Bumped from seat
 

Had a weird experience over the weekend. Revenue business class ticket DUB-SFO-DUB. On the SFO-DUB flight I had reserved seat 3K. On Saturday I used the app to check-in for the SFO -DUB segment yesterday. All went normal during the process - 3K was displayed alongside the notice that you can not change a pre-assigned seat online. Everything was fine until it produced the boarding card which showed 2K! Initially I though it was a error but no a reprint produced the same result. I arrived early on Sunday to talk to a check-in agent and they verified I was indeed in 2K (worst seat as a solo traveller IMHO). I showed them my original reservation with 3K allocated, and the only explanation they could give was that it is probably due to a higher revenue fare requesting that seat. They also said that status didn't come into it either. After digging my heels they reluctantly reassigned me 3K. They also mentioned that a similar thing happens to two people the day before. No issues on the flight itself and no one appeared to feel put out.
Anyone know what is going on or have had similar experiences? In this case there were definitely no equipment changes and no weather delays with knock on effects etc.
Not a good way to treat top-tier customers IMHO

Seems poor form I agree. If they want to reserve the best seats for potential high rev fares (which I guess is their right) then block a couple of the throne seats until close to check in or whenever they feel is best. Kicking other passengers out of their picked seat is (especially other rev + status pax) is daft IMO.

Thats not on at all.

The 3K and 5K are extremely popular seats, that said for sleeping there are not great due to the tight foot well.

I've flown to SFO as Platinum on the cheapest possible revenue Biz ticket and got 3K, no problems. Flying on the upgrade voucher you end up in the worst seat back in row 6 unless you get the upgrade approved months ahead

It may just be a system error and the airport staff just speculate as to what it could be to say something to the passenger as an excuse. I have seen this a few times on the Euro routes.

Maybe some last minute juggling due to infants on board?

The only time I have seen any forced seat swaps in C have been due to lap infants and parents who needed to be moved to the front rows (the only rows where infants can travel in C). Hard to see how this would result in you being moved from 3K to 2K though...

No infants in the cabin. I was bumped on my flight to BOS the other week though that was using one of my complimentary upgrades. In that case no seat was re-allocated and I was able to pick a similar seat on check-in. Never had this on Euro routes. If it is not an IT glitch EI need to be much clearer on their policies.

The comp upgrades are a problem as the agents may fail to issue the ticket correctly and the seat you selected with the agent doesn't stick. Always confirm the seat with the agent on the phone, don't do it later online, as the agent can only assign a seat if the ticket has been reissued correctly.

The official bumping policy, for overbooking is the only document available which shows internally what the agents should be trained on and something similar should apply here (or be applied as there is nothing else to work from). The policy makes no reference to when a ticket was purchased, the fare paid or the type of ticket held

Staff in Dublin have confirmed to me under no circumstances will a AC member be denied boarding for overbooking and the magic seat 2C which is considered the best on the A320 is consistently assigned to a AC member at no cost. I'd prefer 3D but they can't manage that so its 2C 90% of the time.

:D :D :D

Gas!

Indeed, why is 2C the golden seat on a 320? Thinking about it my bump was on the flight to BOS which was biz revenue, and I used the upgrade cert on the way back.

2C is magic, and the reason why is known only to EI staff.

Just try to check in to 2A or 2B and see how far you get...

Is it only 2C? Does 2D have no magic?

To be honest, looking back at my flight history, getting 2A, 2B (not illustrated, but I have one recorded instance), 2C or even 2D doesn't seem that difficult...

Haha what happens if you can't get row 2 on a flight!? Impressive consistency there.

That list shown above has been sorted by seat number, and focuses only on the "magic" seats.

I've recorded seats in almost every row from 1 through 83 (the latter being LH First on a 747 on BKK-KUL, a tag they probably no longer operate). And I only consistently recorded seat numbers from about 2005 onwards!

Ah I see now the breaks in sequence in the numbers on the left. Still though some good runs in row 2 no matter if Y/J/F

2A and 2B cannot be purchased online in advance for operational reasons. So only available at manual check in or unless someone in EI releases them. Take a look at a A320 seat map, 2A and 2B are always shown as unavailable.

Hence if you get 2C, A and B have a high chance of being empty.