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Does AS FAs prevent seat poachers?

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Old Sep 25, 2016, 7:34 pm
  #1  
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Does AS FAs prevent seat poachers?

In my experience the FAs did nothing to prevent seat poachers on my last flight. They allowed pax to take bulkhead seats without paying.
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Old Sep 25, 2016, 8:13 pm
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They should. I'd write a letter since those seats should only be for eligible elites and/or those who paid the upgrade fee. I might have even mentioned it during the flight.
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Old Sep 25, 2016, 10:12 pm
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I think FAs will be encouraged to prevent seat poachers once the premium economy class section officially gets underway next year....it sounds like the seats will be a slightly different color so that should help.
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Old Sep 25, 2016, 10:43 pm
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I've heard from FA's that they are not required by Management to police the Preferred Plus seats since it's inception.

However, they have said that it will be different with Premium seats, that they'll have the ability to charge onboard if someone wants to move to that seat once boarding is done.
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Old Sep 25, 2016, 11:23 pm
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Originally Posted by PDXFlyBoy
I've heard from FA's that they are not required by Management to police the Preferred Plus seats since it's inception.

However, they have said that it will be different with Premium seats, that they'll have the ability to charge onboard if someone wants to move to that seat once boarding is done.

all of this is correct.
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 9:28 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by PDXFlyBoy
I've heard from FA's that they are not required by Management to police the Preferred Plus seats since it's inception.
Well, bulkhead (which was the OP's specific question), yes. But do you also mean exit row Preferred Plus seats?

I would presume that FAs are required to police someone trying to move to the exit row. (At the very least, they would need to get the verbal "yes" from them at that point, right?)
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 2:27 pm
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Funny as hell, people complaining about "seat poachers". Not too many years ago all seats in coach were equal. Now that the airlines are screwing people by charging extra people start to think that should be the case.

In any event, unless you are the one who paid extra and are being denied your seat, who gives a crap?

Also, to note, AS staff tend to not be as Nazi-ish as many other carriers. They tend to actually act human. Go figure...
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 3:13 pm
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Originally Posted by GulkanaAlaska
In any event, unless you are the one who paid extra and are being denied your seat, who gives a crap?
I think it's a fairness issue. Once the Premium Economy era kicks off, the reverse of your observation will be true - i.e., if I don't pay extra, I don't get that PE seat. Otherwise, why have a PE section?

I'll be interested to know how the pay-for-play will be enforced. In other words, how will the FA's know that a PE-seat-paying person is in a PE seat? I presume that there will be some notation on the pax's BP and/or on the screen of the FA's handheld device.

I can understand it not being enforced now.
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 3:23 pm
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Do the seat "poachers" try to take a seat that is assigned to someone else?

If so, then the FA's are entirely within their authority to enforce it. However, if the passenger who has the rightful assignment doesn't care, should the FA act in that case?
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 4:10 pm
  #10  
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I think the seat poaching issue is about customers moving into EMPTY, unassigned premium economy seats without paying....not sitting in a seat assigned and paid for by someone else. The interesting thing about it is that on elite-lite flights, where all the elites were upgraded but nobody in Y wanted to pay for premium economy, you'll have two situations....those without Y seat assignments get premium economy for free if Y- is full or you'll have this weird situation where the back if packed and the front rows are empty.
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 4:57 pm
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Do they enforce people moving to an empty seat in first class today? Granted I haven't seen one of those in over 5 years, but I gotta believe there would be some policing going on if they did.
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 8:16 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by PDXFlyBoy
I've heard from FA's that they are not required by Management to police the Preferred Plus seats since it's inception.

However, they have said that it will be different with Premium seats, that they'll have the ability to charge onboard if someone wants to move to that seat once boarding is done.
So if someone wants to move to an empty premium economy seat after boarding is it going to be the first person to raise their hand or ring the call button? I can't imagine FAs being excited about one more thing to do before departure although it might increase the % of credit card application if they say something like, "If you sign-up for an Alaska Visa card right now, we'll move you to premium economy for free!!"
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 8:45 pm
  #13  
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Originally Posted by PDXPremier
So if someone wants to move to an empty premium economy seat after boarding is it going to be the first person to raise their hand or ring the call button? I can't imagine FAs being excited about one more thing to do before departure although it might increase the % of credit card application if they say something like, "If you sign-up for an Alaska Visa card right now, we'll move you to premium economy for free!!"
Well...AFAIK there is some bounty associated with the credit cards. Perhaps this would be for the Premium Economy seats as well
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 9:01 pm
  #14  
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Originally Posted by beckoa
Well...AFAIK there is some bounty associated with the credit cards. Perhaps this would be for the Premium Economy seats as well
Lol...if the bounty is more than any bonus associated with an on-time departure, then we're never going to leave the gate...."Ladies and Gentleman, we can't leave the gate until everyone standing in the aisle waiting to purchase an empty premium economy seat has been seated".
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Old Sep 26, 2016, 9:37 pm
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Originally Posted by dave1013
I'll be interested to know how the pay-for-play will be enforced. In other words, how will the FA's know that a PE-seat-paying person is in a PE seat? I presume that there will be some notation on the pax's BP and/or on the screen of the FA's handheld device.
The new handhelds that the FA's are using show occupied and unoccupied seats. I watched one of the FA's showing another on a QX flight Saturday how to move pax from one seat to another so presumably the FA can drill down to show the passenger name as well. They were also refreshing the seat map as the BP's got scanned at the gate to see the seats fill before the pax even boarded. It's replacing those paper pads the FA's used to use for seat counts.
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