Bumped to a downgraded seat on VX due to ticketing issue with Alaska.
 

I’ve recently had a run of bad luck with Alaska/Virgin on my past JFK->SFO->JFK round trip tickets. While I assumed the earlier ones were caused by weather and the meltdown of their JFK operations, this most recent instance was puzzling.

On my return leg from SFO to JFK I had called the Alaska MVP line to make sure I was on the upgrade list for MCS, as seats were available and on my outbound they had mentioned I wasn’t on the list at check-in (despite having opted in when purchasing the tickets.) The Alaska Rep confirmed I was on and shortly after I was on and shortly thereafter was able to select a MCS seat. (2 in row 3 and all 6 in row 10 were available.)

I proceeded to check in at the counter about 6 hours prior to departure (as the app was throwing an error but it seems to always do so) and was confirmed in 10A. At check-in she mentioned they’d left off the ticket number but had it added and all was well. My boarding pass was printed, seat confirmed, with the app showing the same.

I boarded, sat down and about 5 minutes prior to door close another individual mentioned I was in his seat. The FA took both of our boarding passes and returned at door close with a new ticket stating I was to be bumped back to Main Cabin and explained quickly that Alaska had messed up my ticket so they had to downgrade me to the main cabin in the back and that they’ll compensate me.

This is the latest in a string of problems I’ve had flying Alaska/VX JFK to SFO (this isn’t counting having to deal with T7, which is in and of itself a colossal problem), but this one is probably the screwiest as I’d checked in with VX ahead of time to make sure everything was OK as I really just don’t trust their ticketing system anymore. This goes along with the IDB on the outbound and a similar issue a month prior where VX had assigned my seat to someone else because I didn’t check in earlier. Somehow as an MVP Gold I’m flying in the last row middle seat a lot.

(Side note, has anyone who has had this happen to them had any luck writng Alaska/Virgin CS and getting their RED tab comp’d?)

I wonder if this is a thing now? On my most recent VX flight booked on AS, there were 5 separate instances of duplicate seat assignments. It was a mess and the GA had to come on board and try to sort it all out. It all worked out in the end but I have just never seen that many before.

In four weeks VX's reservation system will be history so hopefully all the issues of using two reservation systems speaking different languages will be behind us. You had mentioned that you would be compensated. Did they follow through with that? I suggest you cut and paste your post here and submit it to Alaska. When you have more than an isolated incident, as you describe, they should consider it commensurately.

James

Yup, I've basically been avoiding VX metal until post-4/24 or whatever the date is. Too many seating issues, mileage posting issues, even TSA PRE not showing up. It's simply not clean and not worth the headache.

If I'm sitting in the seat that is printed on my boarding pass and someone comes and says I'm in their seat I do not get up.

Yep after going through a few of these mergers, its pretty much a given there are going to be issues like these.

Imagine writing in AS with a copy of the tab should yield positive results.

I'm having a similar issue but not due to duplicate seating (yet) - I have a May trip scheduled SEA-MEX ZIH-SEA; when I originally booked it last December I was able to get all four legs upgraded on my last remaining GGUs. Since then there have been four changes to schedule and/or equipment on my itinerary - the latest one yesterday being a change of equipment LAX-SEA to a PM VX plane from an AS one. All of those changes have brought me down to one remaining leg in first out of the original four. I understand why a lot of this is happening (SFO flights removed from the schedule, etc.) and they did replace one of my GGUs, but it is a bit frustrating.

Looking at it again, it appears VX put someone else in my seat from a cancelled flight and then chose to bump me when the conflict came up, which kind of grinds my gears as an MVP Gold. (From what I could see on the other person's BP they had no status, not that I'd wish reassignment on them either :/ )

Also there were 3 crew in the F cabin, so double awesome.