanted to boot me to the back for a fam who wanted my seat. (Yes it had to be MY seat).
I DID make a fuss and pulled a real DYKWIA and told them they need to find a lower status pax instead...and they did. Man, did I get some serious stink eye from that guy!