Originally Posted by
adampenrith
..I am a member of the Frequent Flyer program for each airline, but not a tier member.
It can be done - its all in how you ask for it at checkin.
That is just blunt superstition. Whenever it doesn't work you blame it on the subtleties of not having asked correctly?
And you admit your self that is is not
all in the way of asking:
...but checking in early seems to make a difference as well.
The conceptual mistake you make here is assuming that the agents have final control over the seats that get assigned. Not additional warning will keep them from overriding a block when they have to.