Koru Flyer

Whenever I have asked (a handful of times), it has always been at check-in with a note in the system for the person in the seat in question, and at check-in they are asked, and if they say no, end of story.

Note, asking is only in these situations
- Due to rebooking or some issue out of my control, I am scattered from my children. Note an 8 year or even my 12 year old, I do not believe can manage themselves on a long haul flight. What if there is an emergency, they become sick etc etc, it is not appropriate to foster that care onto someone else. Just because they can work a seat and the entertainment does not mean they are an adult and self sufficient.
- The seat swap is same/same or they are getting what I consider to be a better seat.

I am amazed at the people who demand to switch to sit next to a colleague, or believe that they can swap the poorer seat for the better.

I would never directly ask a passenger to shift, and will insist that as the airline cancelled, rebooked or whatever my flight that duty of care extends to fixing a necessary seating issue.

KF

Nuster

More of a general comment but one of the frustrating things about this forum is when posters come up with the most fanciful hypotheses in order to potentially explain service shortcomings.Sometimes BA like any airline, messes up. In this case it is much more likely that a CC acting on the spur of the moment used the screen issue as a way of defusing a passenger issue. On reflection they may not do it again or they may do but I cannot see the harm in acknowledging that the most obvious answer is most likely the answer.

carrotjuice

There was once when I came to my seat at 64A and there was a man in his 60s already at 64B with his wife of similar age at 63A. They didn’t acknowledge my presence and kept on chatting between them. Clearly the man was eyeing a change of seat for his wife to mine but didn’t (dare to?) ask me. At one point I overheard the man say to his partner - maybe he did indeed intend it to be loud enough for me to hear - “... not like he’s going to move anywhere!”

Er, sir, a polite request and I may consider. But a passive aggressive statement just goes over my head and I am very good at pretending to be dumb in these circumstances.

johnaalex

Back in the '90s my late wife and I were on one of our first flights in F on a 747 and were sitting in the fifth row. Prior to take off one of the cabin crew asked if we would move seats as a family wanted to sit together. It was a wealthy, possible royal, family from the middle east who had booked 10 seats in F and we were offered 1A&K. Sometimes these things can work in your favour.

carrotjuice

Blueboys999

What does annoy is when the crew swap a passenger to a reserved seat before the holder has boarded and then attempt to persuade the passenger to accept the alternative. IMO that should never happen.

SCSA

Why do people get so annoyed with you for taking your assigned seat. It seems the higher in cabin you go, the worse people are, as if they're entitled to an empty seat (or friend/spouse) next to them. You get some of the nastiest looks from people when you innocently take your seat

nufnuf77

Globaliser

Because many people need/want to feel more special than the next person when all are entitled only to a commoditised product. They need to feel that they should have enough clout to demand better seating rights than you, and to have had their (more special) desires pandered to above yours. That's basically what drives the excessive emotion.

Seating isn't the only aspect. Look at all the people who get seriously annoyed by not being boarded ahead of others in their cabin, or getting the same (non-)greeting as the other passengers in their cabin, to take two common examples. It doesn't excuse the airline for not delivering what it should, and there are good reasons why some things ought to be done for some passengers - but when the passenger gets worked up about it, it says more about their own insecurities and world view than anything else.

simons1

In most cases ego or inflated view of their importance in life.

DrGee

Do we ever get to hear from the "other" person in these threads?

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, funny that isn't it?

In the case of FTers there may be a logical explanation - they know the various things that can and cannot happen, so can arrange their lives to get UD seating, for example. Also, realistically, those who are very particular about how they fly are going to be in this forum. And I am not sure most people are that bothered.

CCayley

Banana4321

A very erudite observation. I certainly arrange my schedule around seat availability.

CMK10

I was on an Open Skies flight last month in 3F, a window. A flight attendant asked me to move to 1D so a family could sit together. She said "we've got 1D for you, it's the exact same seat". Well, no it isn't it's an aisle and I didn't want an aisle so I declined.

The funny part was the mother in the family (I was sitting next to one of her daughters, she was across the aisle with her other daughter and her husband was in 1D) was mortified and told me she was really sorry and didn't want me to switch and that the flight attendant never should have disturbed me.