Ford Fairlane

This isn't a complaint. I read, understood, and accepted the Saver Fare rules and all their risks. I know I could have selected Main if I didn't want to take these risks. This is about trying to understand frequency and cause.

During AS's early January winter sale, I found a handful of even better than most Saver Fares and used them to book a few overnight or weekend trips to places I enjoy, and a couple single-day MRs just for the RDM. Except for a couple segments where seat selection wasn't available at all, I was able to choose window or aisle seats near the front of the Saver sections.

Since then, AS has changed a couple of my seat selections, for instance moving me from my selected 29F window to back row 32B. (32B in both cases, in fact. Weird.)

I'm curious if any other Saver Fare flyers have seen this sort of Saver seat downgrade happen frequently.

I'm also wondering if anyone knows why it happens. Is it just the random magic of the AS algorithm? Did someone detect that I paid lower than many other Saver Fare tickets for the same route and is letting me have my cake but not eat it? Did I get bumped back so a PAX with alleged cardiac issues and her alleged ESA can have 29F?

Insights appreciated.

bmvaughn

What's this based on?

Ford Fairlane

It was the subject of some recent Outrageous Seat Request-type thread here; I couldn't find it again quickly. I'm just using it to represent a forced seat change for some less defensible reason.

Flying for Fun

Equipment swap? Did you call AS and ask why?

James

Ford Fairlane

Good possibility. The limited historical data I can see on flightradar24 shows it been a 737-900 on all flights, and the seat map view in the app matches that, but my dates are far enough into the future not to show up yet on flightradar24.

Not yet; I've just taken the language saying that they do it can as their reason why. I doubt they'd give me an idea of how often this happens. But I might call now, thanks.

Ford Fairlane

Sure, fair enough. And likewise you with your need to even make that comment. No worries. Have a nice day.

jjmadison

How far out is the flight? My guess would be there was some sort of refresh of the seatmap which triggered resetting of where saver seats are. If you were previously in a row that became non-saver, the system could have placed you in the back. Interested to hear what they tell you when you call in.

VegasGambler

If there are available window or aisle seats in the saver section, I'd hope that they would at least move you there.

Seat assignments are not guaranteed, but then again AS does advertise that unlike other airlines' basic economy, you can select your seat when you buy saver. So I'd hope that this is not commonplace.

Ford Fairlane

One of those flights is Feb. 9, the other Feb. 22.

1. This is the thread I mentioned earlier. And I should have called it Outrageous Seat **SWAP** Requests, not just Outrageous Seat Requests. Might make a difference.

The “would you change seats with me?” Master thread

2. I called Alaska, explained my question, and the agent told me the types of reasons she knows of while a Saver seat might get moved: air marshall, child traveling alone that the FAs want to keep closer by, valid need to keep two flyers together (e.g. medical issue or something like that), and equipment change. There may be others, but those are the ones she could think of.

3. But here's what now even more baffling: My Seats Changed **Again**. Those 32Bs are now 30Bs. Still middle seats, but two rows up. Yes, I'm sure. It's like wack-a-mole with Saver seating assignments back there.

Adding to the Saver mystique: I had a Saver reservation without a seat assignment this past weekend. At the gate, I ended up assigned to 11F, window right behind Premium Economy.

So sometimes you eat the b'ar and, well, sometimes the b'ar eats you.

UAPremierExec

your seat assignments are embedded in Sabre in history. Ask the agent to please take a look and see what happened. There will be a time stamp for each change, and sometimes a comment.

Ford Fairlane

I called back and asked another agent to check the notes, and it turns out that Flying for Fun was right with the first guess: the notes say equipment swaps. The matching seat numbers, just coincidence.

I saw in another of the seemingly 500 threads I've read here in the past couple weeks that some flyers recommend not selecting a seat with a Saver Fare even when they're open for selection. Odds of getting something better at check-in or gate assignment may be good. My experience last weekend worked out that way. When the next sale comes around and I book cheap MRs, I'll probably do that (forego seat selection) on half the segments just to see if something like that happens again, row 11 for row 32 prices.

Thanks for the suggestion.

progapanda

This has happened to me before. An aisle seat selected at booking on a Saver fare was changed to a middle seat at check-in. That was all it took for me to bite at a 99$ Premium Class upgrade SFO-JFK, which went with the middle seat empty so a win-win for both me and AS.

In more or less the reverse situation, another back of the 'bus aisle seat selected at yet another booking on a Saver fare from SFO-JFK, got automatically switched to a Premium Class aisle the day before check in (I'm not an AS or partner elite). Sometimes AS giveth, and sometimes AS taketh away!

beckoa

Wasn't sure that info was there.

Imagine I've got some interesting notes in some of my records.

Glad the OP got an answer to what happened. Aircraft swaps can and do happen quite often it seems...