weero

I only encounter tenacious poachers in Y and never had to fight for my seat in C.
On an transoceanic, my upper deck BP beeped upon scan I was handed a new on downstairs. I was told the UD was unusable due to an elevator defect. When I boarded the plane - I was among the last ones to enter - a very friendly British lady was sitting in my seat. She got up the moment I stood next to the seat and told me that the seat she was assigned in the lower deck would not exist (she showed me the BP) and that - if it was possible in any way - she'd love to sit next to her husband. We finally found a merciful FA who found me a spare seat ... in the UD ... but I posted that before.

IADSIN

I never get into a conversation with the poacher. Instead, I show my BP to a Flight Attendant and tell him/her that my seat has someone in it, and ask him/her to please sort it out. I always ask the FA nicely, mind.

This has worked every time for me and is low-hassle/zero-stress.

If there were a double-booking, which hasn't happened yet, then the FA is responsible for sorting it out (e.g. often by verifying with the manifest or talking with the GA or by making another on-the-plane decision).

ctkw

This would be my own policy and procedure on seat poachers!

weero

This gives a whole new meaning to an 'aisle' seat .

trooper

I wonder how often "dupes" are the result of someone in the chain missing/failing to process an upgrade.....

Only duplicate I've experienced was on an AKL-LAX flight.. I was booked in Y and had requested a "standby upgrade" to Y+..(this was on NZ but the principle should be universal for any "waitlist" style UG)

Nothing at check in... the gate area was a zoo! I waited until one staff member looked like they had had time to draw breath.. and quickly asked if my UG had cleared... two seconds of distracted looking typing and a quick... "nothing here!"..

OK.. 12 hours in Y coming up.....boarded and found a guy in my seat with the same seat number on his BP.. spoke to an FA (and with an eye on the main chance showed him the UG request printout.. "In case that was of any assistance....." .. Be Prepared!!) He asked to borrow the paperwork... disappeared for a minute.. came back with a new BP for me.. 30A.. the last open Y+ seat on the flight...

Thinking about it later.. and knowing that Y+ NEVER usually has open seats...

I suspect that seat MAY have been "mine" all along.... perhaps the UG HAD cleared.. so my original seat was reassigned.... but (for whatever reason) that wasn't "known" or noticed??

Good theory??

lucky9876coins

No poaching in row 15 on my last two flights, but a Y passenger did try to self upgrade to C in the empty seat next to where2next? midflight... apparently the passenger was taken care of.

bdschobel

Wow! I probably would have let him have it long before the eye-rolling! This is amazing hubris.

Bruce

gre

My best true poaching story, lady says in a very confused way, "but this is the seat I was in on my last flight".

UAL

A few weeks ago, I had an inbound transpac flight from HKG and was originally seat in 25C. I used SWUs to upgrade my family members and they were in 24A/B. I called 1K reservation numerous times and requested reseat so all three of us could seat together in 25 C, D, F. They weren't able to because seat assignments were under airport control.

At check-in I requested that we seat together. The counter agent said no problem and moved me to 24G. I didn't pay attention because I thought she would move me to 24C not 24G.

I sat in 25C (thought it was 24C) and a big guy came in and said that I was in his seat. He was quite rude about the whole thing. I was embarrassed because I thought the agent had moved me to 24C (C and G kind of look alike). 24C, D, F do not exist on 747. If I didn’t request re-seating we would be right next to each other, but now I am on 24G – on the other aisle.

After the first meal was served I walked about the cabin and struck up a conversation with one of the FAs. Somehow we got into a conversation about where I was seating and why my family members were on the other side of the plane. The FA was very apologetic about the whole situation because 25 D and F were open. The check-in agent should not have moved me but rather my family members who were in 24A and B.

An hour before we land, the FA came and apologized once again and gave me a Sky-kit with the box seat checked. I didn’t really want to take the sky-kit but the FA insisted that I take it.

As we can see, not everyone is a seat poacher.

PTravel

I guess I'm confused. You were assigned 24G, thought you were in 24C, yet sat in 25C. Then the rightful occupant of 25C gave you a hard time because you were in his seat, which you took because the one to which you thought you were assigned, 24C, didn't exist.

How does that not make you a seat poacher? Whether you thought you were assinged to 24C or 24G, you knew you were not assigned to 25C, yet you took it and, evidently, objected when the person to whom 25C was assigned objected to you being there.

Am I missing something?

UAL

It was only after the incident that I knew 24C didn't exist.

I thought the check-in agent moved me from 25C to 24C--moving one row up so I would seat across from my families. I overlooked my BP.

My point is that some people do overlook their BP. Not all who seat in other's seat are intentional. Therefore, I would not call this seat poacher.

PTravel

Ummm . . . okay. I'm still not clear on how you wound up in 25C, but I will agree with you that not every instance of someone being in the wrong seat is intentional seat poaching. As others have noted, I've mistakenly taken the wrong seat when I either misread the row numbers or simply forgot what side of the aircraft I was on for a particular flight.

flying_bubba

LOL! I normally don't give an excuse to a poacher, but at 5'9" and a habitual smart-..., although I try to be very polite and I usually have a very restrained tongue, I'd be extremely tempted to look at a 6'4" poacher and give them this exact come back. It would just be too damn tempting.

I have had several people try to grab 15A or other nice seats from me on occasion. I usually ask them politely "Excuse me are you in 15A?" or whatever seat, which gives them the opportunity to save face (weather they intentionally tried to poach my seat or did it accidentally). Rarely do I get an excuse, but I did get one recently (757 ORD-PDX, I had 3C, my preferred seat). A guy says do you mind taking my seat, 6D so I can sit next to my wife. Now we all know that row 6 doesn't recline well, and it is practically in the head, besides I like the isle. So, I asked him politely if he wouldn't mind asking the guy in 6C to switch with his wife in 3D. He wasn't happy about that. We all boarded at the same time (red carpet...), so it wasn't like he was settled in, he was only 3 people in front of me during boarding. No, I'm guessing he knew that row 6 was crappier than row 3. The guy in 6C was thrilled to get away from the bulkhead. The way I see it, if you're asking for favors you should try to enrich the person you're asking.

I have had people with the nerve try to cram their crap under the seat in front of me because they had several carry ons. That takes some nerve. I mean they literally ask "Can I put this under that seat?". The thoughts going through my head "Well now that you asked nicely, no, are you nuts!". People and their understanding of what is socially acceptable always amazes me!

Bubba

hotelierLA

That's infuriating. It's unfortunate that you weren't able to speak with a supervisor to report the FA.

violist

Yesterday on a UA 733 I poached 1B, brainfarting that I was on a
US 733. Being lazy, when the rightful occupant showed up I offered
him my seat (1C, considerably better), but he wanted 1B. So I got
a bunch of legroom I didn't really need. This kind of behavior is
getting distressingly frequent on my part (it's happened several
times in the last year). I think that the solution is to quit flying US
so as not to confuse my little brain.