Selecting Seats
 

I thought I read a seat selection strategy here, but now I cannot find it. The strategy was that when selecting seats for a couple, one should take the window and the second the aisle, leaving the center seat vacant. If the flight should be full and someone is assigned to the center seat, the person in the aisle seat can just shift to the center seat. I cannot imagine anyone being unhappy to switch from the center seat to the aisle seat (unless people are afraid to sit in an aisle do to things falling on their heads, but that is another thread). If the flight is not full an open center seat will discourage more people from selecting the seat than will an open aisle seat. The goal, of course, is to leave the center seat empty.

I recently did all of our seat selections using this strategy and my husband is very unhappy with me because he thinks it is duplicitous or something. I am not sure why. He will not have to move because he always has the window seat.

Is this a breach of flying etiquette? I guess I can try to go back and change our seat selections.

Actually my wife and I use a similar strategy hoping that on a non-full flight the center seat will remain empty. However on a longer flight, even if the center seat is assigned, we keep our originally assigned seats (aisle for me; window for her). It is just more comfortable that way. Sometimes the center seat person offers to trade, but we thank him and decline.

So would it be inappropriate to at least offer to take the middle seat? I do not mind the center seat, and kind of like to be able to reach my husband without someone between us.

Nothing wrong with that. The middle seat person would probably love to trade.

Personally I prefer to lean in front of the middle seat person to chat with my wife...JUST KIDDING! :)

I'm sensing that DLFan2 has been married longer than flyingfran. :D

I find that a stranger in the middle seat will act as a buffer to decrease fighting between me and the SO :D

Could be, but flyingfran is older than I am. ;)

My wife and I actually enjoy sitting next to each other.

I know, shocking.

I often give my BP to my wife when traveling together and I get an upgrade. That puts us even farther apart! (Even more shocking!)

Really?! We have talked about it and would both rather sit together in Coach then have one of us in First, even if it was her.

Hey...I love my wife and I love sitting with her. But riding up front is a treat for both of us, especially for her since she flies less than I do and does not have status. And if we are sitting together (and I will say that if there are only two seats on a side like on a CRJ or MD88 or 767, we'll always select those over an aisle/window with an open middle seat), we tend to read rather than try to talk over the noise, forcing others to "enjoy" our conversation. Besides, we are together constantly when we are not flying, so a "separation" of a couple of hours is no big deal.

DON'T CHANGE. Let him pout all he wants in his window seat. Be comfortable.

We both read and talk... there is such a thing as talking without screaming. It works too. The "noise" inside a plane isn't so deafening that you need to scream for others to here it... (unless you're in the last 5 rows of an MD-88 or MD-90)

I like to sit with my wife and you'd rather not. To each their own.

Misinterpreting what I am saying? I think so.

I prefer to sit with my wife, but in certain situations it is OK not to, especially if I can vicariously pamper her by letting her sit up front.

The other strategy is to select two aisle seats across from each other so that you will both be comfortable and there is no seat between you. This does still allow you to have conversation pretty easily. I have done this when I was pretty sure the flight was going to be full since neither me nor the wife wants to deal with the middle seat.