jstevenson0617

I have booked a large group on JetBlue to travel to Jamaica. One of our group members has cancelled but is unable to get a refund due to the rules of booking with a group. I want to keep that seat for our group, since we have paid for it. Can I go ahead and check her in online so that it shows she is traveling? I don't want JetBlue to give away her seat. Any experience with situations like this one?

Thank you.

bitburgr

Not with JetBlue specifically, but I have tried this.

If you are sure you can't get the money back for the cancellation, go ahead and check her in. However, when JetBlue sees that she is a no-show, her seat becomes available for anyone trying to stand by. You don't get to claim that the seat is taken if anyone tries to sit there.

On the return flight, since she was a no-show going down, you won't be able to check her in coming back.

(at least, that's how I'm assuming things will go)

fjord

AFAIK, group reservations on some airlines want the names two weeks prior flight. Example, buy a 100 person ticket 9 months in advance, the company wants all names up to 2 weeks before flight time. I think there is something about changing the name if you want someone else to travel. Check with JB.

clacko

people of size often buy 2 seats.....you might try to assign 2 seats to yourself.....

JY1024

Since policies may be different from airline to airline, we'll shift this over to the JetBlue forum since that's the airline in question right now. Thanks! /JY1024, TravelBuzz co-moderator

jstevenson0617

I ended up calling JetBlue. The women in group reservations told me to check the passenger in online, as if she were traveling. I hope I don't get any hassle from the FA's about the empty seat. Hopefully this doesn't become an issue.

Thanks for the input.

firstglobal

As mentioned earlier, it's not FAs who might care, it's GAs (gate agents) who may give the seat away to a standby passenger. When you check in, you guarantee that your seat will be held until 15 minutes before flight departure. After that point, though, they can give it to someone else.

jstevenson0617

I plan on having the gate agent scan the boarding pass. There is a large group of us and I'm hoping they won't try to account for every single person when I hand her the big stack of boarding passes. Do you think I should speak with the agent upon arrival to the gate?

firstglobal

Please don't do what you describe - if procedures are being followed, the flight won't close until the FA's passenger count reconciles with the manifest provided by the GA. The number of actual passengers needs to match with the airline's records for a variety of reasons such as the "souls on board" in event of an emergency.

If you're checked in then once you get down to the 15 minute mark that I mentioned earlier, the only way that the seat will be given away is generally if the flight is overbooked. And in that case, is an open middle seat really worth leaving some poor schmuck behind? If so, try to get the seat reassigned as an "extra seat" for a member of your group as clacko mentioned above. If not, stop worrying and leave it in the hands of the airline gods

jstevenson0617

Thanks for the advice. I guess I wasn't thinking about the final headcount the FA's will do. As of this afternoon the flight had maybe 10 open seats. I'm hoping the seat won't be given away, but truth be told, we don't really need it. It's more that we paid for it and I'd like to see something for the money. I appreciate your help.

jj1987

Don't think of it as not getting anything for the money-- you'll get to meet a friendly nonrevver

djs

JetBlue typically does not overbook flights so the seat likely wouldn't be assigned unless it goes to a standby passenger.

PacNWFlyer

This is really a bad idea... The souls on board count drives weight and balance calculations. Aircraft of this size have a margin of error built in to those kinds of calculations, but still - you're messing with safety by tricking the airline in to thinking there's somebody in that seat when in reality, there's not.

nerd

But, wouldn't the airline be erring on the safe side, thinking the plane is heavier than it is?

And, isn't this an A320 (as opposed to a puddle jumper)?

jstevenson0617

Turns out, the seat remained empty on both flights. Thanks for the input.