Originally Posted by
willy702
Yeah it's happened to me a number of times so I book row 3 instead to insure extra space. Problem is when it happened last two times it was a same day sub out. Or at least they didn't inform me in any way on the app. I checked about 3 hours before the flight and it all appeared fine and then got on the plane and the exit row was 3 rows away. I explained it to the FA and she said it was a pretty quiet flight so go ahead and switch but that was lucky. The flight before I lost it I checked maybe a week before and didn't see any issues so I assumed it was ok. Went through the seat selection on check in and it still seemed ok. Got on the plane and it was not and it was a full flight. Not too happy about it but that's flying for you.
Yes, this happened to me while boarding a couple years ago, and now I'm more careful about it. Which doesn't mean it couldn't happen to me the way you describe.
The "problem" with row 3 is that most elites prefer that row to the emergency exit rows, so it's more likely to be full. And, of course, there's more legroom in the emergency exit rows. But there is this plane-change risk!