Sneaking into WBC seats
Mar 17, 2003, 6:21 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Toledo, OH
Posts: 8
Sneaking into WBC seats
Just got back from AMS-DTW flight 67 where I saw two people trying to sneak into WBC seats. They just sit in an open seat until the rightfully assigned person comes to claim their seat. In one case, a woman actually claimed it was her seat. When the FA asked to see her boarding pass, she couldn't find it. The FA had to go out to the GA and look up her seat. Only then did this woman gave up the seat and went back to her coach seat. She was upset that she had to go back to coach and did not like the way she was treated by the FA. What I saw was that the FA was very courteous and handle it in a very professional manner. It was the customer who was trying to cheat the system. Has anyone else seen this type of rude behavior from a dishonest customer?
Mar 17, 2003, 6:42 pm
#2
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Texas Hill Country
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Welcome aboard, sssong. Pretty brazen, yet sad stuff. I'm sure the squatter probably had some huge justification for her action. The false sense of entitlement that is a big part of our culture is astounding.
Mar 17, 2003, 9:58 pm
#3
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 269
My favorite was about 4 years ago when I was travelling on a VS/CO codeshare LGW-EWR -- packed in Y. The flight was being handled by a substitute airplane and crew from Iceland (I have no idea why.)
In any case, a woman spilled about a teaspoon full of water on the man across from me and he said to the FA something along the lines of "I always sit in first and this is the first time I've been in coach in 10 years. Never again, I'm just going to take a seat up front." For whatever reason (probably because she truly didn't care) she let him go.
It's pretty brazen to take someone else's seat though. On my last Europe flight in F, the gate agent asked if I wanted to move up a row since there'd be an empty seat next to me. I did but it confused the heck out of the FA who greeted everyone in F and except me until he could figure out if I really belonged there.
In any case, a woman spilled about a teaspoon full of water on the man across from me and he said to the FA something along the lines of "I always sit in first and this is the first time I've been in coach in 10 years. Never again, I'm just going to take a seat up front." For whatever reason (probably because she truly didn't care) she let him go.
It's pretty brazen to take someone else's seat though. On my last Europe flight in F, the gate agent asked if I wanted to move up a row since there'd be an empty seat next to me. I did but it confused the heck out of the FA who greeted everyone in F and except me until he could figure out if I really belonged there.
Mar 18, 2003, 4:04 am
#4
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Las Vegas, NV USA
Posts: 748
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by sssong:
Just got back from AMS-DTW flight 67 where I saw two people trying to sneak into WBC seats. They just sit in an open seat until the rightfully assigned person comes to claim their seat. In one case, a woman actually claimed it was her seat. When the FA asked to see her boarding pass, she couldn't find it. The FA had to go out to the GA and look up her seat. Only then did this woman gave up the seat and went back to her coach seat. She was upset that she had to go back to coach and did not like the way she was treated by the FA. What I saw was that the FA was very courteous and handle it in a very professional manner. It was the customer who was trying to cheat the system. Has anyone else seen this type of rude behavior from a dishonest customer?</font>
Just got back from AMS-DTW flight 67 where I saw two people trying to sneak into WBC seats. They just sit in an open seat until the rightfully assigned person comes to claim their seat. In one case, a woman actually claimed it was her seat. When the FA asked to see her boarding pass, she couldn't find it. The FA had to go out to the GA and look up her seat. Only then did this woman gave up the seat and went back to her coach seat. She was upset that she had to go back to coach and did not like the way she was treated by the FA. What I saw was that the FA was very courteous and handle it in a very professional manner. It was the customer who was trying to cheat the system. Has anyone else seen this type of rude behavior from a dishonest customer?</font>
The FAs are always given a total for the passenger count in F/Y -- they usually are pretty aware of it -- I have been questioned many times if we tell them there are more/less than what they have counted in the cabin.
Mar 18, 2003, 8:12 am
#5
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Easy solution is to have the gate supervisor greet the offending passenger upon arrival with an invoice for the difference between their coach fare and the applicable first class fare 
Mar 18, 2003, 8:25 am
#6
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: PHX
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bocastephen:
Easy solution is to have the gate supervisor greet the offending passenger upon arrival with an invoice for the difference between their coach fare and the applicable first class fare</font>
Easy solution is to have the gate supervisor greet the offending passenger upon arrival with an invoice for the difference between their coach fare and the applicable first class fare
</font>
It takes serious guts to pull this "plopper" thing off. Heck, I spent a significant amount of my time on this same flight back in February just working up the nerve to climb the stairs for a quick (couple seconds) glance around the upper cabin.
