BJM

Maybe a friend of the FA, and FA extending a little courtesy to her friend. You would probably do the same. The only reason OP is so upset, resulting in us investing three pages of posts, is that he did not get more than he was entitled too. If the upgrade was not upgraded then OP would still have had what he ended up with.

scnzzz

OP, unless you are absolutely certain that the pax who occupied 9E was not an eligible elite, or otherwise entitled to that seat (full fare Y etc.), I'm afraid there's no legitimate reason for you to object to their occupation of that seat.

If you know and have some evidence that they were not eligible for that seat, then perhaps a note to CC will gain you some miles as recompense.

I hear you, on that flight, having done it before a number of times, having the adjacent seat open is a really nice benefit. But yeah, there are many reasons why someone would actually be entitled to it as posted upthread.

I do hope that pmUS planes start getting built out with reasonably substantial MCE sections - and that AA takes a page out of UA's book in terms of the balance between MC and MCE - so that this sort of thing - where a pax entitled to (or has paid for) MCE gets relegated to a non-MCE seat due to the lack of availability at booking - becomes far less common.

VickiSoCal

Do the flight attendants know which seats cost more on which aircraft? It is not always completely obvious. Do they know all the AA and OW statuses and which ones are entitled to those seats? It seems to me, that absent on board sales there are three ways you can go

1) Everyone stays in their assigned seat, period
2) Anyone can move to any empty seat in their cabin
3) Anyone can move to any empty seat in their cabin, with FA permission

Absent training and a defined policy, #3 puts the FA's in a bit of an awkward position.

scnzzz

Reasonable expectation? Absolutely. Guarantee - I rather suspect not.

I doubt many people voluntarily would want to move to a middle seat (even from another middle seat) - given the awkwardness of inconveniencing others in doing so. Status quo uncomfortably usually beats awkward uncomfortable...unless there's a real benefit - exit row etc.

Hotel_junkie

JetBlue makes a point after the door closes that their MCE-type seats are for those that booked MCE and if you want to sit there they would be happy to upgrade you for a fee. I like that policy...AA should consider doing the same.

cmd320

Agree. One time, just after the door closed on B6 I had the whole exit row to myself in EMS. A poacher from somewhere farther back tried to jump in the aisle exit seat. All I had to do was hit the call button and point, FA quickly arrived and requested payment, at which point the poacher returned aft.

ThreeJulietTango

The seat number placards above the seats are a different color for MCE seats, and any status is entitled to free MCE within 24 hours; status can easily be confirmed by looking at the boarding pass.

knit-in

Sounds like a combination of training and seat vigilantes are required for this policy to be successfully implemented.

serfty

Moreover, one these flights on DL, PAX in C+ get some additional benefits aside from more room.

This includes complimentary IFE (full availability) and on flights over two(?) hours, complimentary snacks and cocktails.

No wonder they police it ...

teemuflyer

That is definitely a "Delta" to the AA MCE offering

CMK10

It's happened to me before. ORD-RDU on an MD-80 back in June. I had 20A, the non-reclining exit row and 20B was empty. After the door closed, someone in 17E asked the f/a if he could move to 20B and she allowed it. As I'd missed the upgrade and this was about the best my status could get me I was annoyed as I don't like the idea of people who don't pay extra or have status to sit in MCE seats but there wasn't much I could do.

ijgordon

Well, apparently the GAs do it all the time, spoken by a DL GA...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...l#post25691992 (posts #161-163).

pinniped

Has there been any updated AA policy about self-upgrading? I just got off a flight where TWO pax self-upgraded, right in front of the FA as he was doing his safety briefing, into seats right next to me. I looked directly at the poachers, then directly at the FA, but he didn't say anything at all to them. They came from several rows back: not other MCE seats.

I then asked (semi-politely) "Are these your seats?" The woman who plopped herself in the middle said "The door's closed; you can sit anywhere once the door closes." The FA definitely heard her, and did not dispute it. Not wanting to start an "incident", I just shut up about it at that point.

Because the FA didn't dispute, I thought perhaps this is correct: it's an open-seating (that exact phrase was used) policy once the door closes. Is this right? I know with absolute certainty that it is not on UA or DL, and self-upgraders get sent back to their seats.

Probably wouldn't have bugged me so much if 1 person went to the aisle seat. In fact, the main reason *I* didn't scoot straight over to the aisle is because the 3 seats straight across from me (also MCE) were occupied, and I figured 10C might prefer 10D and then all four of us in row 10 would be comfortable. But the poachers were faster...

Patrick Bateman

I think it's OK to give FA some discretion. Anyone affected by it can submit a comment to Customer Affairs.

alhcfp

BUT what is the policy?

On JETBLUE its NO- not permitted