AAddicted

I purchased a R/T first class ticket back in April for a trip this week that ended on a poor note today. I was in seat 1F in both directions in a full F cabin except for the seat next to mine according to the seatmap.

For today's LAS-DAL (flt 790) I received my email check-in reminder 24-hours out and all looked normal, however today when I checked-in I discovered I had been downgraded to a MCS middle seat.

The check-in agent didn't say anything until I pointed out on my boarding pass that 3B is not the seat I reserved and paid for. She was very sweet and appeared truly confused as to how this happened and approached her supervisor to investigate.

A couple minutes later she returns that there was a change made to my reservation due to no fault of VX and it was out of her control. I figured it was due to a FAM that was booked on the plane. She stated I would be refunded the fare difference in a travel credit. I was at peace with this scenario as FAMs are just part of today's air travel reality.

HOWEVER... When I boarded the plane in my seat and the one next to it sat a man and woman that appeared to be together based on how they were talking to eachother. I also overheard the man order a whiskey and soda for a PDB, so a FAM seems unlikely.

Please tell me I didn't get booted to coach so a couple that works for VX or some VIP decided I didn't deserve the seat I paid for.

I haven't received any sort of email, credit, or anything yet. No communication from VX. How pissed should I be? I already feel pissed, just trying to determine on a scale of 1-10.

cringle

At this point, the reason probably doesn't matter. There may have been 2 FAM agents on board, with one deadheading to another city. Simply call Guest Care on Monday and they'll take care of it.

Often1

You are entitled to a refund of the fare difference to your original form of payment. You don't need to settle for funny money.

ptownca

If it is any comfort, no VX employees are allowed in F on non-rev tickets. Not even Donald Cush. How do I know this ? I met the Director of Sales and asked her on the flight why she was not in F. "Company policy. F is reserved strictly for paying passengers." FA's I know personally have mentioned when they had Mr. Cush on board in 3C.

The only non-rev in F ? Sir Branson

The 1-10 scale ? I'd make it a 5 or less. LAS-DAL is not a long flight. If it were a transcon, yes I would be making a big fuss.

But, yes Customer Care should be contacted and they should come up with a resolution. If the results are not satisfactory, PM me and I can give you some suggestions.

GrayAnderson

So...IMHO a downgrade from F to Middle Class, even in MCS, is patently unacceptable (it's a drop in service class, a loss of both soft and hard product, and a move to a seat that plenty of folks wouldn't accept as a free upgrade). With due respect to VX, in such a situation there ought to be an "up-front" discussion of alternatives even if the situation is "out of VX's control". For example in this case (I'm presuming this is flight 790 being talked about, not 799...odd numbers don't go LAS-DAL) I can find three listed LAS-DAL flight combinations via SFO/LAX. Presuming schedule flexibility, I'd probably prefer 251/720 and a pass to the VS Clubhouse (if the hours cooperate); failing that, 475/822 plus a voucher for a spot of free food at the VX Loft. In all cases the resulting fare should have been the lower of the original segment fare or the fare being booked (99% of the time the former will predominate but there are cases where the latter could happen).

Granted, I can see cases where these wouldn't work (e.g. dinner plans in Dallas and/or a connecting flight onwards) but the option should bloody well have been offered. Even then, I'd argue (policy notwithstanding) that the OP should (in addition to any net refund offered) have been offered access to the F menu in terms of food and beverage (there's arguably a case for them getting first swing at the menu selection).

Finally, I'd argue that there's something grossly wrong with an advance-paid F getting booted if there were any "upgraded F" pax in F. It is, of course, possible (albeit exceedingly unlikely given the seat check indicated above) that the other seven seats were full-paid F...but I'd be inclined towards moving the paid F within F and kicking the upgraded F back to MCS (the difference, IMHO, is that paid F clearly expects to get into F from the time of booking while upgraded F arguably consented to "pot luck" as it was).

Edit: So, to put it on a scale...I'd put it at about an 8.5-9 on a 1-10 scale. The only time I got slapped with an involuntary downgrade was on DL last June (YUL-JFK-DCA...I was booked in paid First YUL-DTW-DCA, agreed to the switch to the JFK connection on the condition that I was in F, but time was tight enough that I was literally handed my boarding pass and walking to the neighboring gate), and that ended with me successfully demanding a refund from DL for the JFK-DCA leg of the trip and bolting for Penn Station and a private room on train 91. That, at least, was a botched-up swap (and in the future in such a situation I'll either refuse the offered swap outright or demand to see the new boarding passes first).

