PrimaVista

nivsy

And can't blame them playing that game...we all do that one don't we if travelling as two for a row of three? 😁

TonyHancock

This situation is not helped by some BA crew members not knowing where seats are from my experience. I have lost count of the times I have been taken to the wrong seat when boarding (Including 1A) or arrive at my seat to find someone else has been incorrectly taken to it by a crew member. I just go straight to my seat now and wait for the crew member to find me after they have wandered about the cabin. It happens about 20% of the time and my assumption is that the greeter on the door can't leave the door so grabs the first available crew member who may or may not be familiar with the F cabin. it is all part of the charm of BA and usually results in smiles all around.

Lefly

Err... no

itsmeitisss

Ryanair have allocated seating now.

I have genuinely sat in the incorrect seat before travelling with a colleague and looked at the row from the incorrect angle. Has happened the other way too. When I find someone has made the same mistake, I tell them it's fine to stay where they are. The weirdest one I had was someone who was sitting in my colleagues seat that had to be threatened with offloading before he would sit with the person he was travelling with

adrianlondon

I'm sure there's been at least one thread on this particular topic here already. But yes, not everyone but we do when flying economy long haul. Sometimes it works (I usually book far back in the hopes "our" middle seat doesn't get allocated), sometimes it doesn't. So far, when it hasn't worked the person in the middle has always been willing to swap to the aisle seat (which is the one we offer them).

If, one day, they don't want to move then that's also no problem. It's their seat after all and it just means we lost our gamble this time. Plus, in reality, a few hours in my own little world watching TV etc is fine; I'd never chat with my partner over the middle seat person - that's be rude.

xPositor

Only time I've had someone in my seat was when flying WTP. Politely said to the chap "sorry, I think you're in my seat" whilst holding out my boarding pass. He got his pass out, and we both had the same seat number. Off we go to find a member of cabin crew, who when checking their system said "Ah, Mr Xp, we've upgraded you to club - follow me please". Little shrug to the other fellow, and off I went!

BarneyMcGrew

Very strangely on in AA Domestic Business Class last month, I had aisle seat 3B. I quickly realised that the lady in 3A (window) was travelling with the chap sat in 3E (just across the aisle).

I offered to either swap with the chap in 3E, so they could sit together in 3A&B, or swap with the lady in 3A, so they could chat across the aisle.

They declined both, but then continued to chat across both me and the aisle, which I found a bit odd to say the least.

Fortunately it was only a short hop from ABQ to DFW and I had my Bose earphones on.

BM

HIDDY

If cabin crew are reluctant to assist in situations like this just ask to speak to the captain.

flyer_tom

We had something similar, but not the same, a few weeks ago on the way from TRN -> LGW.

We'd just done a B2B there so the crew recognised us and upon sitting down in our seats they said that as we were the only people in club, we could sit elsewhere if we'd prefer. (Sat in 1A and 1C which I didn't release at the time are straight onto the aircraft door - so lots of legroom but not so pleasant during boarding!) We took their offer and moved to 1D and and 1F which were much better. (As an aside the crew were fabulous on these flights - I particularly loved their "welcome back to all our customers and VERY frequent fliers" whit during the announcement".

Then two gentlemen sat in a couple of the other seats next to one another. The CSM (or CSD - I loose track and forget!) then approached them and asked to see their boarding cards to which they responded that "well we're not supposed to sit here but they're the same seats aren't they" and "go on just let us sit here". They were pretty persistent but eventually they realised they weren't going to get away with it. I must admit it was the first time I've come across anything like that!

World Traveller Fuss

Definitely had this with couples before - eyeing up pair of seats by the window I'm sat in. "Excuse me, any chance you could move". A polite but firm "No, I specifically booked the window".

BOH

i seem to have this problem with my seat being occupied quite a few times, I would say 2-3 times a year out of about 25-30 flights. I reckon it is because:

1. I always board right at the end of the process (mild claustrophobia means I want to spend as little time as possible on the plane).
2. 99% of the time I have the exit aisle seat. This probably means towards the end of boarding, someone starts to think that extra legroom seat is free and decides to bag it before someone else does.

But apart from this week, everyone I have mentioned to that they are in my seat has been very apologetic and got up straight away once I arrived. No one so far has been so aggressive as the bloke a few days ago. So there is probably a rational explanation but no excuse for the aggressiveness...

Badenoch

The OP handled it well including not giving into the temptation to respond to eff off. Once the interloper is gone, you have you seat and further interaction is not required.

My approach is slightly different. Mistakes do happen and sometimes a person gets into the wrong seat by accident. Should I find someone in my assigned seat, I show them my boarding pass and they have once chance to leave. Any disagreement or debate and the call button is pushed and the FA can help sort it out. I suspect in the original post had an FA been involved the moron would have been more polite. Telling an FA to eff off can result in one being taken off the plane.

DoctorCopper

dddc

I noticed the couple in front of me were in the same row as we waited to board my recent flight to HKG on Cathay, but on the RHS whereas we were in the central column. Wasn't until later in the flight that I clocked them sitting one in the aisle seat and one in the window seat with a very annoyed oriental granny sitting between them. I'm guess they either liked window and aisle seats or failed to persuade the granny to change seats!!

I had thought about playing the "leave the middle seat free" game, but it was a full flight so those checking in late would have had little choice.