Kacee

This is what I see on a July flight booked in Y on a 175.

anteater

I wish Alaska’s policy statement was a bit more direct. Sales and upgrade list may be capped at 50%, but 9/10 of my recent AS flights have had F go out full, even though the seat map showed as less than full prior to departure.

It feels disingenuous, especially when in those circumstances FC wasn’t full prior to departure and becomes so and then the Main Cabin is nearly empty.

notquiteaff

Just booked my first AS flights in a while, for later this fall. I noticed the blocked middle seats on the Airbus (economy) seat map and selected aisle and window for my wife and myself. Should be interesting to see if those blocked seats will at some point magically open up and a stranger is forced to select the middle seat. I didn’t see any indication that I could call to request seats next to each other.

PDXPremier

They do specifically say on the website that you can contact reservations if you want to sit together:
"Families or couples wanting to sit together can make the request with reservations in advance or at the airport on the day of travel."

In this case, you're on an Airbus which as 3+3 seating so even if the center seat wasn't blocked, as a couple, you would want to select the window/aisle combo. My wife and I do that all the time and hope for an empty middle--if there happens to be a passenger assigned to the middle seat, they will happily move to the window or aisle so you can sit together.

Eurynom0s

:/

With service being thrown out the window due to the pandemic, the main reason to book F right now is to try to guarantee some extra space. So pretty garbage if they're acting like paying for F will get you that, and then doing the exact opposite of that in practice.

stephem

I booked my family of 5 on an E175 for Friday. Initially i just booked us in staggered seats, but then this week the seat map changed and ALL seats were open. So i moved us to Premium (was only $25 each) w 4 of us in aisle/window and one alone. Today i received an email that our remaining passenger may have a seatmate due to the fact that its a small plane. All I can say is ..., we are already doubling up 4 of is to give them more seats, i expected they will at least keep our 5th person alone. This is either a policy, that families like me will rely on to book AS, or it is a PR stunt.

PDXPremier

Honestly, I think they announced the seat blocking til 7/31 and can't take it back at this point....and I mean take it back from a PR perspective. With DL and WN extending their seat blocking into the Fall, I think AS assumed everyone would eventually fall in line with the same policy, but UA and AA said no thanks and now AS is stuck with a policy that is unsustainable on multiple levels and I think they wished it was 7/31 already....lol. This reminds me of the fuel hedging days of WN where they had the potential to make more $$ with each flight due to locked in lower fuel costs....UA and AA realized they can pack their planes and make more $$ with every flight than their competitors like WN or DL. Most economists will tell you that is nearly impossible for an airline to make any money with 35% of it's seats empty on every flight--DL and WN may well bring cash flow down to a neutral (zero) level, but regardless of the real or perceived risk level, UA and AA are probably going to come out of this actually with a positive cash flow with each flight....I'm sure AS sees that and is wondering which way to proceed at this point.

https://www.businessinsider.com/unit...e-seats-2020-7

https://www.washingtonpost.com/trave...ent-is-ending/

pcoll

Be prepared for this to continue.
AS wants to be like AA, Just not being honest about how they are going about it.
seat blocking, social distancing, limiting seats sold in F , no longer .
overheard crew discussing AS “loading up flights now”.
we flew out today, 16/16 in F.
coach filled 99%. AS has decided to Cancel flights and let passengers fill later flights as stand by passengers.
hope your flight does not get cancelled and you have same mess to deal with.

stephem

Good to know. We will use Delta on west coast flights from now on.

BTW- we have already seen our flight canceled and we were moved from a Dash to an e175, so yeah, they are playing fast and loose here.

Flying for Fun

I am confused! What does "playing fast & loose" mean? It sounds like you are insinuating something negative by the upgrade in equipment.

Q400 Turbo prop Number in fleet 32

• Capacity 76 economy seats
• overhead bins don't hold a standard carry-on roller bag
• No wifi or onboard entertainment
• No running water in the 1 only lavatory, forward
• Rear galley only.

E175 Jet Number in fleet 62

• Capacity 76 seats
  • 12 First class seats in a 1-2 configuration
  • 12 Premium Seats
  • 52 Economy Seats
• Full size overhead bins except over 1A, 2A, 3A & 4A, window + isle F seats.
• Fully functioning Lavatories, forward for F, aft for Main Cabin
• Full galley forward, dinnerware & glassware.
• Wifi & onboard entertainment.
• Larger windows that are 10 in² larger than the 787.
• Faster and infinitely more comfortable.

If that is fast and loose, please let the playing continue.

James

sfozrhfco

It is fast and loose because AS has been selling to the public that they are blocking middle seats but that is only applicable until some point before the departure date. Then if they see loads are light, they cancel flights and combine everybody onto one plane and pack them in. At least AA tells everybody that they don’t care about social distancing and one can plan accordingly by taking another carrier. If AS can’t deliver on its promises, don’t make the promise in the first place. They are really shooting themselves in the foot by letting the bean counters make all the decisions.

anteater

I posted this elsewhere but I have to concur. With 9 / 10 recent AS flights FC was empty until close to departure and ended up going out near full or completely full. The upgraded or new passengers did not appear to be non-revs or AS employees.

Capping FC sales / upgrades at 50% is an empty promise because you’ll end up in a full cabin IME.

stephem

Sorry, I left out a key sentence.

Originally we booked our flights on an empty A320 w middle seats blocked. 24 hours later that flight was canceled and we were on a Dash w aisle seats blocked. A few days later we were informed of another change, an E175, and at first aisle seats blocked. The next day I went to move our seats and no blocking was showing. So over the course of about 4 days we went from a near empty A320 w middle seats to a fairly full E175 w no seats blocked. I moved 4 of us to premium to ensure at least 4 of us were not seated next to someone not in our party. I left my wife a row back with an empty seat next to her. Fast forward a week and now we get this email about 36 hours prior to departure. All 4 flights that day on our route are now chock o block full.

I get the point about the airlines not making money flying partially full planes, but I have a response to that. How about “ can you make money when nobody flies at all?”and that’s what’s going to happen. I won’t be booking any more flights with Alaska, period. We have now navigated our home airport (SEA) A few times and feel comfortable with the low density of people inside the airport and these short flights as long as we are not immediately next to passengers outside our family. The notion that there is no appreciable increase of risk of transmission when someone is seated immediately next to you versus when there is an empty seat, particularly on a 2 x 2 aircraft is laughable. There is, and we aren’t interested in taking it.

Bellerina

Flew yesterday. FC was only 7/16 even though there were people left on the upgrade list. Each person appeared to be flying solo in F and had their own two seats. 1C was the flight attendant.

I checked a few days before my flight and they were no longer selling F seats even though there were two open rows in F. Economy was still selling but showed plenty of window/aisle seats. From what I could see of Economy, there were plenty of open middle seats.

For my flight home next week F is no longer being sold as there are no open rows.

I don’t think they are purposely selling seats past the 65%, but I think they are having trouble getting planes and staff in the correct locations which is leading to cancellations and some problems re-booking. I don’t think it is completely a PR stunt, but there are challenges.

Xrayman

On flight now on an E75 midcon.

Full flight. 12/12 FC filled.

There were 2 seats that were battlefield upgrades.

Back was probably nearly full as well.