eolesen said:
Remember a few months back when we were talking about some airline who wanted to have a "no seat changes allowed" rule on their lowest fares?
Here's a great example to remember next time that topic comes up. The FA's get left to enforce the rule.
except that every passenger has a seat by the time they board.
and while I have not seen a DL FA confront a passenger who attempts to sit in a premium seat, the principle is the same on any airline that has differential pricing for different seat types.
and DOT stats continue to show that DL has considerably less complaints than either AA or UA and in line with the relationship that existed with WN.
as much as some want to believe otherwise, DL's fare attributes are accurately disclosed to customers who can choose to opt out of the restrictions by purchasing a higher price fare that has more options.
it is no different than the different types of fares on the legacy carriers, many of which have different allowances for baggage and ticket changes
jimntx said:
And, at AA, I can tell you that any complaint would be assumed to be the f/a's error. Just like with the FARs...if a passenger gets po'd about having to put away their computer/put their purse under the seat/give up their beer because the captain has said prepare for landing/etc, the f/a will get a write up from management and be told, "You are there to inform not enforce." But, not enforcing--especially if there were money involved--would also gain a negative write-up.
and that is a shame.
but obviously the FA also has access to the cockpit who can decide that the offense is worthy of a return to the gate and can also ask the FAs to relay that the flight will have to return to the gate.
the issue is not that the customer was told that they couldn't sit there or that an FA couldn't have processed an onboard seat change and payment - and informed the crew of such so that they could make whatever adjustments were necessary but that the woman was confrontational and it was answered by even more confrontation by the FA.
If any carrier wants its rules enforced, there has to be a system put in place to ensure that crew members concerns can be addressed.
In this case, a call to the cockpit could have been enough to inform the crew that the cabin was not ready or that there was a combative passenger.. and then it would have been up to the cockpit crew to make the decision without having to confront the passenger.