Upgrade cleared after pushback, denied seat change
 

On a recent flight (granted a short flight <700 miles), I thought I had missed the upgrade by one seat but after pushback and on our way to the gate I noticed I had cleared the upgrade list and my boarding pass now said seat 1C

Since we were on an active taxiway, I did not get up right away to move. I waited until we were up in the air and informed the FA of my boarding pass saying 1C. She said she couldn’t allow me to move up because she wasn’t authorized (I can understand there’s some security concerns here) and that the decision should have been made from the ground staff.

I didn’t complain or make a fuzz. Just went back to my seat and enjoyed the rest of the hour and a half flight. She did say as I was leaving the plane later that I should file a report.... anyone know where I can do this? And what appropriate compensation would be?

That's a bummer. Is there any way to know exactly when the upgrade cleared? Usually they clear everything prior to boarding completion, right?

I would have asked the FA to check her “SkyPro” (phone). The FAs don’t have access to the UG list on it, but they should easily be able to look at each F seat and see each PAX data and verify that it was your new seat.

Perhaps the GA processed the UG before the boarding door shut, and potentially thought there wouldn’t be enough time to go back and get the UG, so they just left it be.

If your BP shows 1C then 1C is your seat. Was someone in 1C?

Send the complaint on Delta.dumb under comment/complaint:

https://www.delta.com/contactus/commentComplaint

That’s a lazy FA. That would have been very easy to verify on their side. Worst case the captain could have called/ACARSed ops to verify.

I'm confused?? Why couldn't you have said that you sat in the wrong seat by mistake and just walked up and sat in F leaving your kit in storage behind? If I had a boarding pass for that F seat I wouldn't even had bothered the FA unless challenged. I would think that the on-board dispatch list of names in F seats would be OK. If not, then your Phone app is suspect

Totally. I would have just sat there. You could say “oh, I guess I was in the wrong seat for takeoff.”

The gate agent should have come onboard and moved you up front before removing the jet bridge. He or she should have closed the flight already in the system. It’s really too late once airborne.

I've been upgraded before, while taxiing, obviously by an onboard FA. So it's definitely possible. Unsure if the gate agent notified the FA's for the prompted switch or not tho.

Sounds like the FA was either lazy or probably not aware of the 'capability'...or does it really need to come from the GA, and that was the lazy one?

Guessing DL Connection since it was sub-700? Doesn’t excuse it but higher likelihood of ill-informed or agents who don’t follow the rules

Huh? There are plenty of mainline flights less than 700 miles.

Heck, I just got off a sub-500 mile flight that is always mainline.

Faulty assumption

You got hosed.

As others have said:

1) The GA should have notified you of the upgrade.
2) Absent #1, the GA should have notified the FA and told them that you were cleared to move up.
3) Absent #1 and #2, the FA should have consulted their SkyPro after you made a claim to the seat.

Thanks for the reply all. I will file a complaint

I guess I should have been smarter and just said I was in the wrong seat, instead I said my upgrade cleared during taxi. Lesson learned

And it was mainline, SJC-SLC on a 737