Mary...

Couple of additional points:

1. Copy of information PPTP sent me from our internal MOU (Monthly Operational Update:
   
   Quote:

   Moving from Cabin to Cabin
   Recently we heard from a BusinessFirst customer who
   was upset because he was told he could not walk back into
   the main cabin to visit a friend. The crew informed him this
   was a TSA directive. This is incorrect information.
   BusinessFirst customers are always allowed to enter into
   the main cabin. We do ask, however, that main cabin
   customers not enter into BusinessFirst, but this decision is to
   be managed on a case-by-case need. Please be careful and
   know the current directives in place. For example, on flights
   inbound to the U.S.A, no congregating in any area and
   customers are asked to use the lavatory in their assigned
   cabin...
2. While you don't see this as a big deal, I see it as an issue that continually makes our jobs more difficult. I truly hope your upgrade comes through or you are with a flight attendant that doesn't see a problem with your methodology, but if you do, don't consider that f/a to be a bad person (as you implied here). We are proud of our product and want it to continue to thrive by generating a huge amount of revenue. I believe "switching" can diminish its perceived value and until I see it in writing otherwise, I will continue to speak out against it.

Thanks for that.

However, if my husband can leave BF to go to the main cabin, well, why would it be a problem if I simply replaced him in his seat? I'm not looking to congregate, hang out in BF, or make a pest of myself.

I recognize your issues with other BF passengers having parties in BF with Y passengers, but this isn't the case, nor was it ever the case as noted in my original post. As I said before, not every BF passenger has a chip on his shoulder. If I did, well, I wouldn't have bothered to ask & simply done it.

I truly hope my husband's downgrade happens first. I don't want to waste the miles.

A question for you.... How many passengers do the switch on your flights? I mean pure switches, no congregating, no movie watching, just change seats?

Also, I don't know if you've ever done the non-stop from EWR to HNL. I can tell you that by hour 8 or 9 EVERYONE is walking around the cabin, the FAs are sitting in the back chatting, and there is a general "are we there yet?" attitude. I've seen lots of people do walking laps through the cabin.

Have you been in touch with your co-worker who posted here? I'm really curious if there is a written policy about this situation because while similar, the situation you present really isn't what I'm talking about.

BTW - I do not believe I implied anything about a FA being a bad person. At least I don't recall doing so. Please point it out, because it's really not my style.

Ay yay yay - why can't we just sit in our respective cabins?

-Vincent

I guess I interpreted the above statement incorrectly....

Also, the information I quoted you was sent to me from the colleague you referenced in the last post. S/he is still looking for the location of the policy stating it is "ok" to allow customers to switch seats between BF and YC.

Yes, after 21 years in this industry, I've flown much further than EWR-HNL and switching seats on HKG, TLV, NRT or LGW or any other international destination would not be allowed by the ISM's I've flown with over the years. In all the cases where this scenario applies, the switching didn't occur. Yet, I'm aware of cases where customers will state: "But, on my last NRT flight, they let me do this!" There is no way you can prove or I can disprove this statement.

Who knows, maybe someone from management reading these threads, will put out a FYI in the next MOU.

Someone will, and this issue will eventually be put to rest!

-Vincent

Why does it always come back to this?

Can we ever just all get along. Flaming here and there it gets old quickly.

while I appreciate that there are frequent flyers and I concur they should get the perks over someone who only flies occasionally, if all the "occasional" flyers stopped flying or chose another airline, where would Continental be and the Elite program?

Where are Republic Air's First Class passengers these days, or Eastern's or TWA?

Just something to think about.

Vincom - I'm truly shocked that you were not kidding. I really thought you were.

So, what do you feel the problem is?

Well, I'll apologize. I was having trouble understanding just why you were being so firm and took you as a disgruntled FA.

I hope your co-worker can find a reference because now I'm dying to know BEFORE I leave

Thanks....apology accepted.

Well, I'm not exactly against the game of musical chairs, what I'm concerned with is how to deliver on such a situation. If we cant have a definite answer across the board for all flights how is it suppose to be handled? Leaving such a decision in the hands of ISMs or Lead FAs leaves too much customer backlash possibility on thier shoulders, and thats not fair either.

You'll get customers saying "well on my last flight it was okay - why not this one?" who wants to bear the bad news its all subjective? Then whoever made the decision looks cold hearted - when they were only trying to execute thier obs s best as possible.

The way it stand it is inconsistent, and thast unfortuante for an airline that prides itself on consistency.

Continental ought to set fore an "offical" directive on how to handle such a situation.


-Vincent

You're taking my thought out of context.

Please note:

My statement was a thought process about what I wanted to tell another customer "indirectly" harassing my travel companion's experience in FC. The offending passenger as I said had the "I paid for my tickets" look on her face and was doing nothing but giving me "friend" / travel companion dirty looks for the entire flight after she saw him get an upgrade last minute prior to departure. My wanting to tell her off did not happen, as I said "I wanted to tell her"

I'm not normally one to impose rank and file against people, but the thought does cross my mind when you get reaction like that from people for no reason.

-Vincent

A classic management issue: do you fully prescribe all behavior by employees and exactly how the MUST handle every situation or do you allow for some discretion by employees that you have supposedly well-trained?

I am for the latter. It empowers staff and lets them feel they have some control over the istuation. Will there be an occasional abuse or bad judgement, of course. OTOH, on an 11 flight from EWR/HNL management isn't exactly up to date with what's going in the Y or BF cabin.

And, yes we should end discussion of who flys more then the next guy/gal. It is not really relevant. CO has made clear through UG polices and the like how the review their customers anything else for us the peanut gallery is well just hot air.

A bit surprised that CO doesn't have an explicit policy on this. I believe UA's policy, for example, is that one (and only one) trade is allowed on a flight.

hamburgler