Originally Posted by
zombietooth
A few days ago, I was seated in the aft exit row (where I always sit), seat 21D, when I noticed some late boarders (a young couple) come on to find that one of their seats was taken (seat 20E). The young man calmly showed the occupant of his seat his boarding pass and the occupant (a non-rev) in turn showed his boarding pass with the same seat number showing. Instead of freaking out, the young man calmly walked back to a FA, who then started an investigation, after which, the GA boarded and apologized to both parties for the mix-up, resulting in the non-rev moving to another seat.
No excitement, no accusations, just calm reasonable behavior displayed by all involved.
Yes same thing has happened to me more than once. Exactly the same result.
On one occasion, the flight was overbooked and I had volunteered. They didnt need me so I boarded. The cleared a standby, when she went over to her seat, it was occupied. She alerted the FA, the FA got the GA. There was no argument or really any discussion. I caught the GA's eye, he chose to deboard me (as I had previously expressed that I would have MUCH rather taken the volunteer deal). While back at the counter, they told me the seated guy must have made it past the GA without scanning his BP or the scanner didn't pick it up and so they thought he was a no show and gave his seat to the stand by. I guess that is really more the GA's fault. If there weren't any volunteers, I would assume they would just undo the standby. Again, a common issue that was easily resolved in minutes with no incident.