AS’ story doesn’t add up. I hope you contact Customer Care. Let us know how it goes! 🤙🏻

This has been discussed before. Deadheading pilots have a contractual right to a first class seat in certain situations. If you had already been upgraded but then they needed to deadhead the pilot AS acted correctly, even though it’s disappointing.

I understand about the pilots’ contract

in the big scheme of things, the end result is as expected: I paid for a coach ticket, my 75K status let me select a PC seat at booking (back in October), and I occupied that seat on this evening’s flight ​​​​

my complaint is with the GA’s story, and I’m curious about two things, namely:

1. if the flight was indeed booked full, why were two unclaimed F seats on the seat map at ~T-4 hrs?
2. if I got a T-24 upgrade ahead of other elites, why wasn’t one of them bumped back to Main/PC?

*maybe* the pax in 4C/D bought those seats at full F ($1499, iirc) between T-4 hrs and T-40 minutes

1. You can have a confirmed reservation without a pre-reserved seat (as was the case here).
2. You were the only UG on the flight, everyone else in J (sans DH pilot) were on paid tickets.

Forgive me if this is off-topic for this specific thread, but the closest direct links I could find last had posts between 1 and 4 years ago and I did not want to revive a "necro thread". And since this is just for my education / curiosity, I did not feel it warranted a new thread.

Was booked in First on a D fare class (used to be "P" before the OW fare class alignment) DCA-SEA (AS 4) seated in 1F checked in 24+ hours before scheduled departure (31 July). I have no elite status with Alaska or OneWorld. About 30 minutes before scheduled departure our A321-200neo went tech and had to be towed from the gate. Replaced with an A320-200 so that dropped First from 16 to 12 seats. I was auto-rebooked to 27B, which I noticed when I refreshed the Alaska app for My Trip. I was then placed on the Upgrade List, but at #23 knew that was not going to happen. :)

My question is when a down-gauge or IROPs happen, does Alaska take into account fare class or is Elite Status the determiner when they fill First and Premium Economy? One of the reasons I choose a revenue First Class fare is the belief it would offer some protections versus choosing an eligible Economy fare and using miles to upgrade. And this is the first time IROPs have caught me out, so I will likely still continue to book D / I fare classes.

Since I had flexibility and they were going to have to IDB up to 40 folks, I accepted VDB and they rebooked me out the next day on AS 1078 from Dulles in First (and I am now booked with a J fare class) with a very generous Bonus Travel Certificate. So as noted, just asking for my education/curiosity about how premium cabin seat selection is generally handled in such situations.

Thanks!

There is a published downgrade protocol they are supposed to follow. They should be downgrading any upgrades first, before revenue pax.
However not all GAs bother. Sometimes they downgrade whoever happens to be in Row 4.
I was downgraded once because they didn't want to split up a couple, even though I was higher than the couple on the waitlist originally.

I was downgraded from 2C last night on a flight into FAI. Went from a 739 to a 73H. Ended up in 11F.

Nice score on VDB and regaining F. Wonder how yours all evolved.

I have a flight that is at least U4 (and at least F7) and it is inside T-118 and I have not been upgraded.

I escalated this in real-time to Mileage Plan management. My PNR has been forwarded to AS IT for research and observation. I'll post if I hear something.

AS MP "management": You're a VIP so we will go ahead and process the UG manually.

AS Reservations (for a regular person): It's an automated process. You must wait. We cannot help.

AS knows the UG processor has existing bugs and will patch them as they arise and cause sufficient disruption, but revamping the UG professor to match the posted policy of "you will be upgraded immediately" is not a priority for them. 🤙🏻🍹

The initial explanation that I received was more detailed. As I said, if I get more information, I will share it.

Please do. There's a long way from upgraded "immediately" to "at all", which is frequently my experience. Luckily I am usually in a position to do web checkin at exactly 24 hours out and snag the upgrade anyway, but it should happen without my (timely) intervention.

I'm not trying to revamp the processor or fix all its ills. My goal is for upgrades to be processed on a timely basis at the respective elite windows. Baby steps.

Even when U space was available, I can't ever remember getting the upgrade exactly when the window opened....usually there is a 2-6 hour lag time for some reason.

It used to work, but it's been a while.

in my experience over the last year or so, as a 75K I've been clearing TCONs at ~T-22 hrs ... shorter flights like PAE-SAN and SEA-LAX have been ~T-117 hrs