“Seats blocked for crew rest” — but not in reality?
Hi all
I had a recent trip to Singapore on the 787-9. As is common on that aircraft (particularly on longer sectors) seats 7J and K were blocked and so could not be selected at any point prior to or at check in (and were visible on Expertflyer as such). These are good seats as they are at the back of the mini cabin and the window seat has direct aisle access.
Seat availability wasn’t great and I ended up in the middle seat in row 6.
I know this is a first world problem, I got what I paid for, it’s none of my business etc, and I don’t want to rant, but…
On both flights, outbound and return, the seats were not in fact used as crew rest seats.
On the outbound, an off duty pilot and his girlfriend occupied the seats shortly before pushback. It was very obvious that they were receiving what I would call special treatment - visits from the flight deck, given a whole bottle of champagne to share, a nice dessert from F for the girlfriend etc.
On the return again I wasn’t happy with my seat so thought I would check whether 7J and K really would be used as crew rest. GGL phone line confirmed they were, and this was explained again at check in at SIN when I asked.
On board it was a similar story to the outbound flight. What turned out to be an off duty cabin crew member took the seat together with his boyfriend, shortly before departure. They were also given F PJs, amenity kits, extra glasses of champagne etc. Lots of profuse thanks to the cabin crew “for sorting us out”. Nothing seemed too much trouble for the crew as far as this pair were concerned, in fairly stark contrast to the service given to the rest of the passengers, which was perfunctory at best.
Obviously I realise crew get upgraded, I’m totally fine with that (although think it could be done in a more subtle manner). However it was pretty annoying that the seats were clearly not being used for crew rest, remained blocked and so as a paying passenger I ended up with inferior seats as a result.
I would have thought that either the seats were needed for crew rest (and hence blocked) or they weren’t. What happened on these flights — did the crew just decide not to rest or where else would they have gone to rest? Any way to get around this in future?