Emergency seat once onboard - new policy?
On a flight to DXB, still on the ground with 1h30 of delay and seating on an emergency seat at the back (row 68).
I ask the supervisor if I can take a front row seat, which is empty, as I have a tight connection in Dubai and can’t lose any time disembarking by being at the back. Not sure it makes a difference for my question but she knows I am a frequent flyer (she recognizes me from a previous flight the day before).
She tells me that I cannot change to the front row as these are paying extra seats. I tell her it’s the first time someone denies me a seat change, even to exit row, when the seat is free. And that I want to change to gain time, because the delay will make me miss the connection. I also say that I am already on an exit row.
She tells me she needs to check, and goes to my seat in row 68 to inspect it before ‘granting’ the seat change.
Afterwards she assures me that there is a new policy and that if I had been in a regular seat she would not have been able to switch me. Even as Platinum.
Is there such a new policy? It’s the first time I have heard of this. And several times in the last 2 months I have been offered a change, even without asking, from a regular seat to a free emergency