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Seat Swap Request Horror Stories

Seat Swap Request Horror Stories

Old May 6, 2013, 12:54 pm
  #1  
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Angry Seat Swap Request Horror Stories

Since there have been a few funny/horrifying stories of seat swap requests over in this thread, I thought I would try to start a "master thread" for venting about such requests.

I'll start with a couple I've mentioned elsewhere:

I once was next to a woman, who was in a middle seat, and whose boyfriend was in the middle in front of her. After they got settled, he looked at her and said "well, go ahead, ask!" and she proceeded to ask me to switch with her boyfriend.

Sometimes, swap requests are the opposite of bad. I've been the beneficiary of what I call a 'friend-up', when a passenger in F offered to swap with me to sit with his friend in Y. I didn't mind pretending to be a 1K up in F for the flight
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Old May 6, 2013, 1:21 pm
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while flying SMF-PHX the day after thanksgiving, i overheard someone else's seat swap horror story in the row in front of me.

family of three, two parents and a girl that was high school aged. the parents had the window and aisle seats and the girl was in the middle. she was complaining throughout the boarding process about the middle seat and how she would get airsick if she could not see out the window all the time. her mother, seated in the window, was having none of it until the girl literally started bawling and shouted "if you don't switch with me, i'm going to vomit in your face as soon as this plane takes off!!!"

a moment later, the switcheroo took place.

on the good end of things, about 8 years ago when i was still wild and free, i was flying from ATL-SMF the day before thanksgiving and i was in an aisle seat (C). across the aisle in the middle seat (E) was a gorgeous girl my age or maybe a year or two older. we chatted casually and hit it off well until the D seat was filled when another guy showed up and started awkwardly chatting her up as we waited for departure. about an hour into the flight as we were still making eyes at each other across the aisle during the in flight movie and after a long conversation in the galley with her, i pulled my headphones down and said to the guy in D "look, i'm sorry, i realize you would like to sit next to her, but i also realize she wants to sit next to me. either we can flirt across you for the next 3 hours or you and i can switch. what do you say?" she burst out laughing, the guy was shamed into moving, and i got her number. sadly though we spoke on the phone a few times, i never saw her again. needless to say the guy who was formerly seated in D did not have alot else to say to me the remainder of the flight.

Last edited by PV_Premier; May 6, 2013 at 1:32 pm
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Old May 6, 2013, 1:36 pm
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Why not just add on to the existing thread that's been in the top 25 of this forum for the last month?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...isle-seat.html
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Old May 6, 2013, 1:39 pm
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Originally Posted by WWGuy
Why not just add on to the existing thread that's been in the top 25 of this forum for the last month?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...isle-seat.html
This started as a thread in the UA forum, and was moved. I'll alert the mods.
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Old May 6, 2013, 8:19 pm
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My best seat swap story was related to me by a friend who has told this story for years with much better effect than I am about to relate. He was travelling home in J from YYZ to YVR when "the most beautiful girl in the world" sat down beside him. They hit it off famously from the moment she sat down and were engaged in conversation and he was very much looking forward to the flight. Moments before the doors were about to close, an unkempt man of size rushed onto the plane, looked at his boarding pass and said to the girl "you're in my seat!, whereupon my friend promptly replied "No she's not!" Turns out, she was.
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Old May 6, 2013, 8:22 pm
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Originally Posted by allbrosca
My best seat swap story was related to me by a friend who has told this story for years with much better effect than I am about to relate. He was travelling home in J from YYZ to YVR when "the most beautiful girl in the world" sat down beside him. They hit it off famously from the moment she sat down and were engaged in conversation and he was very much looking forward to the flight. Moments before the doors were about to close, an unkempt man of size rushed onto the plane, looked at his boarding pass and said to the girl "you're in my seat!, whereupon my friend promptly replied "No she's not!" Turns out, she was.
"Here's $100 Mr MOS. Go sit in her seat!"
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Old May 7, 2013, 7:00 am
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Not really horror stories but more like "what the what?" stories -

In first, on the way home from the Caribbean, after we board I discover our seats have been shifted due to a change in aircraft. Not a big deal since we had two of the three seats adjoining each other, or so I think.

Turns out a man is sitting in my son's seat and refuses to move because he wants to sit next to his wife. He keeps insisting that I move my then 6yo son back two rows, where he would have been sitting without me or my husband to supervise him. (He was sitting in my son's seat.) It finally ended with me yelling at him. He and the wife jumped up and moved to the back of the cabin. Eventually, enough people shuffled around and they sat together. In hindsight, I should not have engaged him and just went straight to the FA.

Same route, earlier this year - A man and woman board behind us. The wife is dressed very strangely for the weather - long pants, turtleneck sweater, floor length wool coat and a huge scarf wrapped around her neck in 90 degree weather. She follows her husband, who is seated next to my husband, and stands in the aisle. Just stands there. After a while, her husband screams at her to "go sit in your seat!" several times over and then starts ranting at her how it doesn't matter where she sits, that she is going to just fall asleep right away. She sulks off and sits in the first row, against the window. He then turns to my husband and starts ranting about how she wanted him (her husband) to ask my husband to switch seats and why the f_ck does she need to sit next to him and so on. After he downed his beverage, he took off his shoes and slept most of the flight.

