Lake_Hood

My wife was in 17F. After boarding the plane and getting settled in, a uniformed Alaska pilot notified her she was in his seat. Upon refreshing her application, she notes she was bumped back into 20E. Another individual in an exit row had the same situation happen to him. He was moved twice (into 15C and then into premium class). My wife is an MVP Gold and both her and I have not seen this happen before. I understand your seats assignment is subject to change, but any reason why they would do this after you have boarded and in the exit row?

Legend717

Yes, it's because they needed to fly a pilot somewhere.
She's lucky she complied, and wasn't in Chicago!

​​​​​​​It's really poor customer service on Alaska's part. Give the pilot the middle seat. That's part of the joy of deadhead/non-rev.

Lake_Hood

Understood it is a part of air travel, but they did not handle the situation well (probably fair to say better than United...). The pilot taking her seat had a terrible attitude, and the flight attendants were not helpful. If you are going to remove someone from your seat after they have boarded, someone working the flight should notify you. Further, I get you want to treat your employees well, but I would bump your frequent flyers last. If its random, don't put them in the exit row, where elites are more likely to sit. At the end of the day, its overall not a huge deal, but it is annoying and Alaska will be receiving a complaint for how it was handled.

beckoa

This sounds rather strange.

*speculation*

There was a sick call in XYZ station and the pilot had to deadhead to XYZ to fly the return. Hence they weren't so excited to fly. Contract rules dictate where they sit; was on a flight that had deadheading pilots in F [Think I got a call offering a downgrade for comp once] so they could fly the return.

I'd definitely send AS a note. Having a paper BP would have been interesting...

AS had the opportunity to handle this better...

sdsearch

Is this the downside of using mobile boarding passes?

Is she hadn't had a mobile boarding pass, there would have been no way to "refresh" it, and she would have shown her paper boarding pass which said 17F, and that would have involved the flight attendant, right? Then at the very least the flight attended would have had to go out to the gate and bring her a new boarding pass, right?

LaneW

It's ridiculous... a revenue paying MV Gold bumped to a middle seat by a pilot? The AS that I USED to know and love would not let that happen or sign Collective Bargaining Agreement language that would trump their valued customers for a pilot ........ oh, except for the VX elites to whom they gave the world at the expense of their own elites... but that's another matter.

Legend717

1. Note that I said it was part of NON-REV travel- meaning, not YOUR travel, but his. However, according to another poster, the pilots contract stipulates that they won't get stuck in middle seats. Many pilots I know wouldn't enforce this, but he clearly doesn't sound like a real nice guy, and he was technically completely within his rights/privileges to take the window.
2. BUMP is the wrong word. No one got BUMPED. She got RE-SEATED. That's a very significant difference, and if you're going to write a complaint, you need to keep your terms straight, or you'll be blown off.
3. Good. You should write a complaint. They handled this poorly. Not teeth-breaking poorly, but still poorly!

channa

We don't know what would have happened had the person held their ground.

I would have certainly resisted and not made it easy on them. Not saying I wouldn't ultimately comply, but I always do paper BP, and I would have held my ground for some time and explored other options like what other seats may be available to pulling my bag and not flying to make their life difficult.

Now if they had come on board with a new BP, and apology, and a voucher, that'd be a different story. But if they're going to play nasty like this, the customer can at least push back.

Remember the pilots are not happy after the binding arbitration ruling, so I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this happen more often. If they have a contractual provision that allows them that exit row seat, and they're not happy with management, fewer pilots are going to play nice and waive that provision.

Lake_Hood

We never received a response from Alaska, or notification that they had done anything, but I noticed today they posted a $75 credit to my wife's account the day after she wrote to Alaska (or I assume it was that day because that is what is setting the validity period).

jsguyrus

Back in the days of NWA I was re-seated for some reason I don't remember now. I do remember the flight attendant was so happy I didn't cause a scene she handed me a fist full of 5,000 mile coupons and gave me a free drink! That's customer service!!

PV_Premier

pilots have language in their contracts that entitles them to specific seating when flying, in uniform, on company business. as others have stated, the pilots union isn't completely happy right now, and so i imagine they'll be less flexible about these provisions than in the past.

they're also humans, remember. they don't like the middle seat as much as you, and they probably have to turn right back around and fly that plane back when they get where they are going.