My parents (both US2) flew from PHX-PIT this afternoon. They checked a few times at the Club (and at the gate), and were repetitively told they were #1 & #2 on the upgrade list. I also did a dummy booking on-line, and saw that seats 1C, 1D & 1F were still open. (I know that's not necessarily an accurate indication of availability.) They and one other person were told by the gate agent to wait while they boarded the plane. After the entire plane was boarded, they gave the other guy a new boarding pass, and my parents were told to take their original seats in Y. As they did the perp walk, they saw that the other guy was seated in 1C, and an "extremely large" (those were my mother's words) woman who pre-boarded in a wheelchair and her companion were in 1D & 1F. Also in my mother's words "They did not look like Preferred's." Our guess is that she didn't properly fit into her Y seat, so the FA moved her and her companion into F. I am also speculating that the elite who was upgraded after boarding may have been lower down on the waiting list than my parents, but was upgraded first because there was one seat left and he was a "single" (even though my father told the GA to upgade my mother if she could only clear one of them).
This isn't meant to be a "whiny elite rant." (I haven't had enough posts on this board to earn that privilege.) I am just curious to hear from the GA's and FA's on this board as to what the proper protocol is for upgrading POS's (and their companions) before elites in situations like this.
This isn't meant to be a "whiny elite rant." (I haven't had enough posts on this board to earn that privilege.) I am just curious to hear from the GA's and FA's on this board as to what the proper protocol is for upgrading POS's (and their companions) before elites in situations like this.
) with 78,393 YTD miles flown. Appearances can be deceiving. Would they have said the same thing if they saw an early-20s guy in a ballcap, polo and shorts standing at the gate with one of their F-cabin BPs?
