I boarded my United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Newark ready for a nice sleep. But my heart skipped a beat when I found a placard around my seat, 1A, that said, “Reserved for crew member seating.”
How I Dealt With A Business Class Seat That Appeared To Be Reserved For A Crew Member On United
Seat 1A is indeed reserved for pilot rest on longhaul flights on the 777-200 due to insufficient bunks in the crew rest area. My understanding, however, was that there were no reserved crew seats on domestic flights.
But before I could sit down, the purser came up to me and said, “This is a pilot seat. You cannot sit here!” I showed her my boarding pass for seat 1A and she told me, “I think you’re going to have to move. But let me check.”
I wasn’t worried too much…if I did get downgraded I would receive a voucher good for at least double the price of my ticket. Money talks and I’m always willing to make a deal if the price is right. But I knew that would not be necessary. I knew the sign was almost certainly there in error.
And indeed, eventually the purser returned and said that I was good to take the seat. She removed the placard and wished me a good flight.
The Lesson
The issue was that the aircraft cleaners failed to take the placard off the seat…fair enough. But the flight attendant was initially adamant that I was in the wrong seat and I want to point out the importance of simply letting her complete her investigation rather than shutting her down and telling her she didn’t know what she was talking about.
There was a time and place for diplomacy and this was one such moment. Don’t tell a flight attendant she is wrong, even when you know she is wrong – at least at the outset. That rarely ends well (as I can dutifully attest).
Instead, play dumb if you have to, but hold your tongue and resist the urge to dress down a flight attendant. It. Won’t. End. Well.
CONCLUSION
A mistaken placard made a flight attendant think I was in the wrong seat. Even though I knew she was wrong, I did not protest…for better or for worse, you win more flight attendants with honey than with vinegar…
“But the flight attendant was initially adamant that I was in the wrong seat..” What a surprise!!! That’s how United FAs operate. They are always ready to blame passengers for their mistakes.
But at least she was open minded enough to go check on it herself, instead of doubling down and not admitting she was wrong.
I don’t disagree but wouldn’t it be much nicer from her part if she went to check before she talked Matthew and saying he was wrong?
How about the post reading like this:
“But before I could sit down, the purser came up to me and said, “Oh, I see you have seat 1A and that sign must be there by mistake. Please let me check it to ensure that is the case. The purser came back within seconds and apologized for the mistake and promptly removed the sign and offered me a beverage.” How about that??
This only ever happens to Asian airlines where the crew are trained to blame everything on themselves. Too much righteousness and rights movement in our society that makes such a culture unpalatable .
Yeah way too many “rights movements” people don’t need rights. How dare they even think they are worthy of them.
Yeah but the end of the day it doesn’t seem like that big of an issue. She thought something, checked to see if she was wrong, and handled it accordingly.
My personal approach is more of a middle ground. “Oh I thought that seat was just reserved for crew on long-haul flights on 772s.” Then let the purser control the conversation. Afterward, if I disagree with the resolution then a polite pushback is in order.
Or you’d get a whopper like “overnight flights require crew rest” in response
Any flight attendant working a domestic 777-200 flight on UA should know full well that there is not a crew rest seat reserved. Absurd she even questioned Matthew.
Unless the FA was new and thrown into the role at the last minute. There are many new FAs at UA and as we most know, being new, despite all the training they recieved, doesn’t always get immediately recalled in a real life scenario. As someone else mentioned, the FA did acknowledge they needed to verify their information and when they realized the error, came back and acknowledged it.
Was a very senior FA.
She wasn’t hostile…I want to make that clear.
While it wasn’t the case in this story, it actually is possible for passenger seats to need to be reserved for working Flight Attendants. As a common example, if a flight attendant jumpseat is inoperative (broken seatbelt or the “spring” feature is broken that stows the seat when the flight attendant gets up during an emergency) and the airline cannot take a delay on the flight, FAA regulations require that the flight attendant whose jumpseat is inoperative occupy the closest seat to their assigned exit (regardless of what class of seat it is).
I work on the Embraer 175 which has one flight attendant jumpseat at both the front and back of the aircraft. Seat 1A is the “alternate jumpseat” for the front and seat 23B is the “alternate jumpseat” for the rear with the way our jets are configured. Some airlines operate the aircraft with an extra jumpseat in the rear galley. If this is the case, that extra jumpseat would become the “alternate jumpseat” for the working flight attendant.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this but the way she approached you seemed kind of short and harsh.
That is typically the main difference I see between flying Delta and United. Delta customer service is way better. Someone mentioned in another post is Delta being non union vs United being union is the difference in how their employees behave. I don’t have enough information to have a case on that but it seems Delta employees like their job while United ones are just doing that because they need a job.
You delta cult members are so annoying.
I think it’s normal to form an opinion on which airline you like the best, and an opinion on which airline has the best FAs, customer service, food, etc… Sharing that opinion in a brief comment is similarly normal.
Besides that, I though Santastico has shared some comments of dissatisfaction with Delta recently.
My personal interactions with Delta and SWA have been much more more positive than other domestic airlines. If you call that a cult then so be it, weirdo.
Actually you’re simple not reading at all. The author of the post said twice that she was not out of line. So many chips. So few shoulders.
