JMN57

In regards to the "etiquette"

OK for them to ask
OK for you to decline
NOT OK for them to project their unhappiness.

In my book, when asking you make it clear you know they have a right to that seat, that you are asking for a favor and that if they decline you are perfectly fine with that.

garydpdx

I am only in Domestic First or International Business on an upgrade so I am just thankful to be there, in the first place. So it is no biggie for me to move on behalf of people who are traveling together.

More often, these exchanges happen for me in Economy. I may be on yet another flight but for other people, they are sometimes on a once-in-a-lifetime activity, like a family who was on a college tour for their two children (fraternal twins) but got split up after a day bouncing around from gate to gate, due to flight cancellations at O'Hare. A few of us did a Rubik cube-style shuffle to get the parents and the siblings together, no middle seats for anybody!

MCOGUY

^+1 I fly out of MCO weekly and it's quite common for families or vacationing couples to ask me to switch from my First Class aisle to window, and get rather perturbed if you don't. If it's a similar type seat, not a problem. Sometimes I'll even offer if I see people together and they haven't even asked to,switch. Others are more brass (usually families) and simply take over your seat before you've boarded and expect you to switch. That takes a lot of nerve, and makes me not want to do it. On a short flight not as much a problem; on a long flight no way - I want my aisle seat.

Dr. HFH

OK to ask, OK to decline. When I'm asked, the likelihood of my agreeing is inversely proportional to the length of the flight.

Steve_19

^

Agree completely - always surprised why some people are so amazed others will not change seats - to me they seem to come off as if everyone on the plane was just given a random seat and had no voice into it, so of course no one should mind moving to another random seat!

DeepUnderground

No issue with what you did.

tom_MN

Once I was asked to swap an exit row aisle for a middle seat 'D' many rows up the plane so a guy could sit with his wife. He was apologetic, but I said yes when I saw the row. 4D! Sure I'll take that "middle" seat, no problem.

carlosdca

absolutely nothing wrong with two men wanting to be sitting together and asking for it.
Maybe it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, like a honeymoon or anniversary.
Still, even if just a non-special trip, nothing wrong asking to sit together.

Perfectly ok to say no.

Not ok that the requesting or requested person shows unhappiness about the request or the results of the request.

FriendlySkies

Usually happy to switch if it is for the same type of seat. If somebody sits in my seat and then whines at me to switch, it makes me even less likely to switch.

Haven't had any of the crazy swap stories happen to me.

nrr

I was in bc, zrh-jfk; when I got on plane a pax was in my window seat [old style 2-2-2 arrangement]. He asked if I would swap (since he was having a nice conversation with woman next to him) to his window seat on the opposite side of the plan--I agreed.
I was "bounced" from my new seat by pax who really had that seat.
It turned out that neither of the two pax were where they thought they were.

fotographer

for me its happened a few times, aisle for aisle no problem, anything else might be a problem, but doing a seat change on BA out of BOM to LHR, worked out very well for me,
the FA asked me to accomodate a passenger, did it, and then another FA put asked me to reaccomodate another passenger, so basically lost my bulkhead seat with lots of legroom,
the first FA comes back, sees the sistuation, tells me, he will find me a better sit, right after take-off.. he does, puts me in business...

SJOGuy

Let me add this: If you do agree to swap seats, ask to see the person's boarding pass to make sure they do indeed have the seat they're offering to trade. I agreed to a trade once, got settled in the new seat, and the rightful owner came along, who was not the person who'd asked me to trade. Needless to say, I went back and claimed my original seat.

FallenPlat

I was in a middle seat in about row 12 once, away from my family in row 26. We were flying standby on the clean up flight to DFW out of ORD after missing our connection.

A lady came up to me and asked if I could switch so she could sit next to her son. She had an aisle seat a few rows back. I've never moved so fast in my life.

Then someone else asked me to switch for a seat a few rows further back. Ok.

And then finally I asked the guy in 26C (aisle) to move up a few rows. Done again and mission accomplished . . . after three seat switches!

ESpen36

Exactly. Me too. I respectfully decline when somebody asks to change seats. I pick my seats far in advance for good reason.

Exec_Plat

I usually dont care.

I will not take a center section (D or G)in a 777/77w if I have a window (A or J)...otherwise I will almost always switch for a NICE request from a traveling couple. (Agree about the whining/entitlement factor...) Window, aisle, whatever. I used to be an aisle guy...now I am a window guy.

Once with my wife on a 777 we were split 2G and 3D. Guy in 2D didnt want to move. Whatever. Guy in 3G did.

I was on a flight last week on a 777 DFW-LHR. I was in 2J. A CK comes on and says to the woman in 1J 'thats my seat'. She was fully settled in. She then got very flustered. She says 'I'm so sorry, you're right- my mistake, I am on the other side'. Well the other side is 1D. This guys kinda looks over, shrugs, and says "thats not a great seat because of the bathroom and lights, but Im on this flight every other week so no big deal"...and he went over and took the seat. Nice guy. I bumped into him on the trek to customs and said 'that was nice of you'. and then saw him 4 days later at the flagship lounge when we were both coming home!