Originally Posted by salex

Is it a rule for all flights that an FA is not supposed to upgrade people or just for overwater or something?

On a recent flight EWR-PHX, I'd been told that it "looked good" for an EUA when I made the reservation so didn't bother to try to use miles. Of course, when I checked at the gate, I was told that first had checked in full. I figured it was the luck of the draw and settled into my seat when boarding time came.

When it came time to close the door, apparently 1E hadn't actually shown up. One of the FAs invited a captain (in uniform) to move up. After a bit of a delay while he shoved everyone else in F's luggage around to make room for his, he settled into what by then I considered my seat.

Not having any idea that this might cause a serious problem for an FA, I wrote a letter to customer service saying that I was disappointed that they hadn't given the seat to an elite. I got a letter back saying that having the GA check the upgrade list would have delayed the flight so they decided not to check the list. Since the seat would have gone empty, they decided to upgrade the employee. (I'd have preferred the suggestion that others have made that the upgrade list be posted and, in this case, that the GA had brought it down to the door at closing time so as to tell the FA where I was sitting so that I could be upgraded , but figured this was reasonable given CO's procedures.) They did also send a space available upgrade certificate which I assume is roughly worthless.