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Sneaking into 3-class Int'l F???

 
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Old Jan 27, 2013, 5:59 pm
  #61  
brp
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Originally Posted by Stripe
His story is easily checked out. If he can't produce anything like a copy of the F menu or the amenity kit, the lie will be clearly exposed.
We never take menus and routinely leave the amenity kit, so this is far from definitive.

Cheers.
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Old Jan 27, 2013, 6:02 pm
  #62  
 
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I can see how this is plausible. He said that he showed his previous segment's BP which showed him in 2A when he boarded. Let's imagine that the purser was the one that he gave the BP to at the door, and who directed him to the FC cabin. Later, when they were getting ready to close the flight and were going over the manifest and it showed an extra passenger in F and a supposedly vacant seat 2A, the purser might say "I personally saw his boarding pass - he's supposed to be in 2A" and that's the end of it. Not likely to work every time, but it could have worked once.
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Old Jan 27, 2013, 6:17 pm
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by nachosdelux
IF you have seen the show Seinfeld or the movie Bridesmaids, you would know that this scenario is impossible.
ah yes, documentaries...
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Old Jan 27, 2013, 7:33 pm
  #64  
 
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Originally Posted by brewdog11
... one of my roommates...
Originally Posted by mvoight
He's either a thief of liar... Ignore him...
Kind of tough to ignore him if he's a roommate! Hopefully you've got locks on your stuff!
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Old Jan 27, 2013, 7:37 pm
  #65  
 
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This reminds me of a story one time at band camp...
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Old Jan 27, 2013, 7:43 pm
  #66  
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Originally Posted by Steve M
I can see how this is plausible. He said that he showed his previous segment's BP which showed him in 2A when he boarded. Let's imagine that the purser was the one that he gave the BP to at the door, and who directed him to the FC cabin. Later, when they were getting ready to close the flight and were going over the manifest and it showed an extra passenger in F and a supposedly vacant seat 2A, the purser might say "I personally saw his boarding pass - he's supposed to be in 2A" and that's the end of it. Not likely to work every time, but it could have worked once.
I don't see it as plausible at all. On 1st class flights I travel on ( ok , not AA since I wouldn't pay for AA's 1st product ) the cabin crew will check that the manifest matches the passengers. Someone moving from 1 seat to another, fair enough, but 7 people in the cabin when they were expecting 6 would definitely be noticed. If I ever ask how many people expected that day, they have always been able to answer instantly.

Unless AA attendants are completely incompetant, they should be able to notice that they have more passengers than manifested
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Old Jan 27, 2013, 7:44 pm
  #67  
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Originally Posted by Barton Cove
He either produces the first class pajamas, or he's busted.
+1
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Old Jan 27, 2013, 7:50 pm
  #68  
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Originally Posted by brp
We never take menus and routinely leave the amenity kit, so this is far from definitive.
Cheers.
What a waste ! Perhaps we should have a forum for left over pajamas unopened that can be given to FTers for Karms
:-)
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Old Jan 28, 2013, 1:21 am
  #69  
 
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The OP's roomie told him/her total BS.

I recently flew a short-hop domestic flight, and the F load was supposed to be 15 out of 16 available seats.

A guy in his mid 20's decided to sneak into 3E aboard a 738. First had completely seated, the out-of-place guy decided to make it obvious he shouldn't be sitting there since he didn't store any carry-on luggage in the overhead [as this is the bulkhead] and obviously couldn't/didn't store any carry-on luggage under his seat.

As we were starting to taxi, the FA's did one last headcount, and confronted the guy. They asked for his boarding pass and told him 3E was unoccupied, and that there should only be 15 people in F. The guy first responded with a belligerent "Excuse Me?" back to the flight attendant. She again asked him for his boarding pass and told him to return to his seat in Y. The guy did make the walk of shame to Y.

Also flew CUN-MIA about 8 years ago, and J was wide open. So a guy decides to sneak into 6E aboard a 738.

It was an international flight, and the J FA decides to have the captain directly talk to the guy before the door had closed. The captain informed the sneaker that he had to options:

1. Return to his seat in coach
2. Be escorted off the plane by TSA/Law Enforcement if he failed to comply with returning to his seat in coach

Neither of these flights were TATL or TPAC, and I highly doubt FA's doing TATL/TPAC don't thoroughly check the manifest.

