Originally Posted by
gcashin
Had a friend check in for a WS flight today, traveling with a companion, so 2 pax on the PNR. Econo fare, and I believe both have some WS status (Gold, perhaps), but hadn't selected seats in advance. There were plenty of seats open, but they were both assigned separate middle seats. Then they had to pay if they wanted to change seats to be able sit together. I'd expect that for pax with no status in basic, but kinda crazy that 2 pax on the same PNR with status on an Econo fare would have to pay to sit together. (I'd expect they might have been able to call in to use a voucher to avoid the fee, but that goes back to calling WS and unreachable CS).
It seems like a pretty deliberate cash grab to purposely separate pax with status on an Econo fare and then force them to pay if they want to sit together.
I believe this is the case since October 23. Also if you book as two even if both are Gold or Platinum, you would need to use seat selection vouchers to get your free seat selection. You can only do the seat selection for free if you are booking as a single passenger. Just like free upgrades. If you book a econo flex as a Gold, you only get the potential free upgrade to Premium if you are a single passenger reservation as a Gold. If the reservation is for 2 you would need to book single two reservations, one for each passenger, in the "econo flex" as a Gold for a free upgrade. Similarly a Platinum could book "econo" or "econo flex" and get the upgrade, but would need to be for 1 passenger, as 2 or more passengers,
even if every passenger is Platinum would not get auto upgraded. So if I book for my wife and I who are both platinum, I need to make 2 separate reservations for each of us if we want to benefit form the elite perks. Yes stupid I agree, but that is just the way I have learned the limited elite benefits work.