From: sbrenner@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (scott.d.brenner)
Subject: Re: Questions on Boarding Passes
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 13:33:11 GMT

In article <1992Dec28.152753.1@us.oracle.com> bkush@us.oracle.com writes:
|>If you have booked a flight and then called to get a seat assignment, you
|>do not need to have a boarding pass in your hand.  When you go to the
|>airport, you can pass the long lines out front and go to the gate.  At the
|>gate, they will print your boarding pass.  By the way the gate has the most
|>control over which seat you get, like exit row or handicapped seats that
|>are not being used.

I know that you don't need a boarding pass before you arrive at the airport.
I also know that you can avoid the ticket counter line and go directly to the
gate.  Often, however, there are long lines *at the gate* where people with
seat assignments are given boarding passes and people without seat assignments
select their seats.  

I'm very picky about the seat I get.  I don't have severe motion sickness, but
I can get a little queasy.  I like to sit over (or near) the wing because the 
plane seems more stable there.  Also, like many people, I like a window seat.

The reason I like to get my boarding pass before the day of the flight is that
I want to avoid a situation I found myself in several years ago.  I was flying
Continental out of New Orleans and had gotten my seat assignment several weeks
before the flight.  When I arrived at the gate, however, I was given a boarding
pass for a different seat (and an unsatisfactory one).  After I argued for a 
while, I was told that seat assignments mean almost nothing to the airline; the
boarding pass is what counts.  I was told that a passenger has absolutely NO
guarantee of the specific seat assigned until he receives a boarding pass for
that seat.  Even then, of course, the airline can move you around.  This has
never happened to me, though, since I've been getting my boarding passes weeks
before my flights.

|>You also mentioned that having a boarding pass is safer, it might be, but I
|>have found, and I am on a plane a couple times a week, that possession is 
|>9/10'ths of the law.  For example-- You get to the airport and then board the
|>plane to find someone in your seat.  You both have a boarding pass.  You call
|>the flight attendant, and at this time people are getting pissed since you 
|>are standing in the aisle.  After about five minutes, the flight attendant
|>comes back and says there was a mixup and take any empty seat.  They are 
|>usually more interested in getting the plane pushed back rather than if you 
|>are in the right seat.  Therefore get on the plane first/early!

I agree that possession is .9 of the law.  If I found myself in the situation
you describe, where someone else is in my seat and has an identical boarding
pass, I would raise hell with the airline.  I would do everything I could to
cause a fuss and delay the pushback.  If the airline wants to treat me like
a bus passenger, I can act like one.  IMHO, if I'm paying several hundred 
dollars to travel with them, I expect an airline to treat me with respect.  I
understand the business problems they face, and I understand the basics of the
"yield management" programs the use to maximize their profits.  But it's an
insult to my intelligence and shows a lack of respect of its customers if an
airline tells two people they can sit in the same seat.  

I agree also that arriving early and getting on the plane as soon as possible
is the best way to go.  When I was a kid, I liked to be one of the first ones
on the plane so I could get a deck of cards and maybe see the cockpit.  Now,
unfortunately, I feel I must be one of the first ones on the plane so I can
make sure I get the seat I paid for.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scott D. Brenner
AT&T Consumer Communications Services
Basking Ridge, NJ
sbrenner@attmail.com
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