"Sharing" business class seat
 

My family is booked for a EWR-TLV flight, sitting directly behind business. I could upgrade my seat and get one business class seat. How do you and CO view switching seats for whichever family member needs it? We would get an aisle, hopefully right in front of our seats and try to keep switching to a minimum. Mrs. is expecting and we are trying to make it as comfortable as possible. Thanks.

Personally, since the Mrs. is expecting, I would let her have the seat. You can usually do one switch, but it's not particularly viewed with open arms by the FAs. I would speak with the FAs in advance and see how open they are to it.

I've never experienced internationally, but on domestic flights baglady jr. and I have been up front Mr. Baglady has been in the back a couple of times and I've had him come up take care of baglady jr. while using the facilities and the FAs have been fine with that but communication with the FAs is what is important.

I flew TLV-EWR on Monday. In the second BusinessFirst cabin there was a family that had some people seated in business and some in coach. They were moving between cabins (not sure of frequency) and twice during the flight the pilot announced that people need to stay in their assigned cabin due to FAA (I think that was it) regulations.

I've done this twice with my husband without any issues. In both cases we told the flight attendant we were going to do it. Ideally, we would get 2 BF seats, but often it's not possible/available as awards or upgrades from Y fares, no matter how hard we try. So, we take what we can get and share if necessary.

It is not against FAA rules, and as a matter of fact, there's a section in the FA policy & procedures manual discussing it and that it's allowed.

You're going to see a lot of people discussing the "integrity" of the BF cabin. Well, both times I did it the small children in BF did more to disrupt the integrity of the cabin than anything my husband or I did when we switched seats.

Here's a link to my original thread. I believe you will find the notation in the P&P manual in it (I think it's chapter 1 page 36 or something).

http://web4.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=526337

I really hope the original poster is being facetious. This is not the official airline view, but a view of a potential fellow passenger:

1. It's inconsiderate to the passengers in both cabins to be getting up unnecessarily.

2. To even consider letting a pregnant wife sit in coach for any length of time if a BF seat is available for one person in the party explains the lack of consideration for point #1.

Except it's allowed.

Is it? Or do you need to be more tolerant?

The list of inconsiderate things that one person can do to another is very very long. I think a little tolerance is called for in this case. Obviously, it's a case-by-case basis. You can switch seats and be considerate, or switch seats and be an ....

But, I do agree - give the seat to the pregnant lady.

i am not a fan of people that have a problem with it. it's no skin off your apple or my apple or anyone else's apple. how is it even distracting? :confused: :td: :rolleyes:

Uh its downright annoying when people constantly switch, and I thought passengers had to stay in their ticketed cabin. As Jerry Seinfeld said, "That curtain is no protection, there really should be a locking door.":)

I would give her the seat wheels up to wheels down. No switching! :D

I think the issue is moot, as the OP should just give the seat to his pregnant wife. She's pregnant, for gosh sakes; just get one J seat for her and tough it out in coach for 13 hours.

If the "switchers" are on an aisle seat and quietly swap seats without moving carry-on bags, I don't see how changing seats could be considered annoying. Unless they announce to the BF cabin "Hey folks, we're switching over here!" I doubt few would take note. Sounds like a bunch of silly snobbery to me.

I wouldn't be surprised if, after telling the FA that you're giving up your BF seat to your pregnant wife, the FA let you occupy an empty BF seat (if available) for awhile.

I doubt there will be any empty J seats, as the OP is flying EWR-TLV. In any case, I doubt they would let the OP occupy a BF seat because his wife is pregnant. Otherwise, women would just pretend they were pregnant to try to snag an empty J seat for their husbands on a regular basis. :p

Appreciate the discussion.
Actually, the one she would be switching with would not be me, rather one of the kids. She might be needed in back to take care of them.
The mitigating factor here is that we would take an aisle in the last row in BF and we have the next rows right behind. So we really wouldn't be bothering too much. Or maybe we would.