lincolnjkc

UA5304 [SkyWest E175] CLT-ORD today want out with 4 open in front (3D, 4A/C/D) and a completely full in back (and at least two crewmembers [not sure if one was a revenue pax in full uniform or NRSA/NRPS+upgrade; the other was a FA Trainer grading a new FA's final IOE flight -- both show as cleared on the UG list but not the SBY list)... appeared there was only one revenue F passenger in the cabin before upgrades were processed.. Haven't seen anything even close in years maybe never.

My CPU cleared at some point prior to check-in (I only booked this trip on Thursday) and at that point there were only 2 of us in the cabin and only one name on the UG list.
At ~T-45, there were 9 names on the UG list and status was showing the cabin as booked 2(+4 blocked) of 12 and the gate agent started clearing UGs -- everyone on the list had been upgraded by the time boarding started.

CMK10

Two in a row for me.

6/9 UA 2268 RDU-IAH 737-800: Flew with 10/16
6/9 UA 6263 IAH-BTR EMB-175: Flew with 6/12

Both flights were on time and there were no misconnects, just empty on a Saturday morning. Of course the one time my lowly Premier Silver status would have netted me upgrades I was on a P Fare

LASUA1K

SFO-SBA, I was alone on a ERJ-175 in F.

nmenaker

Flew KOA-SFO yesterday afternoon. There were 3 of 20 F seats taken up till about 90 minutes prior to flight time. At checkin #1 1KGF and I were #1 , #2 on the upgrade list, and the ONLY people on the upgrade list. There ended up being about 35 people on the entire flight, apparently NONE of them with ANY status whatsoever. Flights like that are really odd to me.

AustinPilot

I was recently on a United Express E175 flight. Immediately prior to departure, first class (12 seats) was booked full, including 1 gate upgrade, but only 11 were checked in. There were 15 or so passengers remaining on the upgrade list, I was #1 . The flight departed with an empty seat in first class (4D), which I could clearly see from my own seat (7B). The final flight status, updated some time after departure, was 11 booked / 11 checked in for first class.

I wrote a complaint to 1kvoice. Their response, among a bunch of boilerplate, included this: "please be advised our Airport Operations team directed the gate agents not to processed an upgrade for seat 4D". Could not have been a FAM (it's a window seat), and the seat wasn't broken (on all subsequent flights that day, passengers were upgraded into 4D). What could be the reason?

jsloan

Could have been a broken seat that then got repaired.

Could also have been a weight and balance issue.

AustinPilot

My flight was from a hub to an outstation, from where it immediately flew on to another hub with a passenger in 4D. Certainly not enough time to repair the seat at the outstation.

What would be a weight and balance issue on an E175 with multiple open seats in the back that would force them to keep a first-class seat open?

lincolnjkc

What was the city pair and which UAEX operator? It's exceedingly probable that if you were from an outstation to a hub (or from anywhere to a city where the UAEX carrier has its own maintenance presence) that it was a broken seat -- could be as simple as the seat lock not working/keeping the seat from staying fully upright and locked -- that got repaired during the next turn, and that's where my brain goes first -- IIRC, if the seat isn't capable of remaining upright/locked the seat cannot be occupied during takeoff or landing

There could be other operational reasons, though, including possibly a VVIP in 4C (or a "we really screwed up, so we'll keep the seat next to you open on your new flight" -- had that happen once or twice) -- before departure did the flight status on mobile show (+X blocked)?

Your reply came in after I originally posted... Are you sure it was a passenger in 4D and not a blocked seat? (e.g. did you see an upgrade cleared into 4D or just a gray seat on the seatmap?) In the case of a broken seat, I'd expect to see it blocked which will show up as occupied and may have been what happened on the subsequent flight

AustinPilot

SkyWest from SFO to an outstation.

Did not know they do this. Cool!

No. First class was showing fully booked, but only 11 checked in. After they closed the door, I checked again: still fully booked, but only 11 checked in and 4D empty on the seat map. Some time later, it changed to 11 booked, 11 checked in.

On my flight, 4D was showing as an empty (yellow) seat on the seat map. On the subsequent flight, there was an upgrade cleared into 4D.

jsloan

Specifically, the fact that there were multiple open seats in back. They may have calculated that they could only safely carry 11 passengers up front because of the light load in the back. Although, I don't know what the actual difference in applied torque is from a passenger in 7B vs 4D...

There's no way to tell the difference between Full and 11/12 booked, +1 blocked. You only see the blocked number if the cabin isn't full (so, 10/12 booked, +1 blocked, but then if they sell one more seat, it just says "Full").

fumje

Don't UAX operators do maintenance at some outstations? Republic is headquarted at IND, and I believe they do repairs there even though it's not a UA hub. Seems similar could be the case for SkyWest.

Also seems possible the seat was still inop on the subsequent flight, but the outstation GA missed the notice and cleared someone into it.

AustinPilot

Before the boarding, the upgrade tab was showing 11 booked, 10 checked in. If a seat had been blocked, it would have shown "+1 blocked", but it did not.

Then the gate agent cleared #1 from the upgrade list, I moved from #2 to #1 , and that's how the flight departed: "Booked: full", "Checked In: 11", and 4D as an empty yellow seat on the seat map and indeed empty on the plane.

I chalked it up to a no-show passenger and a lazy gate agent who did not cancel their reservation until after the flight has departed, thus my complaint to 1kvoice, but their response was that the gate agent was told not to upgrade into seat 4D. It's totally no big deal, short flight and 7B is arguably better than 4D on a E175 anyway, I am just curious as to what happened there.

Only 27 minutes elapsed between the arrival of my flight (with seat 4D empty and not allowed for upgrades by the "airport operations team") and the departure of the same aircraft on the next flight, with seat 4D occupied. Given that these 27 minutes included unloading and reloading the plane, I doubt there was any time for maintenance.

MatthewLAX

A first for me...THREE flights in a row with open seats in F.

July 4th
BUR-SFO
737-800 / 7:55p departure
first class booked 4/20 -- I figured this would be the case due to the unique time of the flight (people want to watch fireworks)

July 4th
SFO-SEA
737-800 / 11:15p departure
first class booked 15/20

July 5th
SEA-SFO
737-700 / 8:50p departure
first class booked 11/16

wxguy

This morning's 0600 BOS-SFO, a pmUA 757 -- only 20 of 28 seats taken. I had an empty next to me for the first time on a p.s. flight. The rest of the day's BOS-SFOs look full.

tnarg-lax

Last night's 1855 LAX-ORD had four open F seats, pmCO 757. A rare treat to have some extra work space on this route.