Is it OK to you, for a coach-class to sit in an empty 1st class seat at no charge?

Question

Say you paid a premium price (like $2500) for a 1st class airline ticket and there are several unoccupied 1st class seats left over.

So, AFTER take-off, a coach-class passenger decides to upgrade himself to one of the empty 1st class seats (since nobody is sitting there and the plane is already in the air).

Is this OK with you, as a paying 1st class passenger?

Or, should maybe the airlines incorporate a new policy, to give "FREE" upgrades to coach class passengers on any flight, for every "unsold" 1st Class seat, once the plane has taken off?

Especially, if the 1st Class seats are ALREADY empty and the flight is already in flight?

How do you think this would this impact 1st class sales to airlines? And should the airlines maybe do AWAY with 1st Class/Business Class altogether....just have ONE class....coach?

I know people that say, if they had paid a premium $$ for a 1st Class ticket, they still have NO PROBLEM with coach-class passengers getting FREE upgrades to 1st Class! They look at it like, the coach class people just negotiated a better deal (i.e. free upgrade), that's all!

Personally, I have a problem with paying a premium price for 1st Class and then someone getting a "free" upgrade for NO justifiable reason other than the seat is already empty. If the airline allowed this, I would never buy a 1st Class ticket again, who would?

Your thoughts!

Answer 1

As a career (25 year) international flight attendant and purser I was always incredulous that a passenger who paid a coach fare and was assigned a coach seat would simply take it upon themselves to upgrade to a premium class of service if they happen to see an empty seat.  Or worse, not understand why they couldn't simply take any empty seat.  Would these same people go into Nordstrom and expect to receive a $1000 suit if they had only paid for a $250 suit simply because there were other $1000 suits still on the rack?  

Answer 2

That's a good question.  At least on the flights I have taken, you RARELY see an empty first class seat, as pre-departure any unsold seats have been filled by either paid upgrades or frequent fliers (neither of which I have a problem with, paid upgrades took a gamble on availability versus less money, and frequent fliers have paid with business over time).

That said, if someone just moved up, I would in fact have a problem with it, assuming they didn't clear it with the flight crew first (and you don't know if people did).  I've seen that happen, where the person is given an FC seat but no meal (since those were pre-loaded) for example.

Paying for FC is basically paying for a guaranteed FC seat.  Anything else is just subject to availability.

Answer 3

That's NOT okay with the airlines period. They have the right to kick you off of the plane if it hasn't taken off yet.