Edit 2: As a follow-up thought, this is one of the few cases where I find VX pulling such a move to be less understandable than the other airlines and am less sympathetic to it. DL's F vs. Y+ or Y products are differentiated, but not so truly massively so. With VX, F is basically in a different universe from MC/MCS.

RedwoodA320

Cush actually prefers 4A — but you're spot on about the company policy. Even on a recent route launch, Cush was in Main Cabin while celebs, SRB, and one paying passenger were in First and MCS.

RedwoodA320

Agree 100% — could't have articulated it better myself.

ptownca

For the OP, please let us know how VX resolves this.

AAddicted

Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback. I wish I had more of an update other than I noticed a $100.00 credit issued to my CC used to book the reservation. I guess that represents the fare difference between F and MCS when I purchased my ticket? Can't remember how much MCS was at the time, but that is probably right.

I haven't heard from any VX representatives so far. However I did call in to the customer care center and was given the identical message that the downgrade was out of their control. Whatever took place my itinerary was coded with whatever triggers that response when queried.

What new bit of information I did get out of the call is the seat was taken without VX weighing in on status, date of purchase, or amount paid. Guess FAMs have the power the take what they want when they want it, assuming it was an FAM.... that drinks whiskey and soda.

RedwoodA320

What route was it? That'd shed some light on whether or not $100 is a plausible difference between MCS and F.

You should write to guest services (or the elevate gold/silver desks) about the total lack of communication and information about the bumping. State upfront that you're aware that FAMs can bump F pax, and you respect that fact. Then briefly lay out the facts that the person in your seat was drinking alcohol. Present them with a dichotomy:

1) If a FAM bumped you and took your seat, why was he drinking alcohol? While you understand that airlines cannot disclose the presence of a FAM onboard a flight before-the-fact, you have an obligation to report government waste/fraud/abuse. A FAM drinking alcohol on a flight classifies as such, and you will report that to <whatever agency hires FAMs> along with the seat, flight number, etc. Moreover, state that you'd want to report the FC flight attendant for serving a FAM alcohol -- FAs know if FAMs are on board and where they're seating; by extension they should know not to serve alcohol to them.

If it was truly not a FAM, VX will likely at least hint as much; they don't want a passenger needlessly involving a federal agency and they likely dont want an unwarrented internal complaint. (Sidenote: theres a well-document problem of FAMs reporting to work drunk and/or drinking on planes.)

2) If the person drinking alcohol was not a FAM, you'd like to know what on earth was an acceptable reason to bump a fare-paying F passenger. State that you wont let the issue fall through the cracks; you'll escalate as necessary; and you'd appreciate more than the basic fare difference for compensation.

gooseman13

I smell some BS or misknowledge from what the rep told you.

Most likely, yes, it was a FAM situation.

In my experience, FAMs NEVER sit in window seats. Always aisles. So my guess is that you were selected as the downgrade based on some criteria (status, fare paid, date of purchase) and then others moved around the cabin to accommodate the FAMs.

You have a good attitude, and I think my beef here would be with the communication, not the actual downgrade.

The downgrade should be communicated to you when it happens with refund processed proactively. Ideally, options should be provided to you (for example other flights on VX). I would hope some sort of additional credit for the inconvenience as well.

StirredNotShaken

I would also ask for both the Elevate AND Status points that you would've received for being in F.

What if you were requalifying for Gold Status and the F Status points would have put you over the minimum spend? If it wasn't your fault that you were moved, you should at least receive the points you intended to receive.

AAddicted

Approaching a full week since the flight in question and I haven't heard a peep via email or telephone as of yet. I even proactively contacted them via email the day of as well for good measure and haven't even had a reply from that either.

The next step will be filing a formal complaint through the DOT unfortunately. It does seem to support the belief that after the AS acquisition that the customer-centric attitude has diminished. Wish that weren't the case.

RedwoodA320

Lately it's been taking weeks for emails to receive a response. Totally unacceptable.

AAddicted

I bit the bullet and filed my first DOT complaint in my 40 years of flying. I hate I had to resort to that but 10 days and no word whatsoever after this is not reasonable.

Received a response from the DOT with an approved case and assigned representative 48 hours later. At least now VX will be forced to respond in 60 days.

I hate it came to this as I love(ed) VX. This isn't the airline that won our loyalty and admiration. It is clear customer retention matters little now that management has filled their pockets and have one foot out the door. Human nature aside, it's pretty unprofessional to abandon the customer base assuming Alaska will clean up the fallout someday. Let's hope the checked-out mgmt doesn't damage the Virgin brand in the US too much, but it's definitely happening.