MSPeconomist

I push back whenever someone thinks I'm a pushover.

ATOBTTR

To play devil's advocate, even in recent years, I have seen seat duplications happen, or someone is unaware of an upgrade that may have been processed, so the figure is not "100%". That doesn't make them a "liar", especially if it's a seat duplication. I do realize the gate scanner is supposed to catch this but I've even seen that fail. I've also been the one in the seat and had someone think I was in the wrong seat as they showed me their boarding pass, only for them to realize they were looking at their seat assignment on their BP from the previous flight. Whether intentional or not, I don't know (I was on the single seat side of a CRJ-900 - the person showed me their boarding pass with "2A" but that BP was for their previous flight and on this flight, they were in 4D).

rickg523

Mistakes aren't poaching until the person having sat in the wrong seat refuses to correct himself. That's why I ask before siccing the FA on them.

charlesdemar

Well, in the spirit of what you're saying, "liar" will exist only in my head and not something I would disrespectfully say to their face - however, 99% of the time, it's not a system error (charlesdemar fact checking machine confirmed). I'm more than happy to have the FA sort it out is there was some fluke duplication thing, however, I fortunately have the liberty to buy my tickets weeks in advance as I don't do a lot of short notice travel. So, the week of flying, I'm watching that seat to see if I want to move (e.g. the weird person who for some reason takes the middle seat next to me when there are two open in a three seat row...). So, I'm pretty sure when I head to the gate, I'm in that seat a long time before that day.

MSPeconomist

There are mistakes and there are deliberate actions or blatant lies. After having someone try to tell me that it was a mistake that they sat in my FC 3A when their boarding pass said something like 42E (middle coach seat way in the back), I've become cynical about people who engage in seat poaching know what they are doing.

I also have no patience with the "all seats are the same" or "they all arrive at the same time" arguments for why they should be allowed to steal my seat.

Once a nonrev stole my seat that I had already occupied (with stuff sticking out of the back seat pocket, so it was obvious that someone had already claimed the seat) when I was using the lavatory before a long flight just so he could sit near both his wife and his college age daughter in business class. Of course he knew what he was doing.

charlesdemar

Down with this 100%. If we all get there at the same time, then, the 42E seat sound pretty comparable to the 3A seat. So, please go assume your middle seat back next to the rear bathroom so I can get my PDB and knock some emails out before I take a well deserved meal and nap since I didn't get any lunch today while presenting reviews to four relentless business units before having a mad dash to the airport with minutes to spare.

charlesdemar

Yep, I'll be honest, I've more than once after a long day sat in the wrong aisle or misread where I am based on the layout. I always feel like a horse's ... when it happens but appreciate the patience.

BenA

It happens to the best of us. It's an easy and reasonable conversation to have with most people:

"Hi, I think I'm assigned the seat you're sitting in. Would you mind double-checking your boarding pass, and I'll double-check mine as well?"

This resolves 95% of all the issues. As some have brought up, there are legitimate technical things that can happen outside of anyone's control; I was once on an Alaska flight where someone was upgraded into my seat, and it turned out it's because my ticket was hand-reissued by Korean Air and the inventory wasn't pulled properly somehow, allowing the gate system to duplicate the seat assignment. But if that happens, it's an easy "Whoa, sure enough, we both have the same seat! Let's get the flight attendant's help figuring this one out."

Nobody's a jerk in this situation until the moment they're identified as in the wrong but they refuse to do anything about it.

enviroian

I would have fired that squatter out of my seat within 0.22 microseconds.

No room in this world for scammers. 99% chance this guy knew what he was doing.

ATOBTTR

For sure. And I'm not saying I haven't witnessed plenty of funny business where other passengers truly try to "poach" a better seat and try to coax another passenger into taking a lousier seat. My favorite is always watching the exit row seats like 21A/F on DL's 737-900s or the equivalent seat on Alaska. Seen plenty of poachers try to take those. Almost certainly not an "honest mistake" in those cases. But there are plenty of instances where it's just a brain fart and honest mistake on someone's end too. I've even done it as the "C" vs "D" aisle seat and sat on the wrong side before or had someone sit on the wrong side. If it's an equivalent seat, I usually just brush it off and usually others do too. Unlike others I other don't get bothered by initially being asked to switch seats, and I have both accepted and declined seat swaps. But I also admit to having forced poachers to move after they tried to claim my seat and wanted to me to move to their seat, wherever it was.

Fair enough and that's how I always approach it. I can only recall having to get the FA involved once when a person refused to move despite their being in the wrong (my) seat. Whether the person was poaching or was an honest mistake, I don't always know. I ultimately just care that they move unless they're offering me a better seat than what my assigned seat is.

charlesdemar

All.Day.Long. I think this is where I've seen most frequent poaching happen (exit row). You could probably get away with it pretty frequently in years past before carriers starting trimming up the route frequency and planes would fly at a low capacity; I'm just shocked people try to do it in the present considering I can't recall the last time I flew on a flight at less than 90-95% capacity (pre-Covid, of course). You know you're going to get called out!! But as someone said, it's worked for them in the past so they will keep doing it.

As for seat swaps, I agree I have no problem doing that if it's an aisle and the same class; I only book aisle and rarely have issue grabbing one since I typically know my trips are coming up weeks in advance. I had a lady get ridiculously huffy with me in C+ because I didn't want her C+ window seat. Sorry, I want the aisle for a quick leg stretch time to time as well as unfettered access to the overhead/bathroom so I don't have to aggravate my seatmates. That's the seat I intentionally sought out and bought and if you want to favor trade with me to get to a different row, like for like. Her husband was in the the aisle seat across from me. So, instead she ended up offering her window seat to the guy in the middle. Which is what she should probably have done in the first place instead of making me move so you're comfortable in the aisle - you're asking someone to swap a seat which typically comes with a little sacrifice to get the result you want. I'm sure someone on here will want to fight me now, LOL.

dilbertsdaddy

prior to Covid: get the $%&^&% outta my seat!

during Covid: get the $%&^&% outta my seat!

after Covid: ?

this applies to poaching and swaps

see? back to normal discussions!!!!

MSPeconomist

I've seen potential seat poachers try to board last and then just take the first good seat that's open. I'm not sure how easily this would be detected with COVID-19 boarding procedures.

cmd320

Spoiler alert...


... everybody dies.

Global Adventurer

Not everyone. Probably close to 25 million, at least.