I fly TPA-ORD almost weekly. Tampa has a large military contingent, and there have been several occasions where there have been disabled service guys on my flight.

I would like the ability to trade my F seat for their Y, but the last time I tried I was not very successful. The gate agent understood what I wanted to do, but apparently could not accomplish this in the computer - had I given up my seat the next guy on the upgrade list would have been assigned.

I did manage to talk to the purser on flight and get this done, but is there any other way that anyone knows for me to trade seats with one of these guys without disrupting the boarding process? It costs me 2 1/2 hours in coach, far less than this last guy who had lost his foot and was on one of those springy foot replacement prosthetics.

Any ideas?

 

I think handling it on-board, like you did, is the only way really to do so.

 

Handle it on-board. I'm sure any FA or the purser could take care of your request.

 

agree - or you can hand your boarding pass over before the flight, but that does contain some personal info that you may not want to share (MP# and name).

 

And, BTW, thanks from all of us military guys and gals.^

 

I have done it before, just hand it on board, they love it. ^

 

+1

On our group TPA-IAD flight on 9/11, the guy in 3A gave his seat to a member of the army, who had been sitting in E-...

 

I noticed that, when Karung99+1 are traveling with me it is more difficult for me to donate mine.

 

as others have posted, do it on board. i've seen it done and done it myself but do not simply tell the pax in uniform and then swap seats with them-let one of the f/'as or the purser know your intentions

 

FriendlySkies,goalie ,Karung99 and Karung99+1 will be on MR Oct 30 the same route, we could all swap for uniform guys.. it will be nice and great way to upgrade them... Let's do ORD TPA.

 

To echo those above, notify one of the FAs and then swap with him/her once boarding is wrapping up. I try to do this whenever I spot someone in uniform in the gate area... sometimes all I need to spot is the haircut...

^ good to see others do the same without prompting.

 

I always make a habit of giving a serviceman/woman in uniform my upgraded F seat...unfortunately I always get stuck with a middle seat when I do that...most recently IAH-PHL, last row ...totally worth it though. If you're going to serve my country, you can sit in my first class seat on your way home ANY TIME.

 

I've been turned down a few times. For both guesting them into the PC or RCC and/or offering my seat up for them. Tried to sponsor an upgrade once too. They too declined. They were, however, moved into E+.

 

As I was boarding a flight about a year ago, I looked to my right and saw a military guy missing BOTH arms..when I got onboard, I told the FA I would like to swap seats with him. (I was in FC) They were happy to help, to the extent that the pilot came out and went to find the guy...turns out we didn't have to switch..they brought him up to the one empty FC seat left. I still have no idea how he managed to carry his rucksack, eat or anything else with both arms amputated at the shoulders....damn....

 

there were a lot of soldiers shipping out to Kuwait. One of the pax told the F/As =that any meals/drinks were on him. He bought over 30 men BOB's and snackboxes to take with if they chose. One of the men - kids really - was sitting across from me and i thought he would cry. I almost did myself.