Originally Posted by
Antarius
Purchasing the Aisle and Window seats in the front side of the aircraft and offering a window OR aisle to the middle pax would be a reasonable way to cover your bases. There is the chance that you end up with the one odd pax who prefers the middle, however in my experience, no one would turn down a middle seat for a choice of aisle or window.
There are ways to get around the issue.
I don't disagree with this at all, but it still requires that a request be made of another passenger, something which several people have indicated is, in itself, an unreasonable thing to do (and the point I was attempting to refute). If you're asking someone to trade, the fact that you consider your offering better than your request does not change the fact that you are asking them to trade.