aztimm

I don't remember seeing a thread like this before; hopefully I'm not duplicating efforts.

On my AUS-MCO flight this morning, we were sitting in an exit row. Just one guy in the 3 seats across the aisle, and his friend sat down with him after the seatbelt sign was switched off.

When the FA's came around doing the drink service, they were telling us how we were in premium seats and could have booze (it was a 7am flight, I did not). Then they looked at their scanners and said, "there's an extra passenger here..." He told them that he was sitting a few rows up, in a middle seat, and his friend was in the aisle so he thought it was OK. They said, "you'll have to sit in your assigned seat."

I've never seen FA's on AA enforce MCE before... Is this something new? Rogue FA's? I was definitely impressed. I think it was an ORD-based crew.

Mind you, this was after boarding when there were people sitting in our exit row seats. I said, "I think you're in my seat," showing my boarding pass and looking around for an FA (they initially resisted). It was a big group (5 pax, both sides of the aisle), who made a HUGE production of moving up a row, and commented, "that row had more legroom!"

I guess strange things happen on flights to MCO

EXP100

No AA management has instructed FAs not to allow Main Cabin paxs to switch into a MCE seat, which is fair considering it comes with extra legroom and allows for a free drink. Personally I'm glad to see AA enforce it.

pinniped

In a perfect world, it would be a situation where common sense would prevail: FA's would allow people to spread out as long as they aren't encroaching on people in the seats already. But the free booze complicates matters a bit, so I can understand where they don't want to deal with who should get free drinks and who shouldn't.

metallo

It was an official AA policy change in early November 2022 -- I don't believe there was any sort of official public press release, but several of the prominent bloggers have posts related to it.

Basically, AA advised FAs that it is OK to allow passengers to switch from one main cabin seat to another, but they cannot self-upgrade from main cabin to MCE. Interestingly, the internal communication referred to MCE as a "class" -- even though, in many instances, AA doesn't even really consider PE to be a separate class, so the use of the word "class" seems to be somewhat inconsistent at AA.

FAs were further advised that they should manage seat swap requests on board, unless the door hasn't yet closed, in which case the GA should still be engaged to determine whether a seat swap request should be allowed.

knit-in

Not on AA, but last year on UA on a LAX-JFK 757, the FA was very strict about letting passengers move to the exit row, telling them there was an extra charge to be in those seats. I usually stand around the gate and be amongst the last to board if I see empty seats in the exit row on the seat map, so thankfully, I had asked the GA if it was ok to take the exit since no one was in it, who proceeded to give me a new boarding pass with the exit row seat assignment on it. Glad I formalized my seat "upgrade" at the gate prior to boarding.

guv1976

I'm assuming that you meant to insert some sort of punctuation between "No" and "AA" in the first line of your post. ​​​​​

PHL

UA was the first of the legacies to roll out Economy Plus concept. In any of my UA flights over the years, the FA's have been very clear up front about letting passengers know that they would not be allowed to move to the E+ rows. I'm glad AA is stepping up this enforcement. It's not really fair that someone who paid for an MCE seat winds up with someone who decided to move up or back a row to have more legroom without having paid.

GNRMatt

I think the enforcement of this would be great! However, there is still the issue of people who book basic economy and end up with an MCE seat assignment because that's all that left. If there's MCE availability on a sold out flight shortly before boarding, there should be a way to get people (non-elites) who bought regular economy into those seats and move basic economy customers back to regular coach. I know easier said than done, but it would be more fair to those that paid more for their tickets to get the better seats than those who bought the cheapest seats IMO.

danielflyer

If I understand correctly, OP’s empty middle seat was occupied by a friend of the passenger sitting closest to the aisle. I would definitely be annoyed if someone moved to take an empty middle seat, especially if I had paid to sit in MCE.

Stripe

It sounded like the guy was across the aisle with the row of three to himself. I would not be happy if someone volunteered a friend to sit in an otherwise empty middle seat if I was also in the same row.

I recall some policing of this by the FAs back when MCE was first introduced but nothing recently. It would be nice if they started doing it. However, most flights are so full it hardly matters. Blocking middle seats next to EXPs who find themselves stuck in coach would be a real benefit.

CMK.

I would imagine there is some additional policy or FAR requirement applied since it is an exit row. You're required to give confirmation when you book the ticket and also a verbal confirmation that you are willing and able to assist in the event of an emergency. So if someone self upgrades themselves into an exit row, it sort of breaks that whole system. Also there is a FAR age requirement to sit in that row as well, so that's additional reasoning why they should police people swapping seats to the exit row.

AAway

I believe it's about MCE integrity, not the exit row FAR. I've noticed that enforcement of all MCE rows by FA's has increased sharply over the last month or so.

For the exit row (MCE aside), as long as the passenger acknowledges to the FA that they're "willing and able", they're legal to sit there regardless of if they had to acknowledge during booking and/or boarding. It's the acknowledgement to the FA that matters.

ymmv

bgasser

I disagree. My solution would be for FAs to be able to upsell the seat onboard. If the friend wants the MCE seat, he can pay for it. the FA can get a commission for their time of processing the transaction.

Antarius

No thank you. The Barclays cards are bad enough.

dmurphynj

Absolutely. I'm a UA flyer, and that's pretty much exactly how it works. If someone poaches an Economy Plus seat, they're told to either return to their previous seat, or the FA can process an upgrade fee right there on their iPhone device. It almost always ends up with the Walk of Shame. No upgrade announcements or anything like that, though, which is good.

Which is good - it protects the integrity of the product. It's not right that people who do actually pay for E+ up front (or MCE in American pAArlance) get squeezed in by someone who just decides to self-upgrade.

On the UA side of things, enforcement has been pretty standardized across the board. Can't remember the last time I saw a poacher get away with it. Glad to see AA getting on board with the same.