rtwgal

9/19/20
SEA-MCI
AS478
Gold
R Class
Did not clear - was #2 out of 6; no one was upgraded

PDXPremier

Wow...I think that route would have been easier to clear as a Gold on a Saturday pre-Covid.

fly747first

yes but anything ex SEA is likely to have more elites

buschoi

9/17/2020
SEA-CHS
AS728
Gold
R Class
Cleared T-2 hours. #2 of 5. All 5 were cleared.

9/21/2020
CHS-SEA
AS787
Gold
R Class
T-30 minutes. Cleared at the gate after boarding started. #2 of 6. Only 2 cleared.

The gate agent actually called my cell right when I was walking to the gate. He said I was cleared as #2 on the upgrade list to seat 1A, but my travel companion, an MVP but on the same reservation, did not clear because he was #4 . He said I could stay at seat 8C with my travel companion if I preferred, and he would upgrade #3 instead. I told him I would arrive at the gate in 30 seconds, so we hung up.

When I was at the gate, he once again said the same thing. His system showed me as #2 , my companion (same reservation) as #4 , and somebody else as #3 . The Alaska app showed my companion as #3 , and somebody else as #4 . I ended up taking the upgrade with 1C open. My travel companion was happily enjoying 8ABC all to himself.

I was thoroughly confused. I thought travel companion on the same reservation with a Gold would get upgraded together since 1C would have been empty anyway (blocked for social distancing, but would be assigned to people on same reservation). He said no because there was somebody else as #3 in his system, and he would get into trouble for upgrading my travel companion.

RAD_PDX

Bizzare. The GA may have had good intentions but they over thought the situation.

PDXPremier

I agree....there is no reason 1C should have remained empty with your companion in the back.

Flying for Fun

I anticipate they chose not to have 1C occupied as it is somewhat open into the isle with a rear-facing jump seat for the FA in close proximity, closer to the galley and adjacent to 1D where the second FA usually sits for take off & landing.

Generally if two passengers on a PNR cannot be upgraded together, they will be skipped for the next passenger on the waitlist. Here, I think it is a situation of only one seat availability. If that was the case, I commend the GA for calling to give the OP the option to split the PNR and take a single upgrade. That is great customer service, above policy.

James

RAD_PDX

Hmm, is there a policy related to this or can GA's just make up their own rules? I understand the point you are making, however, I have been upgraded with a companion to 1A,C and have seen it happen to other couples as well.

Flying for Fun

I can't say it is policy. Let's just say GA's have incredible flexibility. That can be both good & bad. UA has recently dis-empowered GA's relying on their upgrade processor to 'follow policy.' 1C was not occupied on two of my recent flights 739/A320 and on my E175 SFO-PHX flight, Row 1 was empty but still 6/12 in F.

I am sure some FAs would be more comfortable without passengers in 1C especially while conducting required procedures for when the pilots leave the cockpit.

Having a 1/2 row to yourself isn't such a bad thing. I can lie-flat across three seats....

James

Bellerina

There actually WERE two seats open though 1A & 1C. Though they are only open if it was a couple.

I am also confused as to why they were #2 & 4. Shouldn't they have already been listed together? Did I miss someone answering that? If anything, that's what I would be contacting AS about.

PDXPremier

Good point....if 1A was next in line for the upgrade, then as a MVPG, their companion should have been right after them.

HeyItsMK

I think there was another older thread with the upgrade list and the discrepancy between the list displayed at the airport and the App. Just another thing for IT, which is probably the area where Alaska could really get more support in since they're already delayed in integrating the oneworld stuff. Even until recently, I have also seen discrepancies between the airport screens at the gate versus the app.

Also on this note, in trying to think of different perspectives, maybe the GA was hesitant to upgrade you both to avoid the person in number 3 potentially trying to argue why they were skipped over since it would show 2 and 4 being given the upgrade on the airport screen.

Flying for Fun

1AC may have been unoccupied, but how many F passengers were there in total? On my 4 recent flights, there were no more than 50% of F seats occupied sans the seats blocked for crew during takeoff and landing. I can't say with certainty that they are allowing more than 50% capacity (although there are reports of non-rev sitting together) but if capacity restrictions only allowed one more passenger in F, the unoccupied 1AC is moot.

It is a long known issue that companions don't necessarily show in proper order & sometimes not at all on upgrade waitlists passengers see but what the GA sees is correct. GAs have confirmed and shown me discrepancies before. It seems to be more prevalent if the companion has no status or a lower Elite status.

I can't say why 1C remained unoccupied nor what the ultimate reason/reasons were but IMHO I think the GA went above and beyond contacting the OP to give the option of splitting his PNR to accommodate him on the upgrade. The GA could have just upgraded the next solo passenger still keeping within policy. I don’t know that the practice of splitting PNRs fits neatly within policy anyway.

Remember that under gate control, U is irrelevant and remaining seats in F are assigned by status and time of purchase, even fare class is moot at that time. How many seat were available for occupancy is the unknown.

A note to AS won't get a definitive answer to the particular circumstance but may yield some goodwill of which AS has been hemorrhaging. In a "damned" if you do, "damned" if you don't environment where survival is forefront is a delicate balance not easily attained. Safety & comfort is paramount for everyone on the plane, that includes employees too. When we get through all of this (and we will) I hope AS will be there too.

James

Bellerina

This has not been my experience on the handful of flights. On at least 3-4 flights, F was more than 50% full, and not because of an overbooked Economy. In most cases there were multiple couples travelling together that left some pairs of F seats available in which case someone from the upgrade list was given the seat.

I agree that the GA did the best she could with the data she had been provided. Personally I might have asked the FA once on the plane if my companion could have sat in the empty seat (even if they didn't get drinks/food) given the circumstances, but would have totally understood if the FA said no.

I do think the IT glitch is worth reporting to AS. This really shouldn't be happening in their systems. Luckily this flyer didn't get upset, but I could see this being a real problem with some flyers. If this had been a flight during regular times, the companion may not have been happy with a fuller plane.

HeyItsMK

YMMV will definitely vary on this. I've seen it go both ways. One flight, a pax was able to get their companion to sit in F next to them (for takeoff and landing). To be fair, I didn't notice whether they were both served the food, but I did notice that during the descent that the companion walked back to their seat holding a Chicken Curry Wrap. The other flight, the upgraded pax sat in F, got served the food, snacks, drinks, and cookie, and since the FA did so very quickly, the pax afterwards moved to Premium where their companion otherwise had the row to themselves until it was time to land where they went back to their seat in F.