Lllahim

How do you respond when asked if you can swap seats. Is it rude to say No? I try to go about it nicely and hate refusing. However, given the amount of time and care I take choosing my seat, I think it is unfair to be asked. All seats are not equal especially in J cabins of HD. Am I being unreasonable?

stinger

Depends on the seat offered and length of flight, have no problem saying no, unless of course it deals with a child as that is just bad karma.

BadgerBoi

Just say "I'm sorry, no". It's not rude and their needs don't trump yours no matter what they might think. Smile politely while you say it if that makes you feel better, but be firm.

Don't engage any further, you are under no obligation to offer a reason and if you do so you could look as though you are opening up to negotiation. If it goes beyond that, just press the call button and let the FA deal with it.

Sopwith

There are countless threads on this topic in other forums, however before the Mods move it...

I will consider swapping for another aisle seat to help someone out if it's not a dog seat (no recline, next to the lav, back row, etc). Otherwise I have no compunction about politely declining, because I have invariably paid extra and booked early enough to get the aisle seat I want. I have no time for the parents who are too cheap to pay for advance seat selection, then complain and try to swap a middle at the back for my coveted aisle seat when they aren't seated together with their rugrats.

YEGcg

If you had the foresight/ability to book early and/or pay for the seat selection, you should not feel "guilty" for keeping the seat you chose.

Conversely, the pax who did not book early and/or did not pay for seat selection took what they could.

If you're breaking up a couple/family in a 3x3, 3x3x3, etc. then you could move, but only if the offered seat is *better* than the seat you're in. Why else move? You chose it!

BadgerBoi

But what happens if the poor family or couple are forced to sit apart? Do they self immolate or something?

Particularly if I'm already settled into my carefully chosen seat it's going to take some really special circumstances to get me to move.

YOWgary

If we're on a 320, and you're asking me to swap 30C for 31D so you can sit with your wife, I'm very happy to oblige.

If you're asking me to leave my exit-row seat for the same reason, I will, in the politest terms possible, invite you to pound sand.

canadiancow

Someone asked me to swap my 2C on YUL-YVR for 3F to sit with their colleague. I declined. They found someone else to move, and I wound up sitting beside someone who looked like he had the plague. Karma

Tax Dude

Funny story. We were on an all-economy Rouge flight YYZ-LIR (not the funny part.) I selected 2C/D for my wife and myself, 1C/D for our university-aged boys. Another family (of size) was in 1A/B, 1E/F and 2B. 1B asked my son in 1C if he would switch with his wife in 2B so she could sit beside him and son in 1A. My son said no, he liked an aisle seat. 1B asked if it would make a difference if he paid him, my son said no. So 1B turned to my other son in 1D and said "I'll give you $100 if you switch with my wife in 2B". That son said "OK", took the $100 and went to sit beside his mother. He later said that he was happy to move because 1E was spilling over the armrest into his space and would have moved if the guy had just asked him nicely. My wife was also very happy to have our relatively smaller-sized son replace the plus-sized 2B who was actually spilling under the armrest onto her seat cushion.

t_rex

While I am the 'type' who normally says no to a seat swap, as others have mentioned, sometimes when you do it, it pays off.
A couple years ago my wife and I were in 12AC on a flight from YYZ-CPH...a couple with an baby was beside us in 12DE...as there is no bassinet anchors on the bulkhead at DE, the SD asked us to switch spots...I was hesitant but my wife convinced me. For the remainder of the flight the SD profusely thanked us (telling us that most passengers would never do such a thing)...he provided us extra snacks (from J class), drinks, etc, throughout the flight, and then prior to arrival handed me a 750ml (uncorked) bottle of red wine for us to enjoy during our first night in Copenhagen.

krayZpaving

Swap if you can.

Sometimes it works out - on a LHR-YYZ flight, I proactively offered to swap with a husband who kept showing up to visit his wife who was sitting beside me. Knowing that there was a good chance he was sitting in a middle seat between two babies, I still offered to swap with him because it was the right thing to do. Turned out he was sitting in J...and soon I was instead. I'm pretty sure his wife was happier than he about he deal, but still...

ffsim

Exactly. The same as when someone asks to take your aisle seat in exchange for a middle seat on a 6 hour flight and gets irked when you say decline. It's always nice to accommodate such requests when the seats are fundamentally the same, but it's a totally different story altogether to take a serious downgrade.

While not the "serious downgrade" to which I referred above, I'm not sure I'd give up a bulkhead seat in J for row 3, either.

zorn

So far I have always agreed to swap seats when asked, and will offer to swap seats when it seems that a parent and small enough child might be sitting apart.

gbeaumont

Yes to better seats, usually yes to same type of seat - window for window, aisle for aisle, no to downgrades

Bonaventure

If asked politely and receiving an equivalent seat - why not?