Unfair upgrade choice
 

I was in BF on the EWR-LGW (6:40pm) last Fri. The flight was delayed due to some connecting passengers. When the passengers arrived, the last man on was a very obese man who, it seems, bought two seats for himself in coach (the right thing to do). Anyway it seems that during the wait, the Concierge did some passenger moving to get people to sit together. The result being this guy's seats were not avail. As such, an FA just let him sit in BF, rather than having the seating issues in Y fixed.This may be quite un-PC, but I found the situation to be utter crap. Rather than correcting the situation (and perhaps getting a plat or two in BF) this man was rewarded for being obese. He got the full BF service and proceeded to gorge himself for the entire flight.Bollox, if you ask me :mad:

The man bought TWO tickets, trying to do the right thing and when Continental gave away his seats, they did the right thing by moving him up to BF.

I hope while he was "gorging" himself on the fine cuisine up front, you were watching him from a middle seat eating a Turkey Pastrami sandwich.

They didn't give away his seats, they moved people around. I'm sure they could have fixed this as there were plenty of empty seats in Y. This was not an Opup

No, I was sitting in front of him

Regardless of who got upgraded, unless it was you, you probably would not be happy. Also, don't jump to conclusions, perhaps he was a platinum.

1) I was already in BF, so didnt need a UG
2) He may well have been; however that I had nothing to do with the UG. The FA just didn't feel like doing anything further

Or perhaps the FA or GA made a judgement call - repositioning passengers again might have extended the delay even further. We can't close the door and push back until everyone is seated...perhaps his unfair upgrade to BF was preferable to you and your neighbors missing connecting flights in EWR.

I agree. The subsequent response, "They didn't give away his seats, they moved people around. I'm sure they could have fixed this as there were plenty of empty seats in Y. This was not an Opup" is irrelevant in my opinion. There is no "right" (as there arguably is on domestic flights) to an international upgrade, therefore FA used discretion to remedy issue in reasonable manner. I especially think it was the right thing to do for the embarassment of putting the man and his problem on "display" despite his having done the absolutely courteous and politically correct act to minimize - buying two seats. I would have posted a compliment to the FA for their immediate and appropriate response to their error, again demonstrating how two people can look at the same facts and reach completely different conclusions.

You say he may well have been a Platinum, but that had nothing to do with the upgrade, but in your first post you say maybe a couple of Plats could have been moved up instead of him.

So which is it?

It sounds like you just didn't want to share the same CABIN with a fat guy. How did it affect your flight? If you were sitting in front of him, then you got to choose your meal first, so how did it impact you?

Did he make loud noises while "gorging" himself throughout the flight? Did he recline into you? Did he foul the lavatory after relieving himself following his gorge-fest? :confused:

It sounds like the guy was trying to get from point A to point B and could not do so without drawing your utter contempt for no legimate reason, certainly none that had any negative ramifications to your voyage.

I say beware of anyone who uses a word like "Bollox" (sic) and doesn't know how to spell it. :eek:

Yeep... It's about time for another 'fat' thread.
 

The complaint I hear is not so much that a COS was upgraded, but that the upgrade was performed without any consideration of status (however, this may not be true as the upgraded COS may be a Plat/Gold/Silver.)

Moreover, the COS took responsibility for the comfort of his fellow passengers and purchased an additional seat ^ . However, somewhere in the boarding process that additional seat was taken by another passenger who wanted to sit next to his/her companion.

So as I understand it the FA had the following choices. He/she needed to find two empty seats together. To do this, he could upgrade two people to BF (freeing up two seats in Y), locate one empty seat in Y and upgrade a pax next to said seat or upgrade the COS into BF.

My take is that the FA did smart thing because in upgrading the COS to BF, two Y seats were freed up for the price of one BF seat (that I'm assuming was not going to be occupied). Moreover, the hassle of going scrounging around for a suitable Y seat pair, then dealing with upgrading the person(s) in the agent seat seems cumbersome - especially (as flymeaway mentioned) if there is a time deadline to meet.

Finally, this was not some rude person who was going to spill over into the other seats (bring back any memories LawFlyer)? This was a person who took the time and money to buy that second seat (read extra space). For whatever reason, CO was not able to deliver on it’s end in Y, so BF seems reasonable.

Maybe an airline employee here could confirm this but I think over the years there have been UG's of large people when their mass might cause them or other passengers a problem. I am talking pre-elite UG lottery days.

Since the UG posed no harm to the OP, I don't get what the big deal is. Would it have been nice if a plat got that all to rare op up of course. I belive the first obligation here is to the eprson paying for two seats adjacent. That's what they paid for and reserved in advance.

If this person had not gotr their two seats together and they were a FT we would now be discusing compensation for not getting the two seats. How many of you would argue for an UG to BF :D :D :D

I just want to know how you know for a fact that he bought two seats, did he tell you?

Bit angry then???? Nerve touched?

He did use my seatback throughout the night to stand up; but that's besides the point as people seem to do that as a matter of course.
As for my spelling of BOLLOCKS: it's a colloqueal spelling. Deal with it

He and an FA were having their conversation right by my seat

Gotcha, thanks

If passengers would just mind their own business, this would not be an issue. Life is not fair -- the sooner we all learn to deal with it, the more enjoyable life will be for all of us.

You are probably the guy who complained when my elite 14-year-old son (sporting a big blue mohawk) got upgraded.