Diver Boy

I've only had a couple of seat swap requests and those were mainly on BA. My favourite one was in WT LHR - CPT. I had the bulkhead aisle seat when a couple boarded who turned out to have the seat next to me and a middle seat in the row behind. They turned to the cabin crew standing in the door area and said "He will have to move so we can sit together". I was about to object when the cabin crew responded that it was not possible to swap. When they demanded to know why the crew member just said "He is a more important passenger than you". I was silver at the time so was quite surprised by what she said. They ignored me the whole flight while I got really good treatment. They must have p'd off the crew with their self important attitude as they were not polite to anyone as I'd seen them in the gate area being obnoxious to the gate staff.

The others who have asked to swap with their SOB stories have all also expected me to move to a worse seat but when I've said I'd rather not have either taken it in good grace or not pushed any further.

lavajava

Nice thread OP, and it's quite well behaved too I posted this thread nearly a couple of years ago, there are some nice examples there!

No really...There is someone sitting in my seat!

I learnt my lesson not to just say yes on my second ever CW flight when a group of colleagues asked me to move so they could sit together. Turned out the seat was broken, so I had to move again to an even worse seat.

Lucanesque

I hadn't seen that thread before lavajava... my, that escalated quickly

Tobias-UK

Most of my requests to swap seats have been in first flying domestically on AA. One particular 'request' about 4/5 years ago was on a flight to New York. I noticed, as often is the case with AA, that there were over 3 pages of 'Upgrade Requests" on the screen. Immediately prior to boarding one "gentleman's" name was called and he and his wife were the two lucky ones to be upgraded and he was handed two new BPs .

Instead of being grateful he appeared put out because he and his wife had not been sat together and suggested to the gate agent that she move someone, which was refused. At this point boarding was announced and they pushed their way to the front of the queue to board first.

When I boarded I found this man sat in my seat on the front row. I pointed to my BP and showed him he was sat in my seat, he simply said "I'm sitting here with my wife, you can have seat 6E". I said I was happy with the seat I had reserved and he should move to his allocated seat. He refused. Again I asked that he move, he ignored me and pressed the call bell.

The Purser came and this chap said "... the gate agent hadn't seated us together and for some strange reason he is demanding this seat" - I told the purser I had actually reserved this seat several weeks ago and I had actually bought a first class ticket. The purser told him he should take his assigned seat but he was having none of it and said he needed to sit with his wife and it was me who was being very unreasonable in not moving. The purser said if he really needed to sit with his wife he would have him reassigned 2 seats together in the cabin he had paid for. He moved but not without passing some rather unpleasant comments under his breath throughout the flight.

Wozza2404

There was someone in my seat a couple of years ago... There's Someone In My Seat

Tobias-UK

I remember that thread, it was quite funny

Lucanesque

Fantastic thread Wozza2404

signol

Never happened to me on board a plane, but did once on Eurostar. It was either 1999 or 2000, I was a student spending a placement year in Paris. I was taking the train back after a visit home, with typical big rucksack (with rollerblades tied to the outside as it happens). I board the train to find someone in my seat. As I'm checking my ticket, he says "I hope you don't mind, I bumped into an old friend in the departure lounge, and wondered if you wouldn't mind swapping seats? No problem if not, but I think you'll like it!". Indeed, as he was in the Standard Plus carriage (the very front) - same Standard seats but free drinks and snacks etc. Needless to say I took him up on it.

signol

Lefly

Before knowing FT, I asked (we asked, me & husband) to swap seats on my first long haul ever, after having purchased at the airport check-in an upgrade to J (first time in J too!)
It was on a 767 UA flight with a 2-1-2 configuration. We were in the last row of the J cabin, one on the opposite side of each other. We took our assigned places and we agreed to politely ask to the first person arriving at the seat. The passenger from my husband side arrived first and kindly agreed to swap with me. Honestly I do not recall if it was a window o isle seat... Anyway, once happily together we decided to swap again in order to help a mother in row 1 to be closer to her kids, seated in front of us. She was talking in a worried manner with the CC and my husband went there to offer the change. Everyone happy, CC included for the quick solution.
I think after that we never asked again for a seat change, but as of today we both still offer help if someone needs a reasonable swap.

CarolynUK

henry999

These people are well known in America. In the Americano-centric fora they are referred to as Ma and Pa Kettle, after some naive country folk in a very popular series of American films from the 1940s and '50s.

I was once in 3- or 4-D and watched some Kettles get on. They inspected the seat numbers over row 2 and compared them to their BPs. Took two steps; stopped; and looked at the seat numbers over row three. Took two more steps ...

When they were next to me, I was able to see the BP in your man's hand ... and it looked like they were in row 24.

Kerchiss

MSPeconomist

It seems to me that in almost all cases, the only possible answer to the question "Would you mind swapping seats with me?" is just "Yes." If the person asking the question persists, say "Yes, I would mind." Both are factual statements and fully answer the question that was asked. There's no need to communicate further.

WickedStepMother

WickedStepMother