I was flying recently in Biz and the guy sitting next to me offered to trade his wife's seat in First so they could sit together in Biz.

Of course I agreed, but as we were changing seats, the purser said to us "whoa, what are you doing?" When the guy explained that we were changing seats, she said "It's not that easy", that she would arrange his changing and had me return to my seat.

I wasn't overly bothered since I was just happy to be in Biz for a change, but the guy was thought it ridiculous and demanded to know why he couldn't trade seats with whoever he pleased. But she didn't really answer and just arranged for someone else to move up front and for me to go into his vacated seat.

I will say that the purser was nice about it. She came by later and apologized to me and said that the guy moved up was in a special program for CEOs, etc. (Global Rewards or something?), and that she normally would have been happy to move me up.

But nevertheless, shouldn't a customer be able to switch his seat with someone of his choosing?