Originally Posted by
pinniped
I've flown probably 500 solo Southwest flights and never been asked by the airline to change seats so that other travelers could sit together. I always choose aisle on Southwest, and would consider moving to another aisle seat, but have simply never been asked. I wouldn't have any issues saying no to a worse seat and seriously doubt Southwest would be willing to IDB me for it.
About once a year, I'll be on a WN flight where the FA gets on the intercom and says "we have a late-boarding family with a small child...anyone willing to move in exchange for free drinks?" That usually does it - everybody's happy. If they were forcing travelers to move to accommodate children, I would think at least one of those situations would have blown up into a big news story with a viral video by now.
I sometimes get the late boarder who is faced with nothing but available middle seats, and invariably they want me to move to accomodate their spouse/partner/friend/co-worker (and thus give up my window seat) so that they can sit together. My answer is always No if it involves me moving to a middle seat anywhere else on the plane. Ain't happening, sorry, no. One small advantage of open seating is that this situation is much less prevalent on Southwest than it is elsewhere, because on the other airlines, the seat-swapper-wannabe already has a connection to said middle seat; the spouse/partner/friend/co-worker is assigned to some other middle seat elsewhere. Sorry; not my problem if you booked late and all that were left were middles.