[rant]
I second the comment on entitlements. Part of this is due to our friends the accident / injury lawyers and their commercials / billboards / bus ads / etc...."Were you in an accident? Have you been injured? Are you stupid? Call us, we can get you free money!"
Then people b*tch about high insurance premiums and product costs (who do they think pays for liability coverage?). Hmm, any connection?
[/rant]
Sorry.
Mar 18, 2003, 8:35 am
#7
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,660
Here's my worst experience with these folks:
Christmas eve flight from HNL-LAX on a DC-10. Just as we're getting ready to push back from the gate, the lead F/A comes up front and tells us that there are two men who insist on sitting up front. The gate agent had dealt with this before the door had been closed, but now that the door is closed, they return to the front and claim two seats.
The captain says we're not going to deal with this for the next 5 hours, and asks the agent to bring the jetway back up the aircraft and resolve it. After about 10 minutes, the two are returned to their coach seats and promise not to cause further problems. So......we leave HNL about 10-15 minutes after we had originally been slated to leave.
Fast forward five hours: We're on approach into LAX around 1 AM Christmas morning. The aircraft in front of us lands, and the field goes to 0 visibility in a thick fog. We are told to discontinue the approach and enter holding. We hold for over an hour and then the decision to divert is made. Can't go to SFO - not enough gas. Can't go to LAS - 50 mile an hour winds. End up landing in ONT at 2 AM Christmas morning. Anyone out there hazard to guess how many people are at work in ONT at 2 AM to greet a DC-10? Two teenage kids park us at the remote apron and a couple of NW mechanics (working on a 757 engine change) happen to see us land and wander over in their maintenance van to see what they can do to help. Ugghhh.
This story turns into a nightmare as there is no transportation, no gas, LAX is fogged in for the rest of the morning, etc. etc. Guess who the first two to come up and complain to the F/As were? Our two ploppers who, as events played out, were DIRECTLY responsible for our being in ONT and not LAX. Had we taken off in time from HNL we would have arrived ten minutes earlier than we had....when LAX was still open and accepting aircraft. At 7 AM, transportation arrived and the passengers disembarked for their bus ride over to LAX.
Those two guys ruined Christmas morning for about 200 people that day......
Christmas eve flight from HNL-LAX on a DC-10. Just as we're getting ready to push back from the gate, the lead F/A comes up front and tells us that there are two men who insist on sitting up front. The gate agent had dealt with this before the door had been closed, but now that the door is closed, they return to the front and claim two seats.
The captain says we're not going to deal with this for the next 5 hours, and asks the agent to bring the jetway back up the aircraft and resolve it. After about 10 minutes, the two are returned to their coach seats and promise not to cause further problems. So......we leave HNL about 10-15 minutes after we had originally been slated to leave.
Fast forward five hours: We're on approach into LAX around 1 AM Christmas morning. The aircraft in front of us lands, and the field goes to 0 visibility in a thick fog. We are told to discontinue the approach and enter holding. We hold for over an hour and then the decision to divert is made. Can't go to SFO - not enough gas. Can't go to LAS - 50 mile an hour winds. End up landing in ONT at 2 AM Christmas morning. Anyone out there hazard to guess how many people are at work in ONT at 2 AM to greet a DC-10? Two teenage kids park us at the remote apron and a couple of NW mechanics (working on a 757 engine change) happen to see us land and wander over in their maintenance van to see what they can do to help. Ugghhh.
This story turns into a nightmare as there is no transportation, no gas, LAX is fogged in for the rest of the morning, etc. etc. Guess who the first two to come up and complain to the F/As were? Our two ploppers who, as events played out, were DIRECTLY responsible for our being in ONT and not LAX. Had we taken off in time from HNL we would have arrived ten minutes earlier than we had....when LAX was still open and accepting aircraft. At 7 AM, transportation arrived and the passengers disembarked for their bus ride over to LAX.
Those two guys ruined Christmas morning for about 200 people that day......
