pinniped

I'm somewhere in the middle on my responses as the would-be swappee.

(a) I'm more likely to be accommodating on a "neutral" swap (e.g., Aisle for aisle, even if I'm the one moving back a row or two) if a small child is involved.

(b) If the requester sounds entitled about it, or occupies my seat first expecting that I'll say yes, I'm more likely to say no.

(c) I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for grown adults who just want to sit together. In that case, I'll swap if they're polite *and* I'm getting equal/better seat.

My wife and I travel all the time, often on separate PNRs because one of us has status or one is using an award. We always prepare for the possibility that we'll have to remain 10 or 15 feet apart for a few hours, and to date we have survived this on several occasions. We've even had cases where 1 upgrade clears and one does not...we'll happily take turns occupying the upgraded seat.

We just try to get the best seats we can and go from there. And I'm still sticking by the advice to check often leading up to the travel date, as people do upgrade, change, cancel, reroute, etc. - opening up seats that aren't preferred or MCE.

I don't know much about the Expert Flyer feature, but that might be something worth looking into if you value the other things that tool provides.

AlwaysAisle

Yes, that happened to me more than once. On an international flight I requested a special meal. As I boarded walking toward my seat, this guy was sitting on my assigned seat where a flight attendant approached this guy on my assigned seat asking about special meal, then this guy sitting on my assigned seat was telling an FA he did not order special meal!

Another time I moved a seat three times before the door closed for the departure. I sure was reaching the point telling people that I should simply stand by the door and have everybody else sit at where ever they please while ignoring my existence!

When a person refused to move seat for you, before think that a person is an as&$#%@, never know what this person was already asked to do before you asked.

Kevin AA

You can't have your cake and eat it too. Do you want to save money or do you want to sit together? Either cough it up for seat assignments like anyone else, or sit apart!

Statman

OP hasn't returned to this thread. Looks like another case of post and run!

Dave Noble

I don't think that you can tell whether the OP has read the replies or not

Uzzar

Is this not frowned on by the FA? Do you each get drinks? Not saying it is wrong, just curious as I haven't seen anyone "share" seats in F before.

kb9522

Why don't you just pay for the MCE seats? Weddings already cost so much money, are you really going to notice a couple of hundred dollars more (if it even costs that)?

jhartvu

Pretty sure the poster is saying that they take turns on alternate flights. That is, one gets to take the upgrade this flight, so the partner takes the upgrade on the next flight.

apeortdz

We do that too.

jordyn

It's not like there's any factual clarifications that have been asked that OP needs to return for. As Dave Noble points out, they very well could have read all the responses and have nothing in particular to add to the discussion. So...why does this matter?

It's also pretty amusing to have a bunch of frequent fliers who never have to pay for their seat assignments lecturing someone on the importance of paying for seat assignments. As often happens when people ask about "is it worth $X more for first class" or the like, the tradeoff between money and a particular element of the in-flight experience is a personal one--as demonstrated by the fact that there are nearly as many "why do you care about sitting next to each other so much?" responses as "since this is your honeymoon, you should definitely pay!"

As a bit of advice to the OP: if you're going to go the route of trying to change seats on the plane, try to get two seats that will be good for trading even if they aren't next to each other. For example, it would probably be helpful to have one window and one aisle seat (or at least not both middle seats); that way when you are offering to trade you'll have an alternative seat that won't be a downgrade for the person on the other side of the equation.

rjw242

I see no problem whatsoever with OP trying to get 2 aisle or window seats, then asking someone in a middle if they'd like to switch. Best case, everybody wins; worst case, they say no. This board notwithstanding, it's exceptionally rare for anyone to get the vapors at the profound dishonor of being asked to swap seats.

AlwaysAisle

The impression I got from OP’s post is that OP wants guarantee that sit together with new husband on a flight to Hawaii. Sure there is nothing wrong with OP asking to swap a seat upon boarding, but I sense that OP will be disappointed if a person say no to swapping a seat. My impression is that OP wants to avoid sitting apart on a flight to Hawaii and guarantee sitting together. If OP wants guarantee then pay up and get assigned seats next to each other now. If OP do not mind end up sitting apart, then wait till the day of travel and ask for seat swap upon boarding.

pinniped

Sorry, I should clarify: we take turns on different trips occupying the seat. FAs absolutely do (and should!) take umbrage to people moving around mid-flight between cabins. We do not do that.

One of us heads to F, the other stays in Y, and just see each other at the end of the flight...

Kevin AA

OP has to pick which want she wants.

enviroian

It boils down to is her new husband worth 200 bucks to sit next to.

LOL