amorsell

I'm giving up on exit row seating on Alaska Airlines. This has happened to me too many times and just happened BOTH directions SEA-FAI. My wife and I often reserve exit row seats because I am flying on a paid ticket while she is on mileage and we can't get upgraded to F in that situation. We have ALWAYS been choosing the rear-most exit row where the seats recline.

So, when the aircraft is a 737-900 configuration 1 the exit rows are 14 and 15 so we reserve seats in row 15. But, the equipment is changed somewhere down the line to the 737-900 configuration 2 where the exit rows are 15 and 16 so our reserved seats are now the first row of exit seats and don't recline. On a 3 hour flight, this makes a huge difference in comfort.

sltlyamusd

Hmmm...that's weird. Alaska supposedly implemented a feature to protect exit row pax during equipment swaps several years ago. It would appear to not be working...

dave1013

This was mentioned at last week's Gold lunch here in Juneau. The only thing I can offer, after having listened to the conversation, is call the Gold desk as soon as you become aware of this change. Rick said they'd do their best to get you where you want to be. In reality, this is probably a moot point because I imagine most times you find out pretty close to departure time. At least that has been my experience.

I agree that equipment changes are a drag - I've had the same thing happen to me that you have described. However, there is the other side of the coin, namely, that rare instance when an equipment change brings with it four more seats in F. This constituted one of my fondest battlefield upgrade memories.

(Of course the coin can get flipped when they change from a 16-seat F configuration to 12 seats. Hasn't happened to me but I have some friends who befell this fate).

amorsell

Yeah, that's what happened yesterday. We did not discover this change until we actually boarded the plane and took our assigned seats.

gatorray

I thought the OP still was seated in an exit row, just not the reclining exit row. Maybe it is technically working.

doog

If Alaska does have a program that protects exit row pax, it may not distinguish between the good (recline) and bad (non-recline) type of exit row seats. I think it's important to recognize that the OP did end up in an exit row, so necessarily know in this case of the "protection feature" (if it exists) actually works.

missydarlin

This is correct. On a -900 aircraft, only row 15 is available for pre-assignment. When the actual aircraft is assigned, and we know for sure whether 14 or 16 will be the other exit row.. then the other exit row will open up.

My suggestion to the OP, if they are regularly flying the -900, is to start checking their seats around 3 days before the flight. Thats generally about as far out as aircraft are assigned.