MsSTL

The GA knew what he told me and others who came after me. He also knew he was keeping to it and that's why he didn't let me see the bp until we were on the jetway. Again, not what I volunteered for.

As my grandma used to say, there's a first Sunday in every month. Now that I see what 'could' happen, I'll have a different dialogue with the agent next time. I have the same trip next week. With any luck I'll see Mr. GA. Perhaps he can explain the difference in what he said and what he did.

Imo, it's crazy to think anyone, especially a FF who knows the a/c configuration, would offer up a premium aisle seat for anything less on the same flight.

PaulInTheSky

Actually, I have a conspiracy theory. The other connecting passengers were stopped by the arrival gate agents when they could have made the connections. All they needed was a call to the arrival gates and assign one person to re-book their connecting flights.

However, to the OP, next time you are willing to volunteer the seat again, please let the GA know that you want to keep the original seat if it is not needed.

jake108

Some years back, ORD-LHR traveling on extreme cheap(after $100 voucher, RT came out to $350)I offered to take the bounce-$800: who wouldn't?
As boarding drew to a close GA closing out flight came over to me with BC BP,"Let's keep this quiet, ok?" Now I'm in a $3K O/W seat. Yes, I was "upper-tier" at the time but there was no question that riding BC as opposed to voucher was preferable. May all experience such benevolence.

mvoight

If OP was told they would hold his BP unless they needed to VDB him, then that is what he is entitled to. Not only didn't he get it, he got one of the worst seats on the plane. If there was time, I would have complained as soon as I found out. If there wasn't time before takeoff, then as soon as possible afterwards. Had I not had to be somewhere, I would have not have taken the flight.

mvoight

The OP stated the GA told him the GA would hold onto his boarding pass and he would get it back if not needed. I would assume he meant the same BP

Eujeanie

And the GA absolutely knew what she had done because she didn't give the OP the BP until she was on the jetway. That really stinks.

tofromord

Pretty common. Whenever I volunteered and was not needed have almost always had a diff seat then before. I think they mark all the vo0lunteer seats as avail and give them away and then if a confirmed passenger fails to show you end up with that seat. One of the risks of volunteering.

arlflyer

So from what you are saying it sounds like you feel you were mistreated, and you seem to imply you have status. So why don't you shoot AA an email or call up the AAdvantage desk number on the back of your status card and see if they agree with you, perhaps to the tune of a few miles or a travel voucher?

Eujeanie

I don't agree with tofromord. I have taken crappy seats on the flight I was bumped ONTO, but if I volunteered I was always very clear that I wanted my same seat BP back if I was not needed, which I think the OP did.

negs

Some time ago I had purchased a super-cheap steerage fare. Plat at the time, I got a sticker upgrade confirmed. At the gate, they needed space and I volunteered.

As it turns out, they didn't need to bump me.....and I ended up in a middle seat way in the back of Y.

Didn't like it, but it never occurred to me to complain: I had purchased a super cheap Y seat, and that's what I eventually got. Loss of the confirmed sticker upgrade is part of the cost of doing business. (Obviously, they didn't pull the stickers from my account.)

Hey, stuff happens.

BStrauss3

I think the answer is the T-15 misconnect and you will receive a polite apology, but GAs have vast authority to get the flight out (on time).

CMK10

It's only happened to me once but the time it did, it sure was annoying. Went from an A sat to a C seat on an ERJ-145

Herb687

The above is definitely what I would have done.

Actually had to do something similar not too long ago. AA departure out of DFW. I had an exit row aisle and volunteered. Gate agents thought they were going to need me and at about D-5 went ahead and issued my seat to someone awaiting a seat assignment. Lo and behold at departure time somehow the SABRE count was wrong/misintepreted (overheard the GAs' confusion over the local on versus total on count) and there were actually a couple of empty seats after all.

I made it clear, firmly but politely, that I wanted my originally assigned exit aisle back and the agent went onboard the plane to do just that - move the pax that had been cleared into my exit aisle to a different seat so that I could have my seat back.

Keeping your originally assigned seat unless being voluntarily moved to something better (i.e. an OpUp to premium cabin) is implicitly part of the deal when volunteering.


No. No. NO!

Keeping your originally assigned seat unless being voluntarily moved to something better (i.e. an OpUp to premium cabin) is implicitly part of the deal when volunteering.

You haven't given up your seat until the agents actually drop it and reassign it to someone else. That is something they won't do until they are (almost) certain that they will need you as a VOL. Dropping your seat prior to knowing (or thinking they know) that they will actually take DBs is unneccessary extra work for GAs.

In the rare event that a seat is dropped in error I would always expect that the agents would do the right thing and give me my originally assigned seat back. While I've never had to do this I would certainly push the issue by refusing to occupy an inferior seat if they tried to get me to do so.


Making it explicit is, of course, helpful and always good advice. But I've taken and missed enough VDBs to know that keeping your originally assigned seat unless being voluntarily moved to something better (i.e. an OpUp to premium cabin) is implicitly part of the deal when volunteering.

Ambraciot

As your own experience described above illustrates it is not normally an implicit part of the contract, the GA went out of their way to try to rectify the misunderstanding that occurred.

I usually insist on retaining my seat(s) when volunteering, this has led to being passed over on the list and boarded earlier twice, once when I wouldn't give up a pair of adjacent seats and once when I wouldn't risk a downgrade from X to Y if they didn't need a volunteer. However in most cases the GA has been able to accommodate the request and not reassign my seat until just before the door closes, often resulting in the last Y pax without a seat assignment getting op-uped into F.

Herb687

I disagree with your conclusion as to the meaning of the event. Keeping your original seat is implicitly part of the deal. My seat was only dropped at nearly the last minute because an extremely confused/flustered pair of GAs thought that they were going to need to pay me off. They didn't drop my seat at D-15 just for the heck of it/just in case. They dropped it at like D-5 and immediately cleared someone else into it because in their minds they didn't have enough seats and thought they were going to pay me off as a VDB.

What happened to me at DFW (seat dropped but ultimately not needed) was a rare occurrence and not the way these things usually play out. The good news though is that the agents fixed the problem like they should have.

I volunteer A LOT and situations like mine at DFW are quite rare. I've always retained my original seat (or better - long time ago scored a couple of OpUps) when volunteering and not needed.