Hills are obstacles in all our lives; some people chose their hill, some just flow. Glad you flowed!
I have always been of the thought… if the gate agent says, “The sky is green.” Politely agree with them.
A well written correspondence will usually be rewarded. That being written, I had the experience of not getting a flight credit PQF on my KSAMAJ flight that includes a stop on the island of Kwajalein KWA. It took 3 letters to get that remedied. It is sad, when the 1K customer care agents aren’t aware of policies.
The 757-200 flies domestically too and there are a lot of times 4AB are blocked until day of departure.
I’d ask to speak to the gate agent immediately after that c… response. And be very clear I was told there was absolutely no way I’d be allowed in that seat.
Care to share her name, Matt?
Dang Karen take a breath.
FYI if they augment the flight domestically with a third pilot so the three pilots could for example fly a transcontinental turn from the coast, then that seat would be needed as the crew rest seat domestically. Does not happens often but I have seen it.
Oh so instead of yelling at them, pulling out your phone to video them, offering to sue the airline, and calling the person a racist you should wait for them to investigate the issue first. Noted 🙂
Seriously, I would have loved to have the sign to take home.
Well, he did take his phone out and photograph the seat, so it’s possible that behavior might put an FA on the defensive.
When I read this story I suspect the purser was as surprised as Matthew was to see the sign in the seat. She was probably thinking “No one told me that we needed that as a crew seat. And if we need it as a crew seat, why did they let this passenger board with this seat assignment?”
She probably didn’t want him settling in to the seat before she had a chance to figure out if the sign was placed in error, or if someone hadn’t communicated with her properly about the situation on the flight.
It’s not a perfect interaction with the FA, but you never know the whole story, she may have been in a pretty suboptimal position at that point. As bad flight experiences go, this is pretty mild.
Isn’t this part of the new agreement with the pilots? They get First Class seats whenever they want? And now a sign to show how special they are!
There are plenty of passengers but not enough pilots. It’s just supply and demand, folks. Don’t worry – the pilots will lose it all in the next bankruptcy.
Funny, but remember when the Big Three auto companies were the primary beneficiaries of government bailouts (Chrysler ’79; GM & Chrysler in ’08). However, they are not as big a contributor to the economy as they once were on a percentage basis.
Now, it appears the airlines have entitled themselves to bailout money twice (’01 & ’20). Third time will be a charm.
Who’s next in line for bailout credits???
Seriously! I do not and will not understand how a FA can command and behave like that. As if the pax is treated like an animal. Disgusting attitude!
Has anyone considered what the captain would have said to her had it indeed been reserved for an extra pilot onboard (i.e. checkrider?) He would have said well why did you allow him to sit there in the first place? And as to an earlier comment there are times when passenger seats need to be used in place of jumpseats. Would you rather the flight cancel? And lastly to the comment of how harshly the FA reacted could it be that Matthew simply chose to write it in that manner and perhaps she actually said it in a softer tone?
She didn’t, but I’m not easily offended. I shrugged it off and she was perfectly fine during the flight.
Where do I find this rule with United? “… I did get downgraded I would receive a voucher good for at least double the price of my ticket.”. It’s been some years but my involuntary downgrade only got me $500.
There is no rule (the profile code is GG OVS DOWNGRADE)
The agent could also search for “FRONT CBN OVERSALE”
1-1000 miles $200
1001-2000 miles $250
2001-3000 miles $500
3001-4000 miles $750 (was $1000)
4000-5000 miles $1000
5001+ miles $1,500
(when I said double the value of the ticket, I was just speaking generally since you can negotiate)
The fact that we have to walk around eggshells around FAs with the ardent hope that they won’t stick us in economy or worse, deplane, is a sad state of affairs.
“play dumb if you have to”…I feel like I have to do that far too often nowadays. 🙁
How do I get my story out? I bought a ticket with Avianca in July, paid with CC. When I showed for my flight an was told my ticked had been canceled that the only solution was for me to purchase another ticket, which I had to do not to lose the entire trip and connections; I understand that constitutes fraud. The story continues…..
They charged you twice or never charged you the first time?
Ask any FA “Who’s the (professional) SERVICE PERSON”. If they do not understand ask again and again and again ….
Putting up with the passengers in this comment thread is exactly why they should double pay for flight attendants across the industry.
Y’all are the ones who’d clog up an evacuation and take your suitcase with you down the slide.
this issue merits an article? slow news day indeed
Flight attendants are like baseball umpires. Question them after a blown call and “your outta here.”
Pretty sad that one has to act “dumb” so as not to offend the ego driven FA. Sorry I won’t and haven’t in the past. I have had an issues over the years with UA staff. I stood my ground and was not taken off a flighr. In two cases the individuals were terminated and in a third I lectured the pilot on why the crew acted I appropriately. I won’t be brow beaten into submission. Admittedly I don’t blog on travel for a living as you do, I am only a full fare paying passenger who flies 50 to 100 K per year.
I was reading on flyertalk that many flyers were being re-accommodated to other business class seats. I’m in seat 1A on the same flight, 749, on Friday and am concerned. Should I simply rebook seat 9L?