Originally Posted by
parabellum
Any company worth its salt will block off crew seats well in advance, providing they have notice, crew movements are often scheduled and can be easily planned for without upsetting anyone.
Well you would think so, but today all airlines are so keen on squeezing every last person onto the plane (and dollar out of them) they tend to routinely overbook and leave it to the gate agent to sort out. I have had my (blocked) seat given away without anyone asking (several times) and at the last minute, to accommodate me, they had to offload the passenger who was sitting in the seat. If the gate agent asked I tended to agree to give up my seat and go and sit on the flt deck if it wasn't a long flight but it was always my decision.
The person I feel sorry for is the poor gate agent who is going to upset someone whatever they do - and they wont get any support from management over the decision made.