Originally Posted by
yyckerr
My personal opinion, regardless of collective bargaining agreement terms or otherwise, is that great organizations empower their people to make good decisions. Part of a decision being defined as a good one is that there were no unintended consequences and that overall the decision resulted in a net positive.
My preference would be to see more of this in the world.
Originally Posted by
zorn
As long as I get what I paid for, and my unexpected new seat assignment isn't objectively inferior, I would not have any reaction to the seating position of any other passenger on an airplane.
Originally Posted by
ddaley
I am surprised to learn that this is considered theft of services.
[...]
Then to find out the SD could be fired over it? I am quite surprised as I would not put my job on the line and the SD was quite casual about facilitating the upgrade.
While airline seats are a perishable product, and theoretically could be given away with little negative consequence to the airline, in practice, there are several concerns.
There are very few people on any flight who wouldn't prefer an upgraded seat to one in a lower cabin. How do you set guidelines for your employees on how to give away something that
everyone wants in a way that doesn't negatively impact all the people who
don't get the upgrade? For instance, do you annoy a bunch of SEMMs in PY that someone in Y got a free J upgrade because they told the SD a sob story about being a refugee, or having terminal cancer, or losing their job? The worthiness of an upgrade is highly subjective.
By giving things away for free, you train people not to pay for them. If SDs upgrade people because of status or because they see people often on the same routes, those people may quit paying for J or more expensive Y tickets because they know they can upgraded on cheap tickets by staff who know or like them. Even without that type of relationship, some number of people will cut back their spending because their chances of getting a free upgrade went up. Those who've been on this board a while may remember a certain AC rep saying that those who got in to J on eUps were cheapening the cabin. DL also noted many years ago that it only sold about 10% of J/F seats, because their elites had gotten used to getting them for free. AC has lots of ways to get in to J without buying a J fare - eUp, LMU, bid with cash, bid with points, SAUA (although currently suspended, or course, for Aeroplan), etc.
Third, there's little to no oversight of SDs. The pilots don't come back to do headcount in different cabins. There's no inventory that has to be accounted for. How do you have confidence that SDs aren't giving all the empty seats away to their friends and families, and/or people who slip them $50? If a waiter is giving away huge amounts of expensive booze to help his buddies or boost his tips, at least you should eventually notice that the Glengoolie Blue disappears really fast whenever Cyril's waiting tables, and do something about it.
Even if you assume SDs will use this power reasonably, what happens when word gets out that this is policy? Think of all the articles on how if you ask nicely or tell a great story, AC will just upgrade you. Then think about all the people crowding the galley as the flight is boarding or trying to push back, clamouring for an upgrade, and the havoc that will wreak.
I can't tell you for sure that AC gives SDs
zero latitude in this area - I've not seen the policies myself, only been told what they are by someone who has - but I think there are a lot of good reasons why it's not a great idea to give broad discretion to them.