No longer assign seats with travel partners on separate bookings

[burmans]

With both airlines I have moved to sit next to a colleague, I am not from the generation of entitlement to use a political term of late.

What, you aren't a baby boomer?

 

[markis10]

What, you aren't a baby boomer?

Nope, have not even had my mid life crisis yet

 

[burmans]

Nope, have not even had my mid life crisis yet

I can assure you, it's grossly overrated!

 

[Jack_OC]

The fact that non status members sometimes end up in Row 3 doesn't necessarily mean any rules are being bent. Not everyone selects a seat in advance, they just take what they get when they show up at the airport. Presumably if there are empty seats in row 3 close to departure time, they have to start allocating those seats to whoever comes along. I know it's unlikely that seats in row 3 go unselected very often, but it could happen if there are not many WPs on a flight, and/or if some WPs choose to sit elsewhere.

FWIW, I agree that it is stretching things to say the least for people to expect to be able to allocate preferred seating to a colleague on a separate booking. Btw, I selected a seat in the "red zone" last weekend so I could sit with family members. Didn't even occur to me to phone up to try to get them moved to seats reserved for SGs.

 

[medhead]

Firstly, why are people trying to confuse two people who work together traveling on separate bookings with family/friends traveling on the same booking. In the later case the platinum benefits do apply to all on the booking. Two people who just happen to work together are nothing like this at all.

As for peeking at the BP of others. I've had plenty of non-status people next to me in row 3 who a) board at a completely separate time to the person in the other seat and b) never say a word to the person in the other seat. I don't know them and I doubt the other person knows them. I've even had someone with 3E written in pen on their boarding pass. The most annoying aspect of that example was there were plenty of shadows in other seats and that the originally allocated seat had a shadow for that person!

IMO the call centre person provided exactly the service that was warranted. The airport people who override this stuff when their are plenty of empty seats need a firm kick in the backside.

 

[samas]

IMO the call centre person provided exactly the service that was warranted. The airport people who override this stuff when their are plenty of empty seats need a firm kick in the backside.

Thanks medhead, this is the point I was trying to make... I don't have a problem with the lockout on the phone if the airport staff would follow the same rules..

 

[Jack_OC]

Thanks medhead, this is the point I was trying to make... I don't have a problem with the lockout on the phone if the airport staff would follow the same rules..

But isn't the benefit just meant to be that you can select seating in a preferred zone in advance, i.e. before those seats are opened up to passengers with lesser status?

As far as I can tell, passengers with no status can only select seats in the rear half of Y - I think that's 84 seats on a 737. If they rigidly enforced the preferred seating zones even after check-in opens, it would mean they would have to refuse to accept bookings from people with no status once those 84 seats are selected. Clearly there is no way they would do that, so in practice, the rules at the airport have to be different to those that apply to advance seat selection.

 

[medhead]

But isn't the benefit just meant to be that you can select seating in a preferred zone in advance, i.e. before those seats are opened up to passengers with lesser status?

As far as I can tell, passengers with no status can only select seats in the rear half of Y - I think that's 84 seats on a 737. If they rigidly enforced the preferred seating zones even after check-in opens, it would mean they would have to refuse to accept bookings from people with no status once those 84 seats are selected. Clearly there is no way they would do that, so in practice, the rules at the airport have to be different to those that apply to advance seat selection.

I'm not saying that people with less flying shouldn't be sitting there. My issue is when the flight is lightly loaded with 10 or more rows of empty middle seats except for row 3. This applied to the example I gave above and we both would have had an empty middle seat if the person next to me wasn't moved by someone with the magic pen.

 

[Jack_OC]

I'm not saying that people with less flying shouldn't be sitting there. My issue is when the flight is lightly loaded with 10 or more rows of empty middle seats except for row 3. This applied to the example I gave above and we both would have had an empty middle seat if the person next to me wasn't moved by someone with the magic pen.

That's fair enough - I agree that would be annoying.

However, my comment was in response to Samas, who expressed the view that the rules at the airport should be the same as the rules that apply to advance seat selection. I'm just pointing out that wouldn't actually be possible in practice, and the "preferred seating" benefit isn't intended to mean that rows 3-6 are reserved for WPs only, it's just meant to give WPs a chance to select those seats before the general public.

I do agree with you that shadows should be preserved unless and until there are no other seats available to allocate, but from what I have read on here, the recognition of that (unofficial) benefit is very haphazard in general. I look forward to finding out when I soon make WP for the first time!

 

[anat0l]

Not to be entirely pretentious, but if I were a WP and skinny enough, I'll gladly sit in 3B or 3E if the other row 3 seats aren't available.

Stuff your shadow

 

[UP4014]

Having read through this thread, it's not anyones business if the person next to you has status or not is it? Some here seem a bit upset when it happens.

Good luck to random travellers getting a seat in the front and next to a 'status' passenger.

Matt
PS, just happy as always to get what I'm paying for.

 

[medhead]

The issue for me is when there is the opportunity for all/most passengers to travel with the comfort of extra space but that somehow does not translate to row 3. I also can't accept the pretentious label for wanting some extra comfort, when easily achievable, in recognition of the money I spend with an airline. The little comforts make it possible for me to keep spending.

Not to be entirely pretentious, but if I were a WP and skinny enough, I'll gladly sit in 3B or 3E if the other row 3 seats aren't available.

Stuff your shadow

Unfortunately, platinums are rarely skinny.

 

[medhead]

This is a hypothetical example of what I see regularly. In this case 3ABC was actually traveling together. But I see cases where all 3 pax would board separately and never talk to each other. In those cases why not put 3B a couple of rows back? 5C, 7D

View attachment 29908

 

[777]

This is a hypothetical example of what I see regularly. In this case 3ABC was actually traveling together. But I see cases where all 3 pax would board separately and never talk to each other. In those cases why not put 3B a couple of rows back? 5C, 7D

View attachment 29908

Because i'm sitting in Row 5 with my DOUBLE SHADOW.

 

[Jack_OC]

If it's happening regularly, maybe the answer is, don't sit in Row 3! Some people will choose any seat in Row 3, because (a) they want to sit as near to the front as they can, and (b) row 3 has extra legroom and no reclining seat in front. I know my boss (who is a WP) does that all the time, most likely depriving two people of a shadow quite regularly. And as far as I know, there is nothing stopping a WP selecting 3B or 3E even if it was intended to be left empty as a shadow. I'd say it's much less likely that anyone would pick 5B/5E/6B/6E (which are of course also in the WP preferred seating zone), so a shadow is more likely to stick in one of those rows.


As I said before, I can see why you'd be annoyed if it was a non-status passenger being allocated 3B at the airport when they could just as easily have been allocated 10B, but I don't think that's the only reason why a situation like in your example might arise.

PS - what the hell is going on with 5B?? Did someone actually choose a middle seat for themselves, when they could just as easily have picked the aisle or window in the same row?!

 

[medhead]

I don't know what happened with 5B. They ended up in 5A.

I should also acknowledge that this is a hypothetical example only, as the flight was full enough that I wouldn't expect any protection of row 3.