RKDuke

I just flew ORD-DEL in J and saw something I hadn't seen before. Right before the door was closed in ORD the two passengers seated in 8 H/J were asked by the purser to move to open middle seats in the center of the J cabin. I found this strange. Then, after the meal service was concluded I noticed that these two vacated seats were being used by the F/A's to sleep and rest.

Now, I am the last one to criticize the F/A's as I think most of them do a good job and AA has handed them a raw deal. But then again, if I was a passenger who book and aisle K class seat I would be fairly upset about being asked to move to a center set. Yes, I know - the passengers booked a J seat and they got a J seat. Nevertheless, this whole thing did strike me a bit badly.

I began wondering what I would do if I had been one of these passengers. Put up a stick and then get lousy service for 14 hours or accept my fate and "suffer" in the middle seat? Does anybody know whether this was "proper" or "appropriate" action by the crew?

RKDuke

aisleorwindow

Perhaps those two passengers were non-revs?

RKDuke

Nope. One was reseated next to me. He was from India and then other guy was from Mexico. They were definitely rev passengers. I couldn't help but wonder if the picked out these two due to their likely lack of status and willingness to resist.

Blumie

Just curious: How do you know where they were from? And although they very well may have been revenue passengers, does AA not hire Indian or Mexican nationals?

sukn

The 777 has crew rest areas. Clearly the FAs were looking for an OP-up and got one. I'm not impressed with the crew behavior on this one.

Whether the moved passengers were non-rev or otherwise does not matter much.

RKDuke

Let me clarify:
The two passengers that were moved were from India and Mexico as that's what the Indian passenger told me.
The F/A's that sat in the vacated seats were part of the working crew of this flight - not "off-duty" F/As.
RKDuke

ESpen36

Last week, I sat next to a dead-heading international FA and asked specifically about the 777 crew rest areas. She told me that she personally loves them because of the privacy, but that many FAs don't like them because they get claustrophobic, and they prefer to use unoccupied pax seats. Apparently, 8HJ are the most popular for this purpose because they are the most private pax seats on the plane, as you can see here.

magic111

Am curious to why you assume that you would get lousy service?

MIKESILV

Okay why didnt you just tell us you were one of the passengers moved?.....would have saved all this unecessary wild speculation

You WERE there werent you?

mike

gemac

It would appear (allowing for the possibility that there was more to this situation than the OP knew) that the FAs violated company policy. If there was no adverse affect on the passengers, it would appear to be something between these FAs and their employer.

oklAAhoma

Wait a minute... I thought they were chosen because they occupied 8H & 8J?

MatthewRob

There must be something more to this. It seems ridiculous that FAs would ask passengers to move...they are PAID to fly! If I were the one moved for their "comfort", I would not be happy! I have heard 1A and 1J on B777 are often kept free for secondary flight crew to rest, although I recently had 1J (a welcome double OpUp from a cheap Y fare) on a LHR-JFK flight.

Ready2Go

Are we sure that these pax had BPs for 8H/J, and had not simply reseated themselves in what turned out to be crew rest seats? I have seen people ejected from crew rest seats many times, but they have generally been people who spied empty, desirable-looking seats and decided to move themselves there.

Mark_T

Are J seats ever designated as crew rest seats on any flight?

seat 1a

If this is the full story

It is totally unacceptable , but not surprising.