palladia

On a recent flight from SFO to SEA, my wife and I (I'm MVP Gold 75K and she is MVP Gold) were traveling together, and were first and second on the upgrade list the entire time after we checked in online a day earlier. There were about 20 or so people on the upgrade list.

Upon arriving at SFO, I noticed that the flight seems very full, but there were still one seat seemingly available in first class when we boarded. Shortly afterwards, a good looking guy in Alaska cockpit uniform, wearing what appeared to be an Alaska employee badge took the empty first class seat. He seemed very friendly with the flight attendant in first class.

Curious, I looked at the upgrade list, and I was still first in line. But the strange thing was that the first person on the stand-by list was shown to have been upgraded to that seat. Presumably, this non-revenue employee was first on the stand-by list, and given the first class seat because he was cozy with the gate agent and/or flight attendant. This just didn't seem right.

Afterwards, I wrote to Alaska Airlines to complain, and the reason I got back was that since I was traveling with my wife, they assumed I didn't want to sit alone in the first class seat, which there were just one available. They admitted that non-revenue passengers should never be upgraded over revenue tickets, their excuses seemed unreasonable. There were plenty of other passengers who were on the upgrade list. Alaska didn't offer any compensation, except to say that I should've gone up to the gate agent and asked to be split from my wife on upgrading.

Although it was a short flight, and the upgrade wasn't a huge deal to me, it still leaves me kind of fuming at Alaska. If a good looking guy who's charming with the ladies get upgraded over revenue ticket holders, and the airlines kind of condones this behavior, why would anyone want to be loyal to this airline?

icelandman2

Another angle - it's possible that the pilot was actually deadheading. If so, he'd still show up on the standby list, but depending on the routing could be contractually entitled to a F seat, even if it displaces paying F pax. Standby for crew can include must-flys - sometimes it means they just haven't been assigned a seat yet. Complaint line probably wouldn't even see that, but if they could, would probably default to the story they told you rather than trying to explain the pilot contract rules.

eponymous_coward

Did you know deadheading Alaska pilots can be accomodated in first class? Says so right in their contract.

Downgraded while Crew in F

So, how do you know that wasn't the case here? Or would you still be objecting even if it turns out the pilot had a right to sit in that seat?

DrAlex

Like a [Virgin] Pilot? Because it's in his contract to fly first and would have bumped even paid people out of the F cabin.

palladia

An employee entitled to first class seat? I fly a lot, and have never seen an uniformed employee get upgraded to first ahead of revenue passengers.

I have seen pilots being sandwiched in middle seats on United Airlines frequently, and they can't even displace seated passengers now due to the Dr. Dao incident.

Eastbay1K

In this traceable day and age, I'd not expect many gate agents to mess around with standard upgrade and standby protocols. I'm sure failing to give a pilot a contractually-guaranteed seat is a disciplinary offense, as is a courtesy upgrade to non-revenue non-entitled employees with entitled passengers on the waitlist.

palladia

I wasn't close enough to tell if this employee was a pilot or not, but this wasn't the reason given by Alaska Airlines for upgrading him over me. They did say that non-revenue employees should never be upgraded ahead of revenue passengers.

icelandman2

There's a key distinction here - there are two kinds of uniformed pilots traveling. One category is on-duty pilots traveling as a part of their assigned trip. Under those scenarios, they are entitled to an F seat, even if it displaces revenue F pax, under certain conditions (I believe if the entirety of the on-duty period that day exceeds 5 hours, but I'm not sure). Even in cases where they are not entitled to an F seat, they have their pick of seat type and location, again displacing revenue pax if necessary. The other category, which is likely what you have seen on UA, is off-duty pilots commuting to or from the start or end of their trip. For example, a pilot on AS could be SEA-based but live in the Bay Area, and would fall in this category when traveling to work for a trip (which will start and end in SEA). Under these circumstances, they are entitled to nothing, and will therefore often take the worst seats so they can get to work on time.

icelandman2

Again, I don't think the reason given by the frontline employee is likely to be accurate, nor is it relevant. They may or may not have been aware of a pilot or similar deadheading as opposed to commuting (or even the difference between these cases), and even if they were, may not be allowed/choose to tell you the real details as to why he was given the seat. In fact, there's a decent chance that the employee was correct - airlines often will only consider an employee to be nonrevving if it is for commute/personal travel, and would explicitly consider a deadhead to not fall under those categories. Under this model, their statement could be accurate, if we assume the hypothesis that this was in fact a deadheading pilot.

PVDtoDEL

Deadheading pilots entitled to F typically show up on the awaiting seats list as DHD/ or CRE/. Commuting pilots will show up with their name.

radtechtraveler

We had 3 sun country pilots deadheading msp to PDX on alaska and guess who was 1 and 2 on the upgrade list...no one got upgraded. Happens quite often on that route

UAPremierExec

some airlines pay for first class..... Alaska will definitely NOT clear a non-rev over a revenue customer like that. If they won't give an airline executive confirmed first class, then why on earth would they upgrade a basic line pilot from another airline? I've flown countless flights ANC-Hawai'i with a UPS pilot, in uniform, next to me or near me. UPS pays for first class.

Often1

If the Captain was a "must fly" AS might have a contractual obligation to seat him in F if he is working and flying in order to perform a later flight. That might even mean downgrading a full-fare F passenger.

OP simply does not have close to enough facts to make the accusation.

lalala

We're a kinder and gentler airline. I've been 1 of many or few F seats out of BWI/IAD and lost them to DHD/A DHD/B sometimes two on one flight. I've learned to just deal with it, as it stipulated in the contract to fly F, so be it.

PABE

It is Alaska's policy to not automatically split parties if only 1 F seat is available. You have to specifically ask and it is at the discretion of the GA. So it seems like they were following policy to skip over you.

I don't really understand why some get upset at the idea of a pilot sitting in F. Would you really feel comfortable if the person operating your flight just spent 6 hours in the last limited-recline middle seat on the plane? Also, remember that a lot of uniformed-pilots in F are on paid tickets. Cargo operators and some charter companies only buy F tickets for their crew.