A few days ago I was paged in an AC to come to the front desk to respond to a request for a seat swap by another passenger.

I am just wondering if others have been paged while working or relaxing in an AC to work out a seat swap. This question is my basic OP. I am wondering if it is common. Thanks.

I have written this preamble and added it to my original OP, because I realize telling the whole story below may have distracted from that simple question. Please feel free to comment on the merits of my own position positive or negative, but what I am really wondering is:

Have you ever been paged in the AC to work out a seat swap?

edited after reading the first 6 responses. Below is my original OP. Thanks for any responses to my question.



A few days ago, I flew DFW-ZRH. I sat in coach, exit row, aisle. Background.

I was in the AC before the flight taking a bit easy after getting up at 4:00 am to make the first leg SFO-DFW. I bought 60 mins of wireless access, spread out a bit, and was responding to emails when I was paged by name to the AC desk.

I did not have an upgrade request in, so like any parent, I wondered, what terrible thing has gone wrong at home that only person who knows where I am has me paged?

So, quickly, I packed up all my stuff and made for the front desk. After saying who I was, the AAngel says, there is a passenger who wants to know if you will trade seats with him so that he and his wife can sit together.

I just could not believe my ears. As calmly as I could - and there was no way I could completely hide the fact that I was stunned and not happy, I asked, "How did the passenger get my name and why are you bothering me here instead of waiting till boarding time?"

The AAngel looked mortified and exasperated and said, "Look the GA told this guy to come up here and see if you could be paged. I checked with the GA and she insisted that I do it. I don't like doing this."

I told her, "ok, it is not your fault. What's the story?" She tried to show me the seat map, but was not comfortable with the whole thing and had other people with real issues to take care of. So she said, "Look never mind, we should not have bothered you. Let me get back to the people here."

I was surely fine with that.

Later, I went to the gate. I asked very politely who had sent a passenger to the AC to roust me. I recognized one of the GAs who has worked the ZRH bound flights before - probably because she is a native German speaker. She said, "I only sent him to ask if you would switch. I did not give him your name only your seat number. I sent him to the AC just to ask if they would help him because he had been waiting for a long time to get an answer and he did not like it."

"So you decided to give your problem to me?" I asked. I told that I had been inconvenienced by the page and why. Her colleague looked at her, frowned, smiled at me then rolled her eyes at her colleague. And turned away.

At this point, the woman actually began to get wet around the eyes and sniffle, "They just don't like me at the AC. It was not my fault."

Now thing is I was not speaking loudly, I was not abusive or even close to being inappropriate. I was not happy, but was expressing a dissatisfaction quite civilly. The tears, IMO, were the "I'm caught with no defense but tears" kind of tears.

I gently said, "look, all I would like is to know that you understand that I do not think you did the right thing to send this person looking for me. That's all."

At this point the chief GA - I guess cause she was wearing a checked or hounds tooth jacket - came off the plane looked at the GA and very politely asked me - not her! - what was up.

I explained, calmly, and she said, "well of course you do not have to change."

I said that was not the issue, that I would certainly help the passenger if it is a good swap, that the first issue was that I was paged. We looked at the seat swap, it was an even swap and I said, sure, I'll switch no problem. I have been in the same boat and I will always swap if it it is a decent trade.

It was only then that the penny dropped and they realized that I really was only disturbed about being paged, and only wanted it to be understood that it was not appropriate in my view.

The head GA comped me for drinks the whole flight. When I said thanks, but I don't drink on airplanes, she said, "well you've been so nice, what can we do for you?"

Jokingly, I said, it is best for me to swap, too, because that woman might have been angry with me for the whole 10 hours -now my only concern is whether my new seat mate will want the power port.

"No problem," says she, "we'll board you with first class ahead of the other Plats."

So she did.

Good news was that my seat mate did not need to share the power port - which I certainly would have worked out with him.

Bad news was almost 4 hours on the tarmac for weather.

The other passenger came by to thank me for changing. I told him no problem, but who told him to have me paged - the AAngel or the GA.

"The GA," says he.

As usual, there are good employees and not so good.

 

While I think you are kind of right in your view that it was somewhat inappropriate to be paged I really feel that you overreacted. I think the agent saw an even trade and wanted to accomodate the issue before the crush of boarding time hit. I think that it shows the agents being somewhat proactive for regular customers - something that isn't always the case.

