VEGAS1

Hi everyone. I've been reading here for a long time but never had a question until now. Hope someone can clarify something for me. I am going to book a r/t JFK-LAS and it is on the B6 A321 transcon and was looking at seats 18 E & F. I have looked at seat guru and find that these seats are listed and reviewed as possibly the worst seats ever. It says that 18F has no window (not a deal breaker I've seen the sky) nor does it have an arm rest. People just bashed this whole row.

The reason I am looking at this row is the last time I flew this route on this aircraft was a nightmare. I was in an aisle seat and my seat mates clearly needed 3 seats just for them. I asked the FA if I could move anywhere else and was told NO. So for 5 hours was hanging in the aisle. Another time the couple next to me - the female was as the window and then after takeoff proceeded to sit sideways, take her shoes off and put her feet across the husband/boyfriend and basically in my face. I asked her if she please take her feet out of my face and they both just laughed.

Looking at seats 18EF look good to me because it is my husband & I.

Anyone have experience in these seats and are they really that bad.

Thanks for any input - it's appreciated.

MSYtoJFKagain

Yes, they are that bad.

Just book an aisle and window in any other row. I'm not sure what the anecdote has to do with any of this, you'll have two seats.

CHOPCHOP767

I would not recommend this strategy, given B6's willingness to put persons who did not select a seat anywhere there is availability; including Extra Space Seats.

Most recently, seat map was mostly empty at T-24 on my outbound from BOS to PHX last Thursday in Extra Space. Flight left completely full. Return flight had a myriad of other issues. For the first time in A LONG time I found myself regretting not booking with AA.

Go with Seatguru reviews and book elsewhere, together.

diburning

They're supposed to assign non-EMS seats to people and fill those up before putting people in EMS. If people suddenly appear in EMS, and there are still "free" seats available, then one of three things happened: 1. The pax realized they're in middle seats and paid for the upgrade; 2. Comped for Mosaic; 3. Employee non-rev.

#3 is a fuzzy area. It really depends on the gate agent. Some agents will put the employee nonrevs into EMS as a courtesy, others will not. There's no rule against it as long as the seats are available and nonrevs are cleared after all revenue pax.

VEGAS1

Thanks for the input & advice. I was thinking about those seats due to the fact that they are next to a crew seat which I'm guessing won;t be used too much. We normally book aisle seats across from each other or a row apart, but with the new boarding procedure our last 5 flights we had to give up our carry-ons because there was no space left in the overhead.

I have been flying for 40+ yrs and have been pretty lucky on all those flights. Of course with that many years there were some instances that were less than acceptable but for the most part not bad. The past year or year and half have been horrendous. Is the flying public more obnoxious and self centered or am I getting to be a true pain in the butt senior citizen by expecting courtesy and respect in the same manner I treat people.

But anyway thanks again.

MSYtoJFKagain

This is false. They will put nonrevs into EMS. They will never put a standard ticketed customer into EMS. This excludes Mosaics.

Brighton Line

Except for exit row when the row is empty.

CHOPCHOP767

B6 will never put a non-EMS ticketed pax in an EMS seat? Never? Of course, B6 is going to put a non-EMS ticketed pax into EMS. You think B6 would do an involuntary denied boarding to a passenger because only EMS seats are left? Have you flown on B6's "shuttle routes", i.e. BOS->LGA->DCA? On numerous occasions Mosaic and NON-Mosaic colleagues of mine have ended up in EMS seats because they purchased last minute and didn't select a seat after purchase seeing that only EMS seats were open knowing they would get an EMS seat.

MSYtoJFKagain

In my experience on B6, which is probably at about 500 flights now, I've seen a ton of flights go out with empty EMS rows and people sitting on standby. My TCON flights are almost always empty in the middle if not the whole row with paxs left at the gate.

I don't fly the shuttle routes with any regularity and if that's their policy on those flights, awesome. That would be the first I've heard of it.

diburning

Those people sitting at the gate are probably just sitting there because there were seats open at the gate area and weren't standbys. Jetblue will put non-EMS ticketed passengers into EMS for free only if all other seats have been taken, and will clear standbys into those seats for free.

Outside of IRROPS or a full flight, there would be absolutely no revenue standbys because of a policy change a few months ago. There is now a $75 fee for SDC, and a $75 fee for same day standby (refundable if not cleared). This makes it completely impossible to be a revenue standby if the flight is not full because they would be immediately cleared if there were open seats. JetBlue does not oversell, so if the flight is ever overbooked, it would be because of IRROPS, and in that case they would fill every seat available EMS or not.

Often1

Not quite. B6 marketing materials say that it does not oversell.

In 2017, it had the 8th worst record for IDB. Between AA & WN. Worse than the three legacies (AA, DL, UA).

That is according to reporting by B6 to DOT and published by DOT.

diburning

They do not, in practice, oversell. Their inventory management does not allow it. However, IDBs happen when they downgauge aircraft due to MX, and/or weight restrictions to certain destinations.

IDBs on JetBlue are caused by sloppy operations, not overselling.

MSYtoJFKagain

This makes sense, my flying has cut down severely over the last year or so.

CHOPCHOP767

The E190 has 16 EMS seats and 84 regular seats. To say that B6 does not "oversell" seats does NOT mean that they will not "oversell" regular seats. It only means that they will not sell more than 100 seats on an E190. For example, B6 will and probably does sell 90 "regular" seats (pax doesn't select seat at purchase) and then assigns 6 pax to EMS when there are no more regular seats left. I'm betting that revenue management would allow the sale of 100 regular seats. Mosaics might get priority here for EMS, but they (B6) most certainly will assign a seat to any pax regardless of status who does not have a seat assignment in EMS. In what world would it make financial sense not to sell a seat in order to preserve EMS seats? It doesn't. It makes more sense to sell the unassigned seat and put the pax in EMS and "lose" the EMS revenue.

Again, this is why the strategy of booking aisle and windows on A320/1s is not a great idea if you want to be sure to sit together. Just book two aisle seats.

diburning

You are correct. I'd just like to add that EMS is not a separate cabin. If the plane has 100 seats, they will sell 100 seats. All airlines will do this. When they need to, United will put non-E+ pax in E+ seats, American will put non-MCE pax in MCE seats, and Delta will upgrade an elite from a good economy seat to a EC middle seat to accommodate the regular pax . The extra legroom seats (with the exception of Delta) do not have their own inventory.

EMS is not a separate product. It does not grant any on-board benefits in addition to more legroom; and the ground benefits are priority security, and Group A boarding. It's the same "experience" (JetBlue calls their product that) as regular economy, so there's nothing to protect.