Awkwardly Booted from 2A
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Awkwardly Booted from 2A
Boarding DCA-ATL, I received an updated seat assignment and upgrade to 2A. On the plane, a man was already seated in 2A. Mr. 2A showed me his kiosk-printed boarding pass and I pulled into the galley and asked the FA to take a look. She took our two boarding passes, called the gate agent, and came back on to the aircraft and told me the seat belonged to me, and Mr. 2A’s correct seat was 11C.
Mr. 2A, somewhat understandably, did not appreciate the notice and told the FA he wasn’t moving. He then got up, came to the galley and by this time, another gate agent came on board the aircraft. FA explained the situation to the gate agent and Mr. 2A showed him the email he received two days ago that he’d been upgraded (its been a while for me so I forgot those actually get sent). GA took our passes and called up once again. He came back with the same message, I was to be in 2A, Mr. 2A was to be in 11C. I checked my app and sure enough, it said 2A for me.
Mr. 2A said he would go to the ticket counter and talk this over with a supervisor. By this time the boarding line had thinned and it seemed silly to let this fester, so I offered to take 11C so we could get on with it. I figured the flight isn’t all that long and we were now flirting with the potential for a delay which seemed silly for the other 140 people on board. I took 11C much to the protest of the FA’s and they comped me a beer as Mr. 2A settled into 2A again.
The whole episode was awkward and I’m a bit confused as to how it could happen. It was clear Mr. 2A wasn’t in the mood to move, and that he had a seat assignment for 2A before I did, but my original seat in the bulkhead row (10) had been reassigned to someone else and seemed like we were running thin on options. What would you have done? Should I follow up with Delta?
Mr. 2A, somewhat understandably, did not appreciate the notice and told the FA he wasn’t moving. He then got up, came to the galley and by this time, another gate agent came on board the aircraft. FA explained the situation to the gate agent and Mr. 2A showed him the email he received two days ago that he’d been upgraded (its been a while for me so I forgot those actually get sent). GA took our passes and called up once again. He came back with the same message, I was to be in 2A, Mr. 2A was to be in 11C. I checked my app and sure enough, it said 2A for me.
Mr. 2A said he would go to the ticket counter and talk this over with a supervisor. By this time the boarding line had thinned and it seemed silly to let this fester, so I offered to take 11C so we could get on with it. I figured the flight isn’t all that long and we were now flirting with the potential for a delay which seemed silly for the other 140 people on board. I took 11C much to the protest of the FA’s and they comped me a beer as Mr. 2A settled into 2A again.
The whole episode was awkward and I’m a bit confused as to how it could happen. It was clear Mr. 2A wasn’t in the mood to move, and that he had a seat assignment for 2A before I did, but my original seat in the bulkhead row (10) had been reassigned to someone else and seemed like we were running thin on options. What would you have done? Should I follow up with Delta?
#5
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 3,394
My guess is that he got an upgrade. Printed the BP then made a change to a different part of his reservation potentially requiring the downgrade back to Y. He re-checked in but kept his original BP.
I too would like to commend you for being the bigger person.
I too would like to commend you for being the bigger person.
#7
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Join Date: Aug 2010
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Not so sure. DL would not have held the flight while Mr. 2A sorted things out. As soon as he popped off the aircraft, OP could haave taken his seat, the flight closed, pushed and been at ATL while 2A was still yacking with somebody about the issue.
#8
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Paradise
Posts: 1,617
The title is a little misleading. You weren't booted. You chose to take the coach seat. With that said. Props to you for being the bigger person. Although I would agree with Often1. More than likely if the other passenger wanted to go back in the terminal and make a stink about it, Delta would have simply removed him and pushed the flight back.
#10
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#11
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#12
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 552
The title is a little misleading. You weren't booted. You chose to take the coach seat. With that said. Props to you for being the bigger person. Although I would agree with Often1. More than likely if the other passenger wanted to go back in the terminal and make a stink about it, Delta would have simply removed him and pushed the flight back.
#13
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A receipt should have popped out of the boarding pass scanner with his correct seating assignment when he presented his 2A boarding pass to the gate agent as he was boarding, shouldn't it?!
#15
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The GA might have offloaded the OP in anticipation of him misconnecting and then failed to notice that he boarded before upgrading the OP into 2A.
Unless the OP saw the email that Mr 2A claimed to have confirming his upgrade, I would be suspicious that he may have made that up in an attempt to keep 2A.