What's with AS F availability?

Old Sep 3, 2018, 11:25 pm
  #1  
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What's with AS F availability?

On two separate occasions, I have seen AS selling much fewer F seats than are available.

Scenario 1:
AS287 LAX-SEA redeye (yuck)
At t-24, the flight was at F1U0 and Y7 on the 739. Seat map only showed my seat selected (I know this isn't representative, but bear with me).
At boarding, zero people on upgrade list, and ~15 or so on standby. I was the only one in F until a few minutes prior to door closure and 6 or 7 NRSA board into F - they all had "CREW" tags on their bags. I thought it was odd that 14 F pax would no-show for the flight

Also, the back of the plane was about 30% full.

Scenario 2:
LAX-SEA 6a departure.
At t-24, the flight also showed F1U0, again on a 16F 739. Seatmap showed 3 seats assigned, one person on upgrade list.
At gate, the one person on UG showed as cleared. We boarded with 4 in F initially, then about 4 more cleared directly into F from the standby list. The F cabin went out 50% full.


I find it highly unlikely that 14 and 12 F pax (respectively) no-showed on my last two flights. So is AS holding back from selling full-fare F seats? I understand holding back on upgrades, but it makes no sense to not sell revenue tickets.

Edit: On a side note, on one of these flights, the FA came up to me and gave me a few of the chocolate bars because I was the only Gold passenger on the whole flight.
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Old Sep 3, 2018, 11:32 pm
  #2  
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I agree...there's "goofy" stuff going on....last month in a matter of days, I saw my SBA-PDX flight go from approx. 100% empty to 100% full in the F cabin and then magically I got easily upgraded as an MVP and we went out with multiple empty seats in F....go figure.

As a side note, those LAX-PDX/SEA flights that leave around midnight have got to be one of the easiest upgrades in the system. I was booked onto LAX-PDX about an hour or so before departure and easily cleared the upgrade at the last minute.
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 4:56 am
  #3  
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Their RM is ridiculous. I had a SFO-ORD I needed for award (connecting to Europe), was in Y with the upgrade requested on a Business award. 0 seats sold, never opened A or U. 2 hours before departure, they dumped the entire F cabin (8 seats) to upgrades, including us, who were given scattered seats despite being on the same PNR and #2 and #3 on the list for a wide open cabin.

I get there's a last minute component to some markets, but all 8 seats, all the way to 2 hours before departure? They're leaving partner award revenue on the table, MVPG upgrade revenue (buyups to higher classes to get instant-ups or use certs), and possibly increasing their costs by pushing awards to other carriers when their space isn't available, etc.
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 6:17 am
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This has been going on for weeks now. I guess they think they can resolve their revenue shortfalls by not selling any premium tickets. LOL
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 9:33 am
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Flew BOS-SEA Sunday morning... I got upgraded, my colleague was "first loser" on the upgrade list. Plane backed away from the gate with an empty F seat. Colleague not happy.

FA's were talking amongst themselves trying to figure out if they could give someone an upgrade and they seem to have decided that the GA screwed up. There's been so many wacky things with the upgrade system lately though, It's hard to know who was at fault. There are definitely strange things afoot at AS though. (See another post here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30145338-post12.html)

Last edited by brownnet; Sep 4, 2018 at 9:33 am Reason: forgot a parenthesis
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 9:34 am
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Originally Posted by channa
...who were given scattered seats despite being on the same PNR and #2 and #3 on the list for a wide open cabin.
This happened to me on an SFO-IAD trip earlier on. The logic in the system is just not there. Got a few flippant responses from social media and staff stating that the upgrade processor tries its best to sit people on the same PNR together. Everyone on board was perfectly nice enough to want to swap seats around, and it probably didn't hurt that we weren't the only couple traveling together that this happened to.

