Ever declined first class seats?
 

I'm just curious if anyone here has declined first class seats in order to sit in economy?

Now, I imagine this can happen a lot because people don't want to spend the upgrades, be it miles or points or certificates or whatever, on first class. I can also see this happening if a person can get upgraded, but their spouse (family, friend, etc.) can't get upgraded. But what about other reasons?

My boss has actually left his first class seat in order to move back into coach, on flights where coach was only sparsely populated. He says that if he's only interested in sleeping, then stretching out across a row of coach seats is more comfortable than sleeping in a single first class seat.

I was flying back on a DCA-ATL run one night when I was pretty sick. Let's just say that ending up in the emergency room while on business travel is no fun. I felt dead. A short while after taking my coach seat, my boss came back to make sure I was still alive. His first class upgrade had come through, and he offered to swap seats. By that point I'd settled in, and was too sick to want to move even to first class. So I turned the offer down.

Any other reasons to sit in the back of the plane when you could be up front?

Sure...do a search on FlyerTalk; some guy has bet with friends that he can give away his F upgrades and only fly coach for a year.

One night coming home from LAX, I was called to the podium to be upgraded to F class from J class on British Airways. My partner, on another booking locator was not so fortunate. I declined as we were on vacation together, and wanted to sit together.

Ah..greater love hath no man.........!!

I turned an upgrade down because I can upgrade a companion with me but this time I had my two kids and the CP desk called and asked which one I wanted to upgrade. Since they are 8 and 6, I sit in coach, between them, as we negotiate which one has the window first.

About 2 years ago, as I was waiting at the gate to hear if I'd be upgraded JFK/LAX. I was the last name called. Well, the lady standing next to me, the one with her leg in a cast, was sad to hear she wasn't upgraded.
I told the gate agent to give her my seat instead. But the agent says that if I turn down the upgrade, it goes to the next person in line. Turns out she was further down the list.
Happy ending... the F/A's took real good care of her in the back.

What was more shocking was that I was actually going to give up my upgrade. :eek:

Dan

you could have just traded seats with her!



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f

I "downgrade" when I can't "upgrade" my traveling companion, whether a family member, friend or business associate.

Three times, I've traded cabins when I've discovered at the gate that I'm on the same flight as a client.

Not really turning down an upgrade, but...

On an early (6:30 a.m.) DFW-PHX AA flight once, a buddy and I were both upgraded. Turns out we were the only two in F.

Also turns out there were only 12 other passengers on the plane. Right before boarding, the gate agent informs us that he's not charging us for our upgrades, as they're going to move everybody up to the front (that's 14 people, which is as many seats as there are in F on an AA MD-80).

So the two of us just went back to an otherwise empty coach cabin, each found a row of 3 seats, and slept the whole way.

Everybody else on the flight thought we were nuts.

I've turned down upgrades twice, both times on CO. The first time I was already seated in coach on the two seat side of a MD-80 up close to the bulkhead. The gate agent comes up and informs my that I've been upgraded to 1st. I could see up there that all the overhead bins were full. I had two rather large bags and nowhere to store them. Instead of leaving the bags in coach, and then trying to get them after landing, I declined. The next pax willingly took the upgrade. The second time, my upgrade(Gold) went through, but my wife's(Silver) didn't. I told her to take my seat, but she wanted to sit together. Luckily we had good seats in coach.

I had an upgraded seat on CO last week to 2A, my travel companion (traveling on a rewards ticket) couldn't get upgraded unless I spent an additional 45,000 miles....which is ridiculous for a domestic flight. He was sitting in 5A, so I switched seats with the person in 5B...who was quite thrilled with the idea of sitting in FC.

>>I had asked the FA's (politely) if my friend could be moved to FC, just prior to the doors being closed. They repeated CO's policy to me (blah, blah, blah)and that's when I decided to switch.

My FRUSTRATION with the situation was there were only 6 passengers in FC, with 6 empty seats. So each one of us FC folks could have moved one buddy forward, and not offended anyone. Instead the CO flight attendants that day (July 7, 2001 CO 499 CLE-MCO) chose NOT to upgrade ANYBODY, that flight took off with 6 empty seats in FC, and ME (a GOLD Elite) back in Coach because of their "policy".

Well kinda, my wife and I were inline for check in and some jerk ran over her foot with his luggage. He did not even attempt to say he was sorry. When we entered the plane guess who was the only other person in first class...jerk man. He muttered something under his breath...big mistake on his part. I then took my wife to coach, I looked for a "screaming baby" with mother. I asked her if she would like to sit in FC, she said yes. I then cleared it with the FA, no problem with a pretty open flight. We sat in the back had a great time. Two other coach pass bought us drinks because we had switched with the baby and mother.
So be nice to everyone, pay backs are heck

I tend to be up & down during a flight greater than 2 hours (restless, I guess), so the aisle seat is very important to me.

I have turned down F when all they had left was a window seat and I already had a nice E+ aisle seat, sometimes with an empty middle seat and sometimes not.

RAD

Yes and No. If I want to sleep good and it's a long trans-con flight with empty seats - then I'll take the FC seat, eat the meal, drink a glass of something, then go find an empty row and sleep.

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Ken in Sacramento

Nice move. I had a similar experience once many years ago, but on a city bus. When I boarded, the last available seat was the middle one of the back row of 5. The 4 guys already seated made only minimal room for me and I had only about 12 inches of space, measured on the diagonal. As luck would have it a very large lady got on at the next stop and slowly worked her way to the back with no one offering her a seat. I began to pray she would make it far enough back to see my hand signal urging her to take my seat. She saw my offer; I gave her the seat. She wiggled that big can into position and converted my 12 inches to a good 30 inches. I looked back on the 4 original guys from my comfortable standing position, and may have cracked a smile. It was 1972, but I remember it as if it were yesterday.


[This message has been edited by pckarp (edited 07-20-2001).]

I was upgraded, but i was traveling with my wife and mom, so I graciously gave up my 1st class seat to my mom! http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif

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Al