Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 432
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Weight And Balance; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure; Company Policy
Due to a re-route; I was scheduled to deadhead ZZZ-ZZZ1. After boarding had completed; Ground Operations requested four people move up from the back of the aircraft to sit in rows 2-8 for weight and balance (X-Zone count). Since the passengers had just finished sanitizing their seat areas they were reluctant to move; so no one did. A second PA was made; specifically telling the passengers at the very back of the aircraft (all deadheading crew members) they were going to have to move up. I was required to abandon my social distancing and sit in row 2. After re-sanitizing my new seat; I sat with a passenger directly in front of me; one directly behind me; and one directly across from me. I had to sit there for about 20 minutes; before takeoff; and waited until the ride smoothed out and moved back to the back of the aircraft to space myself away from other passengers and crew. This event compromised my ability to protect myself as much as possible.Crews need to be specifically exempted from moving to accommodate a Zone count and this procedure needs to be implemented immediately; and pushed to all operational groups.
Deadheading pilot reported that passengers in the back of the aircraft were told to move to seats at the front of the aircraft to accommodate a zone count; which required abandoning social distancing and sanitizing new seats.