I have to also agree with leaving revenue on the table. I don't believe that anyone would pay $1,499, or worse, $1,999 which is the SFO-DCA going rate for F most days.
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 9:49 am
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Wonky

T-9 on a Seattle GEG flight today with 11 unassigned FC seats. Talk about holding out Hope, Ha. I see that U isnt open on a ton of these flights today despite apparent excess availability
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 11:19 am
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Plenty of examples in this existing thread:
Alaska Air MAJOR ISSUE? No saver award space!
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Old Sep 4, 2018, 12:41 pm
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Originally Posted by obnoxoid
This happened to me on an SFO-IAD trip earlier on. The logic in the system is just not there. Got a few flippant responses from social media and staff stating that the upgrade processor tries its best to sit people on the same PNR together. Everyone on board was perfectly nice enough to want to swap seats around, and it probably didn't hurt that we weren't the only couple traveling together that this happened to.

I have to also agree with leaving revenue on the table. I don't believe that anyone would pay $1,499, or worse, $1,999 which is the SFO-DCA going rate for F most days.
Yeah, we got 2C and 2D (aisles across). That makes sense because if you look at their seat assignment logic, the automation assigns seats back to front. If I apply a GGU at booking with no seat, I always get last row.

We were #2 and #3 , so presumably #1 got 2A in the empty cabin. I think there is no logic to give a pair to a couple or anything like that.

Similar to your situation, we shuffled around. Shuffling is relatively easy since there's no seat logic and they dump and fill the cabin at once, so basically nobody is in their desired seats and nobody minds moving.
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Old Sep 5, 2018, 1:35 pm
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I have a flight upcoming - SEA LAS 9/6 -9/12 - outbound husband and I are in separate rows, but both in aisle, return we are 7 A & B. It will be interesting to see if my husband ends up with A or B on his BP (he is MVP, I am 75k, purchased the flights as one reservation/transaction)
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Old Sep 5, 2018, 11:24 pm
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The couple F prices Ive looked at also seem higher than Im used to, especially seeing zero F seats sold 60+ days out, or just one seat. Maybe instead of actually changing pricing or the system theyre just filling F seats so the system will bump fares up early on? Either way Ive picked Delta on my flights instead because Alaskas F price with an empty cabin was what I was seeing on Delta flights that were half full. (And Delta also had plenty cheap because the F cabin was almost empty, so I just adjusted my schedule and booked slight different flights. Talking like an hour difference in departure time)
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Old Sep 7, 2018, 3:28 pm
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Originally Posted by brownnet
Flew BOS-SEA Sunday morning... I got upgraded, my colleague was "first loser" on the upgrade list. Plane backed away from the gate with an empty F seat. Colleague not happy.
Do FA's not have access to the upgrade list after pushing back? I mean, I think anyone with the app can view it

I know I've been upgraded after taking a seat (such an amazing feeling, although I do like the certainty of knowing earlier) - but I'm pretty sure that was when the door was still open and it as probably either a GA pulling me up, or having told a FA to find me.
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Old Sep 10, 2018, 6:54 pm
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Yeah FA's aren't authorized to move people around. If you got upgraded on the plane, it was the GA that did it (a "battlefield upgrade" in FT vernacular!).
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Old Sep 10, 2018, 9:35 pm
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Originally Posted by nearlysober
Do FA's not have access to the upgrade list after pushing back? I mean, I think anyone with the app can view it

I know I've been upgraded after taking a seat (such an amazing feeling, although I do like the certainty of knowing earlier) - but I'm pretty sure that was when the door was still open and it as probably either a GA pulling me up, or having told a FA to find me.
The app can lie as well... its not 100% accurate.

I've been asked to come up to F after reaching 10K before, when we were trying to push back. Appreciated the GA passing the information along. ^
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Old Sep 11, 2018, 11:00 am
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I had a GA upgrade me during the boarding process (group C or D), and then not tell anyone. I still had my old boarding pass (the app never updated) and they put someone in standby in my spot.

I thought they were going to try and kick me off until one of the FA's realized I was upgraded. Fun stuff.
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