Mar 18, 2003, 8:53 am
#8
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: NYC
Posts: 9,114
This used to be easier in the old days (maybe ten years or more back?) because they often did not do a headcount - and I know people who tried it and got away with it. Nowadays it seems to be pretty much impossible. I also remember that on some domestic PanAm flights this was a very common occurance and the FA's didn't seem to mind.
Mar 18, 2003, 9:04 am
#9
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I wonder why the captain didnt just throw them off the flight. If a coach passenger without any entitlement, demands to be upgraded for no valid reason (and then actually re-seats him/herself), that alone would lead me to consider the passenger should not be on board.
You missed a good revenge opportunity...you could have invited the two offenders to line up for deplaning first, then announced to the other passengers that these two were directly responsible for delaying the flight, causing the diversion That would have taught them a good and painful lesson
A less offensive self-upgrader I saw, was this college kid who decided to upgrade himself so he could sit across from a cute girl and chitchat with her during an intermediate stop. Some good facial expressions from a couple of us in First, and the FA was on him in 5 seconds flat..."Sir, is this your assigned seat?"..."umm, no"..."Sir, you need to go back to your coach seat immediately, or be deplaned". He got out of there pretty quick. It was a number of years ago, but you couldnt help snicker at the parallels with the movie "Titanic"...forbidden love across class lines
You missed a good revenge opportunity...you could have invited the two offenders to line up for deplaning first, then announced to the other passengers that these two were directly responsible for delaying the flight, causing the diversion
That would have taught them a good and painful lesson A less offensive self-upgrader I saw, was this college kid who decided to upgrade himself so he could sit across from a cute girl and chitchat with her during an intermediate stop. Some good facial expressions from a couple of us in First, and the FA was on him in 5 seconds flat..."Sir, is this your assigned seat?"..."umm, no"..."Sir, you need to go back to your coach seat immediately, or be deplaned". He got out of there pretty quick. It was a number of years ago, but you couldnt help snicker at the parallels with the movie "Titanic"...forbidden love across class lines
Mar 18, 2003, 9:31 am
#10
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Iowa...Delta Charter Diamond, now Gold
Posts: 2,066
Recently in MSP person next to me was aproached by gate agent...it ends up that he tried to convince them he was his father who had elite status...didn't work and he was sent to the back, as someone else took the seat up front...he played dumb, but I could tell he knew exactly what he was trying to do.
Mar 18, 2003, 9:58 am
#11
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,575
I see this ALL THE TIME!! There are those who think NW Airlink is open seating and then there are those that plop themselves in our nice comfy FC seats for a 30 min flight. As if they're really going to get more than a drink in a glass. The pepsi in coach is the same pepsi that FC gets - ewww! as if! Our FA's get a SPIL and usually cross reference the pax count with the actual bodies in the FC cabin. It's kinda funny to watch people stroll back into coach with their tails between their legs. Then there are the ones that board after losing the "I deserve an upgrade war" with the gate agents. They board and tell ME or the fwd FA that the agent told them to talk to us about an upgrade. Haha... that goes over well like a fart in church! =) You cant win people! HAHAHAHAHA!
AZJ
AZJ
Mar 18, 2003, 10:05 am
#12
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: 36,000'
Posts: 1,206
A guy I knew in college once crossed the curtain after the door closed on a flight from LAX to DTW. He said that no one asked any questions--he even asked for, and received a second breakfast! At deplaning a FA asked him for his boarding pass. He refused to show it to her. She threatened to make him stay on the plane (why???) and he fanagled his way off the plane without any problems.
Mar 18, 2003, 11:04 am
#13
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 830
We used to have credit card slips on board for just this situation. I used them twice just to see their eyeballs pop out of their heads! Sometimes you just need to bring them out and the smoke down the aisle towards coach would get pretty thick! 
Mar 18, 2003, 12:18 pm
#14
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Kansas City, MO
Posts: 117
I remember not to long ago a guy "plopped" next to me in seat 1A. Everything was casual and nobody suspected anyting. He even got a pre-departure drink. Just when it looked he was going to get away with things, the real occupant of the seat boarded late and tried to claim the seat. After the FA asked for the boarding passes, the "plopper" claimed he mis-read the ticket thinking he was in row 1 rather than row 10 (as his ticket showed). He was promptly shown to the back!