Originally Posted by
HEhatesusall
An ... interesting story I had ex-ZRH a few months ago.
I board the plane, seated in 4A (first row of econ)
After boarding is complete the head FA goes to a couple in 4D/E and tells them "I can see you've applied some vouchers for update, I have 2 seats in business class, do you want to upgrade"? and they say yes and they get upgraded. So upgrade even inside the airplane is possible.
Now, my seatmate from 4B moves to 4D. And I then quickly go and reconfigure 4B and put down the business class tray and make 4A and 4C seats larger (with that small button they have in the seats), effectively changing the row configuration to business class.
Then the same head FA comes to me, tells me off, and switches us back to normal economy configuration. Of course in the whole flight noone sat in 4B and I was flabbergasted by the FA...
I didnt make a fuss as I was on that flight due to IRROPS anyway, so I just wanted some sleep. But it did leave a sour taste in my mouth to be honest.
Yes indeed, I do find the whole upgrade system of A3 getting worst and worst every year - I'm not sure if it's because planes are full or them trying to get more money from the upgrade bid or other reasons...
I guess I was lucky in my case - as the person at the gate could have been a sort of supervisor?
In your case - for converting it to Business config and getting told about it - I too am surprised you being told off about it. However, on the other hand I am not surprised as it is a greek mentality (not to offend the numerous greek here) - where if things deviate from what is should be according to the books, it's not allowed or maybe they don't want others to follow. However, it depends a lot on the attitude of the crew.
Not to turn this thread into a crew attitude/service level of A3 ground and flight - I have observed that majority of them over the years, are very indifferent - with no smiles at all during service, pre-covid, I remembered them to be much more friendlier, but these days (example the flight I just got off from - every single crew serving Y - zero smiles - I mean it seems to be worst than US airline crews.
What you did, I have done it before some years ago - I believe it was on Air France (?) or BA (?) and I did not get any comments from the crew.
Cheers!