Just a few weeks ago, my mother and I were flying on AA from DFW to HNL. We were #1 and#2 on the upgrade list. We received boarding passes for first right before we boarded; we had bulkhead aisle seats but on opposite sides of the plane. When she boarded, a man was in her seat. He moved over after helping her stow her bag. After champagne (sparkling wine for the purists) was served and consumed, I noticed that my mother was sitting with an empty seat next to her; it was the designated rest seat for the pilots.

She said that the FA asked the man sitting next to her for his boarding pass; he handed it to her and she told him that his seat was in row 11 - not in row 2. He looked at my mother and said something like "Well at least I got champagne," collected his bags, and moved to row 11.

This has to be a troll thread. Someone can't possibly be coming onto FT and be serious about bragging about a self-upgrade.

That's awesome.

Its done all the time (bragging about stealing I mean)

Agree, this is an awful idea haha

I'm not convinced this was a case of self-upgrading anyway. On KLM I am often upgraded and only find out when another passenger shows up with the same seat.

If I just stood up and moved to the front, nobody would say anything since the pax count per class would come up correct.

Ever been one of the last bodies to board before the door closes and then see the slew of empty F/C and E/C seats as you trek back to Y? I frequently ask myself, �If I just take a seat up here, and play it cool, could I get away with it?� I realize that there are many ethical and moral reasons against doing this, and for some FTers, even entertaining this idea by responding to my thread is out of the question. I do not want to start a (read: another) long thread about right and wrong. No lecturing is needed here.

I have been the last to board either an RJ or flight <1500 miles, asked the GA for a complimentary Medellin upgrade (and was not previously on the list), got it and a new BP, and assumed my cushy F/C seat. The FA had zero reaction either way. At this point, the manifest either was not in hand or had not been revised to indicate my upgrade. I was never subsequently asked to present a BP. So, setting aside the BIG fact that it is wrong to do, I still ask the question. If a pax was last to board, effectively eliminating the chance of assuming a seat assigned to another pax, could he get away with a self-upgrade to F/C or E/C? Forget trying this on long haul flights or vessels with two rows that are stocked with CC requesting your BP as if there is some secret code they need to detect to tell you which aisle you should use to access your seat).

I would like to particularly like to hear from CC. Do you ALWAYS do a headcount for F/C or E/C and compare to the manifest? What do you do if there is an extra body? Would it matter if it doesn�t appear to create a problem (i.e. all passengers in that cabin are business-savvy� no drunks or loud and obnoxious behavior)? Other than humiliating the pax, rightfully so, are there any other direct consequences the passenger for trying (i.e. reporting, FF account sanctions, etc.)?

Would also like to hear from any pax that have witnessed a FA make someone do the walk of shame.

I log ~15,000 miles and 15 segments/month, most in Asia. I am never going to see most of the pax again, so if it is just my pride, and if there was a decent shot at getting away with it, I would be tempted to try this regularly. I just spent two weeks exclusively on CZ and GA, where so many �locals� are too cheap to spring $50 for E/C. F/C (�Executive� on GA) was nearly empty, which I suppose was because so few had the necessary status for upgrades. On CZ I had E/C to myself, which was fine. But GA is not yet synced up with Sky Team, so no upgrades available. Also note that I typically get the company the best deal on my ticket, and frequently do not collect miles making the Medellin status a long trek to reach.

I trolled the forums for more than three hours reading about seat switching and squatters. In all except one case (the drunk on a PHL-IND flight willing to pay $1000 to upgrade his partner, IIRC), the threads were about people in the same class switching seats and pax trying to �share� a J or F ticket.

Domestically it is definitely plausible but not so sure about long international flights

You can be caught if your seatmate believes that there will be an empty seat next to him/her. For example, some airlines and GAs will block seats next to elites when the plane isn't full. Nonrevs have been known to watch seat maps and ask to move up as soon as possible after departure.

There are quite a few threads on it.

Sometimes it will work.

Most times it will not work.

empty seats in F ? Not in a long time.

years ago, SJO-MIA, J (AA A300) was half full, we had a mechanical delay after we boarded, people started spreading out. Some guy from back in 87E comes up and sits in the empty seat next to me thinking he just scored the self-upgrade. FA starts drink service during the delay, asks me what I want. The guy next to me orders a drink. She gave him the silent stare for about 10 seconds, then told him that the drink + the upcharge for the J seat would be $ 2500, and she needed his credit card. As he left, she said to herself "What is wrong with people ?"...

I don't care whether you want to hear a lecture or not.

What you propose is theft. If it were up to me, if I were the airline, I would do everything I could to punish you for attempted theft.

If you want to sit up front, pay the $ or learn to use the system on FT to get upgrades.

Welcome to FT by the way.

Having had my F/J seat poached on several occasions, self upgraders are DBs IMHO. A few even had the nerve to insist I take another seat.

And what would you do if the flight attendant knew you were poaching, let you stay there and then they charged you for the seat when you got to your destination?