jah718

I really don't think it is necessary to post replies like this. This website caters to people who are interested in aviation and come on here to learn more and speculate. I really don't see why it is of no concern to people on Flyertalk? What is the harm in knowing why something happens. If you don't want to answer the question or speculate on the matter, then you don't need to participate.

Nuster

orbitmic

To be honest it can be a lot of different things ranging from the senior cabin crew member finding on the iPad that the passenger has had multiple incidents on the trip and feeling that an on the spot informal upgrade may be a good way to limit the damage and show to the customer that BA is sorry for whatever happened, to the infamous situations that many FTers seem to resent such as a family member of someone from the crew being given the go ahead to move forward. It could also be that there was something wrong with the seat that was not apparent (so many things can get wrong with seats and not just the more obvious ones). In brief I don’t think anyone can know based on what you saw. And no it isn’t very frequent, though not very rare either.

londonclubguy

Nice to see a crew member show the same courtesy online as they do on board.

And yet people wonder why BA are getting hammered in customer satisfaction surveys 🙄

TPRun

ha - brilliant.

I think its perfectly natural to be curious about where that person disappeared to!

LHR-LAS 2 weeks ago, 2 people had been allocated the same seat in WT in the row in front of me. BA Staff took one guy up the front and he never returned :O
Obviously I was very curious to where he went...but up ahead was only WT+, J or Y so I came to the conclusion the guy got upgraded (why - status, frequent flyer, staff etc I'll never know..)

corporate-wage-slave

OK, let me speculate a bit as to why this may be a bit of a raw nerve. Let us imagine there was in fact a very good reason for this. For example the CW seat was defective for take off and landing purposes, passenger downgraded in advance, so no CW meal loaded, extra WTP meal loaded. After the meal was served the downgraded passenger was restored to their seat. Now that is no one's business but the relevants, Alternative version: a GGL was invited to go forward after the meal. Again that's no-one's business etc, so we will never know. However the view that often takes place - and indeed magnified in these fora - is that the cabin crew decided to move one of their mates forward just because they could. Now that is an irksome accusation which for the same reason that the legitimate moves can't be made public is also impossible to refute. I think the crew member here did say it was a bit direct, it's certainly concise, but they are not lacking in courtesy. Try saying it in Dutch for an even blunter version.

RG1X

It might not be their "business", but that doesn't stop it being a perfectly valid thing to be curious about.

Really not sure why anyone with the knowledge to answer the question would get their back up about it. It's not like the poster came in and started saying how sh*t the service was because someone else got upgraded etc etc.

Annalisa12

My thoughts exactly.

Annalisa12

I am interested.

BOH

Could be a gesture as maybe a companion was upfront in a higher cabin. 10 days ago I was on a European flight with my GF and I was in C and she was in Y.

I was seated in 1F and the 1D seat was also free. After boarding was complete I popped down to have a quick chat with my GF in Y and when I sat back down the FA in the C cabin asked me if the girl I had been speaking to was a relative / friend etc. When I mentioned it was my GF she said that after the CE meal had been served she was welcome to come up and join me and take 1D.

In the end both myself and GF fell asleep soon after take-off (we had set off for LGW at 04:00 that morning) so she never did join me! But I thought it was a really lovely gesture by the crew member ^^

CCayley

But there's nothing discourteous about merely refusing to answer a question and thereby declining to indulge someone's curiosity. We gain a great deal here from contributions from BA staff, and attacking a staff member just because there's a particular topic they don't want to address is inappropriate. If you asked me what I earned I could tell you or not, as is my wish. If I replied that it was absolutely none of your business, I might be being pithy, but I would not be being discourteous.

Nuster

jah718

The difference being, if I asked you about your salary, I am asking you directly, you have the right to refuse to answer. The OP did not ask that staff member directly, so they were under no obligation to reply at all. Instead, that staff member went to the effort to reply that it is none of the OP's business, despite not being asked directly at all. They were being discourteous just because they wanted to.

I know we have gotten away from the point of this thread, but I just don't understand why people need to be rude when they can just ignore.

Starship73

This happened to me once in SYD – I was one of the first people to board and someone else arrived later with a boarding pass displaying the same seat allocation as me in Y. Simple explanation: I had been op-up'd to W but for whatever reason I hadn't been provided with this information or my new boarding pass at the gate...

navylad

It is perfectly reasonable to reply given the situation as eluded to by @corporate-wage-slave

Clearly those who be the fortunate recipients and we should be both grateful that circumstances can sometimes permit this without wishing to deminish the chances of such circumstances in the future.