hgdf

Why should I mince words? Because I paid extra to select that specific seat ahead of time I really do feel a sense of entitlement to it.

That being said, I'm not delusional. I know that seat assignments aren't guaranteed as a matter of right. Still, what I'm trying to express is more than mere disappointment at my bad luck.

Let me make this perfectly clear. I'm not upset because I had to switch seats. This can happen for a number of reasons beyond anyone's control. I'm upset because of the reason I had to switch seats, which was to accommodate someone with a lap infant.

You see, the whole thing is based on the absurd premise that the airbags present a danger to lap infants. It may be debateable whether a child is statistically safer riding aboard an airplane in someones lap versus in a car, strapped into a safety seat, but this is irrelevant. The point is, any event in which the airplane sustains an impact sufficient to set off the airbags is guaranteed to turn any unrestrained infant into a projectile. Airbags or not, the unrestrained kid is ultimately going to hit the bulkhead at high velocity regardless of which row he started out in.

To sum it up, the reason I was upset is because I was forced to switch seats in order to protect a lap infant from the possibility of being injured by an airbag which wasn't even installed on that particular plane, but even if it had been, probably wouldn't have made any difference affecting the child's survivability odds in a high G-force crash. The selfish people who took my seat were more interested in swilling Bloody Marys at 9:00 AM in first class than protecting their offspring in the event of an airplane crash. For this reason, I feel that I was entitled to my original seat.

sxf24

I guess your entitled to hold whatever position you want, even if its illogical and incorrect.

Eastbay1K

Airlines actually market the fact that you can get a pre-assigned seat, as a competitive factor against WN. Now, certain airlines are charging more for certain seats (if you don't have any status), i.e., exit rows, windows, aisles, etc.

There's a reasonable expectation that you'll get to keep it, absent the most rare circumstance. For awhile, there was a reasonable expectation (amongst the educated) that one might lose his seat assignment in 2C for a reason that cannot be spoken about because it doesn't exist. Accordingly, I stopped choosing that seat for some time. There is also a reasonable expectation that one who pays for the F cabin (either by money, miles, or an instant upgrade fare) and chooses his seat at that time is going to be able to keep it when the reason for change is most likely a last minute upgrade situation.

sxf24

A per-assigned seat is different than being entitled to a specific seat. Until an airline starts charging premiums for different seats in the F cabin, customers are not entitled to end up in one seat over another.

hgdf

This is where your logic fails. AS and other airlines charge a premium to pre-select specific F seats outside of the upgrade window. This makes certain, highly coveted seats effectively more expensive than others. If you aren't inclined to pay extra to get your favored seat, you can roll the dice when your upgrade window comes along.

sxf24

I guess I see the extra paid for an F fare to be for the privilege of confirming a seat in the F cabin at the time of booking. I have to admit I don't understand the logic or basis of the perception you're paying for a specific seat and you're entitled to that seat, particularly since the CoC seems to be pretty clear on the subject.

tod701

Not always true and in many cases not.

The FAA requires that there be at least 10 percent more masks than seats and those masks be evenly distributed thoughout the cabin.

Ref: 14CFR25.1447

The official FAA reason for the excess masks is to facilitate the FA's getting back to their oxygen provisions. Relating to supplemental oxygen, the FAA has chosen to ignore the existance of infants on board.

When I lay out a PSU arrangement I always put some of the extra masks at the locations with bassinet provisions when the aircraft is so equiped.

Additional masks beyond the minimum 10 percent excess is an operator driven choice.

AvMax8

Regarding the number of oxygen masks in a row, I'm curious if there is one extra on each side (on a single aisle aircraft) in each row, or is there truly only one extra mask per row? If there is only one extra mask per row, is it accessible from either side of the aircraft or are they only accessible from one side of the aircraft? I'm interested because my wife and I traveled earlier this week (AS 32) with our six year old son and two lap infants. We had pre-reserved seats (D/E/F) and then at the gate discovered that we had been separated secondary to the limited oxygen masks. We got through the flight OK but it certainly would have been easier for everyone if we'd be closer to each other. When I called to address seat assignments for the return flight, the person I spoke with said they were only allowed to have one lap infant per ROW, hence my question regarding the number and positioning of the extra oxygen masks. While we would have preferred being seated across the aisle from each other, we ended up with seats in two subsequent rows which sounds like the best option. Anyways, just curious about the oxygen mask positioning and whether the seat policy makes sense in that regard.
Thanks!

tusphotog

Holy old thread!

There are 4 masks per set of seats. So there are 4 masks over the ABC side and 4 over the DEF side. Only one infant per row, since there are only four masks.

There should be no problems with having one lap kid in XX ABC and one across the aisle in DEF. I'm assuming Alaska is like WN and has extra masks fitted above every seat.

See below for correct info.

It can be a challenge to move folks around once you get to the gate, however...

irene49

Alaska only allows one lap child per row - A,B,C,D,E,F. That's so the other remaining O2 mask in that row in always available to the flight attendant who might be caught in the aisle in a decompression. So, a family with two lap children will be split to different rows if they should happen to get assigned seats in the same row.

AS Flyer

AS only allows one infant per entire row because there are a total of eight masks per row (four each side). There can be one for an infant and one has to be available for Flight Attendants if they are at that seat row and there is a sudden decompression.

AvMax8

Now that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation!

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Agree lots of interesting info in this thread I didn't know ^

tusphotog

Interesting. Thanks for the correction!

IceTrojan

We ran into this "best practice" on VN of all places... companion had a lap infant, and we were shuffled all around since there were so many lappers on board, and the one-infant-per-row rule in place.

He ended up assigned to the exit row ().