Two passengers, one seat
Jun 9, 2021, 5:38 pm
#1
Original Poster
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Two passengers, one seat
Bizarre situation 6/8 AS1426 SEA-LAS. Two passengers assigned 4F. FA attempts to sort it out with the handheld. Passenger 1 (seated) does not have his boarding pass and is not the name on the handheld, so asked to return to the gate agent (looks not happy) while assigned passenger 2 takes the seat. Several minutes later, gate agent arrives and asks passenger 2 to deplane. Several minutes later, passenger 2 returns and says a “glitch” occurred and both passengers assigned 4F. Passenger 2 has his UG canceled. As passenger 2 tells it while moving his stuffs to PE, passenger 1 apparently originally had the seat but never checked in and his tix was canceled. Not sure how he boarded (or made it by security) without checking in or a boarding pass??? Original 4F seated passenger 1 returns and takes the seat. He does not offer commentary.
Jun 9, 2021, 6:04 pm
#2
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,021
I don't believe TSA actually confirms your check-in status now that they just scan your ID and the system only checks if you have a same-day ticket from airport. How he got on the aircraft without a BP would be the bigger question mark.
Jun 9, 2021, 6:25 pm
#3
Join Date: Aug 2013
Programs: Alaska MVP Gold
Posts: 917
Another, albeit less likely, scenario is they were connecting from a separate ticket. But that just explains not passing through security (while also not being checked in). How they got on board is the more interesting question.
Jun 9, 2021, 6:38 pm
#4
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I never understand this. How do you not have a BP at hand immediately after boarding? We encountered on a recent DL flight where dude was sitting in one of our F seats and could not produce a BP. FA went through laborious process of checking with GA, etc., before concluding dude had poached. I could have told him that within the first 5 seconds!
Jun 9, 2021, 11:23 pm
#5
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On my recent LAX-FLL red-eye flight on AA, two pax had the same seat. Turns out one of them boarded the wrong flight!! FA was shocked how gate agent let her pass and made it to the airplane lmao..
Jun 10, 2021, 3:43 am
#7
Join Date: Mar 2002
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This happened to me twice on AS flights, both to SEA, departing from LAS where the gates were all right next to each other. They scanned my BP, the machine went boop and on I went only to find someone seated in "my" seat. Both times the FAs were confused how I managed to get on board.
Jun 10, 2021, 5:01 am
#8
Join Date: Mar 2018
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This happened to me twice on AS flights, both to SEA, departing from LAS where the gates were all right next to each other. They scanned my BP, the machine went boop and on I went only to find someone seated in "my" seat. Both times the FAs were confused how I managed to get on board.
Jun 10, 2021, 7:45 am
#9
Join Date: Apr 2017
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The only times this has happened to me, it was in economy and it was because my upgrade cleared at the very last minute and my in-app BP didn't update. Needless to say, those were resolved happily for all 
Jun 10, 2021, 8:19 am
#10
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: US
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Posts: 2,773
Bizarre situation 6/8 AS1426 SEA-LAS. Two passengers assigned 4F. FA attempts to sort it out with the handheld. Passenger 1 (seated) does not have his boarding pass and is not the name on the handheld, so asked to return to the gate agent (looks not happy) while assigned passenger 2 takes the seat. Several minutes later, gate agent arrives and asks passenger 2 to deplane. Several minutes later, passenger 2 returns and says a “glitch” occurred and both passengers assigned 4F. Passenger 2 has his UG canceled. As passenger 2 tells it while moving his stuffs to PE, passenger 1 apparently originally had the seat but never checked in and his tix was canceled. Not sure how he boarded (or made it by security) without checking in or a boarding pass??? Original 4F seated passenger 1 returns and takes the seat. He does not offer commentary.
I was the first one to scan my boarding pass and to board.
I was in row 2.
Almost at the end of the boarding, FA came to me and asked me to show my boarding pass.
I showed her my boarding pass and showed her my seat assignment.
Turned out, they claimed that I was not checked in and the gate agent upgraded a non-rev to my seat.
When I checked my app again before departure, it showed that I was downgraded to PE by the gate agent and the non-rev was in my seat in F.
(I did have screenshots for this incident.)
Long story short, at the end, the FA did the right thing to protect me in F and move the non-rev to PE.
Jun 10, 2021, 8:35 am
#11
Join Date: Sep 2014
Programs: Alaska MM, AA MM, BA Silver, Bonvoy Lifetime Gold
Posts: 316
Maybe we need to go back to the seat stickers. For those that don't know what I speak of, it is an old school thing where the check-in counter had a model of the plane with a sticker for each seat so when it was applied to your boarding pass, it could not be given to anyone else. :-)
Jun 10, 2021, 2:10 pm
#12
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 3
Maybe we need to go back to the seat stickers. For those that don't know what I speak of, it is an old school thing where the check-in counter had a model of the plane with a sticker for each seat so when it was applied to your boarding pass, it could not be given to anyone else. :-)