Originally Posted by
roberino
I refused to swap seats with the husband of the woman next to me going from PEK-FRA because they both had middle seats and I grouchily thought "well I bothered to select my seat online - why can't you?". They didn't speak great English and my German is good for ordering beer. It turns out the lady next to me was afraid of flying and turned into a gibbering wreck as soon as the engines spooled up on the runway. All she wanted was for her husband to hold her hand. That made me feel pretty bad.
I'd be more than happy to explain to a nervous flier how statistically safe flying actually is, but there's a zero percent chance I'd trade an aisle for a middle on PEK-FRA. (In coach anyway. If someone asked very, very nicely in J or F, then maybe.)