nycbusdriver
Veteran
I had a situation in PIT where I was nonreving over to PHL with one of my girls. We were already listed and the flight was wide open. Well, I was told that he'd call my name yet when SHE went up (being junior to me by almost a year)got a seat right away. Now the guy working the gate was an older black man. My girl is a VERY attractive black woman who his dirty old man A$$ was all over. I walked right back up to him and said, "listen pal, I know I'm not a fiiiiine looking sista but you better go ahead and print that boarding pass real quick". He said he didn't know I was senior to her. Ok there are NEW agents in PIT now. The Jackass. Then I went over to her and said, girl you better give me the better seat. LOL. Kidding.
Seniority boarding can be, and has been, manipulated for a long time. The boarding agent has the list; the agent can also call non-revs to board out of the sequence of that list as happened to TravelPro. Unless you are certain that your seniority is above someone else who gets called ahead of you, you have no recourse.
Now...allow access to the list by all who are on it, and things would change drastically. Issue a one-year loss of pass privileges (or one month suspension) to an agent who violates the sequence and maybe the list would be honored in all cases.
No matter what the system, though, it can and will be subverted