Originally Posted by EscapeFromSea
Just a quick note regarding Seattle. As everyone knows, the A's are the first 45 people to check in. The B's are the next 45 and the C's are everyone else. There are overhead signs showing where each group should line up. There are also stanchions that have divider belts. Granted those belts and stanchions don't go very far back and thus, don't create shoots. When flights aren't very full and there are perhaps only 3-5 B's, the Ops agent will just announce that he/she will board everyone as A's. Perhaps that's what happened on the day you were flying out of Seattle.
Nope - there was no such announcement. The guy in question betted (correctly) that they weren't going to be fastening a belt that close to departure if they hadn't already. I assumed he had a B-pass until the GA announced A boarding, and he got out his A-pass. There was a B Line formed behind him; I'd reckon he cut ahead of roughly 10 folks who were already waiting on the A-Line before he strode upon the scene. As it turned out, his goal was the rear 2/1 exit window seat with the double legroom. He knew exactly what he was doing.