There's zero chance your roomie "sneaked" into TATL F.

OTOH, I have witnessed people getting a complimentary on-board up-op from J to F on JFK-LHR because of space available in F, and the J pax doing a kind deed: volunteering to switch her seat with someone in J so that a separated couple could sit together.


If I were the OP I'd make sure to get a copy of the lease to make sure I wasn't overpaying rent...
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Old Jan 28, 2013, 1:31 am
  #70  
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Originally Posted by Steve M
I can see how this is plausible. He said that he showed his previous segment's BP which showed him in 2A when he boarded. Let's imagine that the purser was the one that he gave the BP to at the door, and who directed him to the FC cabin. Later, when they were getting ready to close the flight and were going over the manifest and it showed an extra passenger in F and a supposedly vacant seat 2A, the purser might say "I personally saw his boarding pass - he's supposed to be in 2A" and that's the end of it. Not likely to work every time, but it could have worked once.
Really and if Y cabin is off count by one, how do you explain that?
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Old Jan 28, 2013, 1:34 am
  #71  
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A friend of mine is a FA for DL, he does international only, he had someone sneak into BE cabin, he knew who it was, he approached the man and asked how he would like to pay for his seat, by CC or miles. Needless to say the guy got up and went back to Y, he was seated in the last row of BE. My friend says it happens a lot, but there are so many checks and balances for this not to happen. He usually checks with the GA first, then has a Y FA do a head count in Y.
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Old Jan 28, 2013, 3:38 am
  #72  
 
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Originally Posted by FlightNurse
Really and if Y cabin is off count by one, how do you explain that?
Do they really count the heads in Y?

It seems uncommon for many crews to even acknowledge EPs in coach, much less come through for a general headcount of the entire cabin. Come to think, same for lap children who end up being accommodated in an empty seat; that'd throw off the count, too, but in over 25 years of flying AA I haven't ever seen that brought up by the crew.

I've seen it on AE, but never on AA.
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Old Jan 28, 2013, 3:53 am
  #73  
 
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Originally Posted by brewdog11

Aside from being a braggart, exaggerator, and a limit-pusher, one of my roommates is also an EXP on AA. He flies quite a bit, and often brags about his ever-growing insight on working the system. Most of the stuff he brags about is plausible, but he brought something up to me that's little more than dubious: he claims that he sneaked into 3-class F on an ORD-LHR flight.
I think the bigger question begs:

Who is he trying to impress more, you or himself?

Either way, here's the response I'm going with.
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Old Jan 28, 2013, 4:02 am
  #74  
 
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Originally Posted by Fitch7600
Not a great analogy. At sporting events they will often let people come down to better seats at the end of the game because the home team broadcast would prefer to show fans in those areas than empty seats.

A better example would be sneaking into a club seating area which features free food and an open bar, and partaking of both. That's not going to be allowed.
There are two general meanings of theft: depriving someone of their property (so that they don't have it anymore) and taking (or using) something you're not entitled to. For example, in the seating case, you are not depriving anyone of their seat, but you are getting something you're not entitled to. Partaking of free food both deprives someone of their property and involves taking something you're not entitled to, so that's a clearer case.

Depriving someone of their property is clearly theft. There's much less agreement about unauthorized use, where the owner still has the property and is only deprived of what the owner wanted you to pay. For example, many more people believe stealing a CD is theft than believe downloading an mp3 is theft.
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Old Jan 28, 2013, 7:24 am
  #75  
 
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Originally Posted by appleblossom
Do they really count the heads in Y?

It seems uncommon for many crews to even acknowledge EPs in coach, much less come through for a general headcount of the entire cabin. Come to think, same for lap children who end up being accommodated in an empty seat; that'd throw off the count, too, but in over 25 years of flying AA I haven't ever seen that brought up by the crew.

I've seen it on AE, but never on AA.
These days they more likely count the empties. I'm sure every FA knows the exact capacity of every cabin of every type they work and therefore counting the 5-10 (at most) empty seats and doing some subtraction is probably pretty easy.
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