platbrownguy

Strange experience on tonight's DCA-CVG (scheduled 7:30 p.m. departure). Flight was delayed until 8:24 p.m., so I hung out in the AC for a while and came out around 8:08 to board, which ended up coinciding with the end of Group 6. Waited on jetbridge for a little longer than normal, behind a line. Then some pax started walking upstream back towards the GA but didn't say anything to us as they passed. Then some in line appeared to board. Then others came upstream, so I asked, "what happened," and one lady says her seat "doesn't exist" on the plane.

Turns out that some folks had seats assigned according to the seat map below. (Including me, I was #1 on the list and cleared into 2C--or so I thought!). But the plane itself was labeled totally differently -- upfront it was 1-3 A/D/F, and then coach started at row 8. Which is weird, because this was a PSA CRJ-700, and I didn't think there was such a plane with such numbering.

It came my turn to get on the plane, and the FA was asking seat numbers, and I said I was two charlie, and he said to go back to the gate. So I said ok. And I walked upstream, and then as I got halfway up, all the other folks who had been sent back were walking back down the jet bridge towards the plane... the gate agent had simply told them to get back on the plane with the same boarding passes and to pick any seat (!). Of course, these folks then had to convince the FA (who at first disbelieved them) that the GA had in fact said that. But then a free for all apparently ensued.

So I got at the back of the line to board again. When I get back to the front, the FA asks my seat (again), I say two charlie, he says there isn't that seat, I say "sure, but there's the equivalent, right?" (assuming 2ACD was simply mislabeled 2ADF or vv.), and he says "there's nothing upfront." At this point, I haven't yet been able to see into the aircraft, so I don't know what's up. So I say, "So....?" and the FA says, "well...?" and I say, let me have a look, and then I step into the galley and F is full except for (labeled) "2F" (which makes sense to me because whoever was originally assigned 2D would have taken the aisle on this plane) and I say "there's a seat right there..." and the FA is like, "oh, you're right. take it!" which I thought was the most egregious thing ever because he literally said "there's nothing upfront" when he was standing at a vantage point at which anyone with sight and sense would have known there was an open seat upfront.

But I got over it quickly when I saw all the folks behind me, some of whom had paid for row 5-7 and who were told to take any seat, "they're all the same," and the passengers said "but I paid for Priority," and the FA said angrily and condescendingly, "you had seat 5B. There is no such thing as seat 5B. You had a seat that didn't exist." Totally disgusting behavior, IMO.

So, tl;dr, why did the physical labels on this flight say AC/DF instead of AB/CD? Is there a way in which I can usefully inform AA of the fact that it caused lots of ill will today? Thoughts? Everyone upfront was shaking their heads about the situations. To add insult to injury, the FA got on the speaker and had some cutesy spiel about how he hoped everyone had found a "cozy, comfy" seat.

Antarius

Seems like a swap to a CR7 that has 2 rows of F and Y starts at row 8. Are you sure there was 3 rows of J? (70 seater seat map: https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Am..._CRJ700_V4.php)

I have never seen one go to F though, as the maximum a CR 7,9,1000 can seat is 4 across.

EDIT: that said, I think at one point the Expressjet(?) CR7s for UAX had A/D/F?

Uzzar

I fly PSA CR7's and CR9's all the time. They are all AC/D/F in Y, and A/D/F up front. I have never seen A/B/C/D on a PSA flight.

SpinOn2

I've never seen any PSA CRJ2,7, or 9 that had anything but ACDF as seats in Y, and A D F in J. I wonder if maybe they started to tail swap it (especially if it was late) to a CRJ2, but switched it back, or glitched where the system thought it switched to a CRJ2. Somehow it seems the seats were assigned like as if it was a 200. All CRJ700's for PSA are 1-3 J, then coach starts at row 8 (physical row 4) , and goes back to row 21

platbrownguy

I have my boarding pass which still says 2C.
There was definitely a row 3 behind me, they had red wine to drink.
So then if ADF is normal (I just assumed ACD was normal because it was on the BP, I don't typically fly CR7s), I guess the computer messed up somehow generating seat assignments? Very strange.

platbrownguy

Maybe that makes sense, but they didn't have any "extra" people in rows 1-3 -- if the computer thought CRJ, then there would have been 1A-3D (i.e. 12 pax) instead of 9.

Anyhow, here is my boarding pass for 2C. I should have taken a picture of the seat label on the plane which clearly showed D/F. My initial thought was that the new MCE labeling or something caused a glitch, but maybe this was just an isolated computer error related to an almost-equipment-swap. I actually had 5B and then 13B before getting upgraded, too.

CPRich

N708PS - looks like it's still at CVG, prepping for a positioning flight to PHL, if anyone might happen to be flying out of there tonight/tomorrow.

67 seats
9 Business 58 Economy