MSPeconomist

So the poacher was trying to steal FC too? WOW! I hope the person was suitably embarrassed and publicly shamed by both your and your seatmate.

CJKatl

Seat swapping story: After most of SKY boarded I got cleared from the SB list and put into 14C, the first row after C+. A jerk sitting in 13C wearing a pair of large, cheap headphones was reclining as everyone boarded, making it difficult to board row 14. He refused to put his seat into the upright position for even a second. This, hmm, made me nervous and caused some non-stop leg twitching on my part? He complained to the guy in 13A who told him the leg twitching would probably stop if his seat went back up for now. About that time, 14B shows up. She is a spry but elderly woman, who volunteers to climb up on my seat to get to hers because she cannot walk on the floor past the reclined seat. She is a very nice, if slightly eccentric woman, who tells me she is traveling with a relative name Charlotte, but they couldn't get seats together. Needing to remove myself from this situation for everyone's sake, I volunteer to swap seats with Charlotte, even if it is to a middle seat. It turned out to be a window seat. Anyway, once everyone boards, with the okay of the FA, I go back to Row 26, find Charlotte and let her in on the plan. She gets up and whispers in my ear, "I'll switch with you, but I purposely chose these seats so that my cousin and I wouldn't be sitting next to each other!" Turns out the cousin is a nervous flyer and Charlotte did not want to deal with that during the flight.

lbcnu

On a flight from MSP to MCI this week, I boarded with my 2A boarding pass only to find someone sitting in 2A. When I showed him my BP and asked if he also had 2A he replied, "I'm in 2B and that's by the window. Your seat is the aisle and I want to sit by the window." Since it was a short flight I didn't make a big deal of it. When we were deplaning I noticed the PM tags on his backpack. It surprised me that a PM would try to pretend he didn't know the difference between an A and a B seat!

MSPeconomist

Didn't he realize that most elites prefer aisles? It would usually be easy to get someone to swap a window seat in FC for a FC non bulkhead aisle.

Howste

His "playing dumb" act was quite convincing. Most of his communication was non-verbal. I got the impression that English was not his first language. Once he moved on I didn't pay attention to him, but wouldn't be surprised if he tried the same thing in C+.

MSPeconomist

Selective incomprehension of English: his English was apparently good enough to ask your seatmate whether he could have your seat.

Howste

I suspect that a foreign accent and a (practiced) confused look may get some wins now and then.

xolinlevh

Boarding my LAX-JFK last as I was hoping for a no show so my ruc would clear. Alas no. As I arrive to my bulkhead C+ seat 13F there's a woman settled in. Feet up on the bulkhead. She pays me no attention as I obviously stand there holding my ticket staring at her. After a few moments I let her know she's in my seat. She says nothing but shakes her head and flashes her ticket at me. She's in the wrong seat. E not F, just across the aisle. I let her know that and she remains silent as she just stares at me. Rather then rip into her about how a woman her age should be able to read I just say "I'll take your seat then" and settle in. Not a word from her as she goes back to poking away at her phone.

SusanDK

You are too kind. I would have wanted her to move for no other reason than her attitude. Although I'm sure the world is a better place for your taking the higher road. Well done and thank you for helping keep flight travel a friendlier place even if she most likely did not appreciate it.

xolinlevh

I really wished I had been more assertive this morning upon our arrival into New York. As I stood up to get ready to deplane she shoved past me and wormed her way halfway through DeltaOne to be one of the first off.

nikitta28

Funny I caved the other day too and actually gave up 2c for 1d which I would never, ever do. Not sure what came over me. Maybe some holiday spirit : )

KDCAflyer

I'm not nearly as kind. If someone is in the seat assigned to me, they're moving (unless we have the same assignment, then the GA gets to have fun sorting it out).

nikitta28

This woman was kicking it pretty hard to the man in the window seat, figured I'd let her have a go at it. And, she pretty much begged me to stay in the seat.

LegalTender

I had a woman offer me $100 to switch seats. I agreed.

Fumbling through her bag, she asked if we could settle up at at ATM when we got to SEA. No, absolutely not.

She whined for maybe ten minutes.

nikitta28

That's a creepy interaction