I don't switch because I always sit next to our son but my husband will often switch as long as the trade is even-up.
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Old May 7, 2013, 9:12 am
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The consistent theme here and elsewhere is that one has to be sufficiently self-assured to make a quick evaluation and have the ability to say "no thanks" when that's the answer. If you are offered something acceptable or better, take it. If you aren't and don't want to, just say "no thanks". No silly excuses or lies. Just say it.

Or if you want to be a doormat for others, just say "yes" and enjoy the middle seat near the lav.
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Old May 7, 2013, 1:24 pm
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This one still raises my hackles because it was the fault of the FA.

I was on KLM DEL-AMS in a window seat of my choosing. I was barricaded in by a couple that was sleeping on each other, but they weren't bothering me.

About an hour into the flight, the FA comes up and tells me there are empty rows on the other side, or rows with empty middles. I confirmed with him that there would be a window before gathering all my things, disturbing the sleeping couple, and moving to where he directed me.

As soon as I got settled, the man who'd been occupying the seat the FA had just put me in came back. Apparently it was his assigned seat and he'd just been in the lav.

Irritated, I got up and moved to the aisle in that row, pointedly looking at the FA. My new row-mate was a chatty rural-type Indian (my husband is Indian; this is not me being racist) who was far too fascinated with me, asking me question after question before finally curling up and laying down in the window and middle seat in the fetal position with his feet touching me.

As angry as I already was over being lured from my quiet window seat for no good reason, having this guy's feet on me really put me over the edge. Of course, the "helpful" FA disappeared, never to be seen again.

Between this and other experiences with KLM involving AMS and DEL, I will never fly KLM again (and I will never connect through AMS if I can avoid it. Ugh).
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Old May 8, 2013, 2:10 pm
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Originally Posted by allbrosca
My best seat swap story was related to me by a friend who has told this story for years with much better effect than I am about to relate. He was travelling home in J from YYZ to YVR when "the most beautiful girl in the world" sat down beside him. They hit it off famously from the moment she sat down and were engaged in conversation and he was very much looking forward to the flight. Moments before the doors were about to close, an unkempt man of size rushed onto the plane, looked at his boarding pass and said to the girl "you're in my seat!, whereupon my friend promptly replied "No she's not!" Turns out, she was.
Between the second post and this one, I have to wonder if spectacularly attractive women get tired of being chatted up All. The. Time.??
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Old May 8, 2013, 6:20 pm
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Originally Posted by heraclitus
Between the second post and this one, I have to wonder if spectacularly attractive women get tired of being chatted up All. The. Time.??
Even reasonably attractive women get tired of being chatted up All. The. Time.
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Old May 8, 2013, 11:15 pm
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Not a horror story by any means, but a husband once asked me to swap seats so that he might sit next to his wife. Naturally, he was in the first-class bulkhead on a Delta 737 and I was in row three. Why would I ever accept the cramped legroom of the bulkhead (on a 4 hour flight!) so that a random couple could sit together? If it was so important for them to be together, the wife should have moved up to the bulkhead and sent the husband's seatmate back to sit with me.

As it turned out, the wife was somewhat embarrassed that the husband even asked and we went on to have a pleasant flight. I admit I felt a little bad about denying them, but then again I would never have made such a request myself.
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Old May 9, 2013, 12:53 am
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Here's one that was good for us but certainly a horror story for some others:

Just settling in on the right side of the 747, towards the front, for SYD-LAX. A guy sits directly in the aisle seat in row in front of us. He looks presentable but has the worst body odor I have ever experienced.

Just before doors close, a woman comes up to him and says, "I got someone to switch with you." The guy gets up and takes his things elsewhere, far away. His seat is taken by a different, non-offensive-smelling guy, who had walked over with the woman.

Wait about 20 or 30 seconds, and our whole section of the plane breaks out giggling. Lots of big smiles, eye contact and expressions of relief for three or four rows in every direction.
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Old May 9, 2013, 8:07 am
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Originally Posted by LTBoston
Even reasonably attractive women get tired of being chatted up All. The. Time.
Maybe. I think it depends on who you are talking about. The fellow I am talking about is pretty smooth and women seem to have all sorts of time for him. If it was me you were talking about, I would understand. I don't get the time of day!
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Old May 9, 2013, 12:07 pm
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Here's a somewhat different twist on the situation. I was flying MGA-IAH in F on a 737 (I don't remember which version). I was in row 2 and was asked to switch to row 4 to allow a man to sit with his elderly father. Empowered by FT and knowing that row 4 meant limited recline and the possibility of not getting my choice of meals I proudly refused. Ever afterward I have regretted being such a selfish jerk. How much worse is row 4 than row 2 anyway, and how good is the food whatever you get? Luckily, there were non-selfish passengers and the two managed to sit together.
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