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FAs doing E to E+ upgrades
I haven’t seen it happen before, but on a recent SFO/SIN and SIN/SFO, the flight attendant in my section, E+, moved people from E to E+; it happened as boarding ended and the door closed. They were United employees. Is this practice normal?
I am being selfish here, as I had managed to secure a whole row to myself—until the FA upgrades happened. |
NRSA generally have access to E+, if these were NRSA one would have thought they would have been ticketed in E+.
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Are you sure they didn't pay for the upgrade?
I frequently hear the FA announce that for a surcharge E pax can be moved to E+. |
Originally Posted by ContinentalFan
(Post 30987464)
I haven’t seen it happen before, but on a recent SFO/SIN and SIN/SFO, the flight attendant in my section, E+, moved people from E to E+; it happened as boarding ended and the door closed. They were United employees. Is this practice normal?
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Had this happen a few flights ago on SYD to SFO. So many got upgraded to E+ that many of us in E had three seats to stretch out on. Meanwhile those in E+ were cheek by jowl. Karma! |
Originally Posted by narvik
(Post 30987482)
Are you sure they didn't pay for the upgrade?
I frequently hear the FA announce that for a surcharge E pax can be moved to E+. |
Many were moved on GUM-HNL to the point .E+ was more crowded than E.
Recently I asked the FA if I could move from my assigned 21A to 20F because a standby passenger got 21B & this would permit 21B to take 21A and me to have an empty 20E next to me. FA said yes. Standby passenger in 20B started yelling at me until the other passengers in my original row came to my defense. United should get a handle on unruly rogue standbys. |
Originally Posted by HNLbasedFlyer
(Post 30987531)
Employees are entitled to the best available seat after all the upgrades are processed including E+, so employees would already have E+ boarding passes.
Anyway, NRSA are entitled to E+ so no problem here! |
NRSA may be entitled to E+, but the policy should be to keep a seat blocked adjacent any GS or 1K member to prevent the seat from being occupied unless it's needed due to a full flight or because a revenue passenger buys E+ and that is the only seat(s) remaining to assign.
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I've had FAs move passengers (not employees AFAIK) on fairly empty flights. Most recently, a FA offered a particularly tall passenger to move up to E+, and I think realized when a few people around saw, she told them they could taken an open E+ seat as well.
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
(Post 30989203)
NRSA may be entitled to E+, but the policy should be to keep a seat blocked adjacent any GS or 1K member to prevent the seat from being occupied unless it's needed due to a full flight or because a revenue passenger buys E+ and that is the only seat(s) remaining to assign.
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Originally Posted by RockinRon
(Post 30989414)
"Should be" or "is" policy? One of my gripes is that when they clear standbys, they start from the front and work their way back filling empty E+ middle seats while E seats further back are empty. I've watched this happen many times when I think I'm going to have a sweet open middle seat flight and then don't. I'd love to see this as a perk for 1K/GS.
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Originally Posted by RockinRon
(Post 30989414)
"Should be" or "is" policy?
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Originally Posted by JimInOhio
(Post 30989447)
Are you sure the flight wasn't full? I can understand the procedure they use if they know they have a full flight. Why not put those highest on the standby list in E+ in those cases?
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Originally Posted by bocastephen
(Post 30989203)
NRSA may be entitled to E+, but the policy should be to keep a seat blocked adjacent any GS or 1K member to prevent the seat from being occupied unless it's needed due to a full flight or because a revenue passenger buys E+ and that is the only seat(s) remaining to assign.
IIRC, PMUA, way back in the day, maybe even before they allowed people to pay, and when *G, and folks on Y fares also got E+ access at no charge, used to have such a policy. There is a very occasional report of some sort of anecdotal evidence of seat blocking, but nothing has ever been confirmed and likely is a coincidence. LH used to also supposedly block Y seats for *G, though can’t remember. On the the other hand, I’d guess it’s completely against policy for FAs to move folks without charge from E- to E+, unless there are operational reasons for it. I.e, E- full and assigned E- seat is inop, overfull E-, weight and balance, etc. maybe that’s what happened, or maybe theees a less sinister reason. Perhaps these seats were originally assigned to folks who no-showed , and GA let the FA know that there were elites in the back who requested to move up if they became available. Or NRSA. Weight and Balance would unlikely be needed on a wide body, but it’s probably possible. Also, while OP may be miffed at losing a row to themselves, that’s certainly not an entitlement, either. Disappointing, maybe. My attitude these days is to assume that every seat on every plane these days will be occupied. So while I will try to select a seat where the empty next to me is most likely to be the last to be selected, I always figure it’s a longshot, and expect it will be full by the time the door closes. |
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