 

Personally I reckon your reaction was completely over the top for a perfectly reasonable request.

If you really are a teacher do you often find your pupils in tears as well? And is that also entirely their fault?

 

Totally agree. I think this is a bit of an overreaction, sorry!

 

The problem is that the OP was being inconvenienced with all of this and imposed upon. While I don't mind trading equivalent seats (or better seats -- of course the best was Y to F a couple of times), the agents must do it in a discreet manner. In one or two cases, I have refused and faced the wrath of upset passengers for hours! It's not fun either way.

 

I am only wondering if anyone else has been paged in the AC for a seat swap.

Telling the whole story is just my way of dealing with a bit of insomnia on the road.

These things are routinely done on board or when both passengers are present. I am clear that it was completely inappropriate. I am comfortable that I did not over-react. I merely stated my view that it was not the right thing to do.


Whoa,there big fella. You are making a couple of big leaps not supported by the facts:

The AAngel, the head GA both explicitly agreed with me it was inappropriate to send a passenger off to find another passenger. The third GA present indicated that she thought her colleague was off base by her behavior. I asked for nothing and was offered two different kinds of "compensation" for "your kindness." I was not being placated because I had already worked out the swap and the issue of the page was no longer being discussed when the offers were made.

Yes, I am a teacher ... of adults.

No, it is not often that someone who has reached the age of reason tries to manipulate/distract me with tears. When someone does cry genuine tears, I do try to find a way to help or comfort them. I am not the boogie man of your imagination.

No one, not even she, accused me of being inappropriate or of behaving badly in any way. She did not have the good grace to simply say, "I am sorry for bothering you." She whined that the people in the AC did not like her and were telling untruths about her. As the pax later corroborated, she was lying

The senior GA, btw, said it should never have been done, that it was incorrect.

If I have spared another person resting, reading or working from having to roust themselves do the job of a GA I am happy. I do not think that woman will pawn a bothersome passenger off and onto another passenger again.

 

i agree,

 

I agree with Teacher49 here - having a passanger locate another passanger and disrupt them before the flight is inappropriate. On the plane or directly before boarding is the appropriate time and place to discuss seat swaps, certainly not being tracked down in the AC IMHO.

E

 

As I read the post, I figured that OP may have been concerned about giving personal information to a stranger.

 

Yes, I was concerned about that, too. I asked the AAngel that first, and she told me straight away that the GA had only given the other pax my seat number sending him to insist that the AAngel look me up by seat and flight, then page. I didn't like that so much either, but it was not my main concern.

 

[QUOTE=Teacher49;7987471][COLOR="Navy"][COLOR="Blue"][I][COLOR="Sienna"]
I did not have an upgrade request in, so like any parent, I wondered, what terrible thing has gone wrong at home that only person who knows where I am has me paged?QUOTE]

You could have been paged notifying you that you were being given an op up.--I had this happen in the ac at nrt.

 

I don't think this is an overreaction at all. My privacy is very important to me and I would certainly want to know how another passenger got my information. Especially if I was in the AC. I'm sure something like this would not have happened to a celebrity.

But as for the original question- no, I've not been paged to swap seats.

 

I had this happen years ago on Qantas - business to F, LA to SYD. Sweet!

But I knew that this was very unlikely. I had checked the seats available and everthing was chock a block. Friday, June 26 was a big travel day it seems for families beginning the first cycle of vacation season.

But I like your optimism, nrr!

 

Your issue is not with the GA as much as it is with the AAngel. Yes, the GA took inappropriate action by sending the passenger to the AC. However, the AAngel should have refused to page you. The AAngel is ultimately the one who broke protocol by getting you involved.

We've only heard your side of the story but even then it appears you overreacted.

As to your OP: I've never been paged in an AC for a seat swap. However, there was a time my seat was swapped by someone unbeknownst to me. When the GA scanned my BP, it did not go through. She then told me I had been moved from a D to G seat on a 767 in J. Since I was still on an isle in the center two row, it did not matter to me. How would have I reacted had I been moved to a window -- I don't know.

 

Happened to me once. First int'l flight LGW - DFW - family of 4 on holiday and mom wanted my window seat in J. I politely declined, since I did not care for aisle (center section) seat. I did counter offer that I would consider an upgrade to first - especially since it was my birthday. AAgent said thanks for your time and went about her work.