I suspect in this situation the blame falls to one of the wretched old battleaxes we have working in the cabin. Upgrading jumpseaters is, per the FOM, CAPTAIN'S discretion. However, while most of our FAs are wonderful, we have a few wretched old crows who think they own the airplane and would send all the paying customers back to steerage so they could eat and sleep their way across the pond without actually having to - ahem - do work.

In any case, my apologies. Better coach than left behind, but any captain worth his salt would have made sure you got the nicer chair.

I am thrilled to hear that the post-merger JS policy will be closer to the US than AA version; ours is much friendlier and much less complicated.