klm.com Doesn't Allow Party of Two to Select Aisle and Window
 

I've never seen this before. There are two of us travelling together, and I'll pick the aisle seat, then attempt to pick the window seat, but I can't. As soon as I select the aisle seat, the previously available window seat becomes unavailable. I have tried this multiple times and always get the same result.

Anyone seen this before? Any way around this besides booking separate reservations for each person?

(Booking separate reservations not worth it as I get free seat selection by virtue of my Delta Elite status but if we booked separate reservations my companion would have to pay for advance seat selection.)

Yes, this rule was implemented to prevent « row hogging » by selecting aisle and window seats for 2 pax.

I’m afraid there is no workaround if you are on the same booking.

There is a trick that has worked for me in the past on AF:
1. Passenger #1 selects window
2. Passenger #2 selects middle (as its forcing you to do)
3. Change Passenger #2 over to aisle

The coded algorithm will basically see Passenger #2 as a different passenger so it will let you pick the aisle seat that is next to it. ;)

You may need to try this on both app and website. Let me know if that worked!

Just tried on both - didn't work.

After step #2, save your seats (window + middle), go back to booking, then back to seat selection and try step #3 (switch middle for aisle).

I somehow got it to assign the aisle and middle, but it took parking one of us in a separate row temporarily.

Also, I could be wrong about this - but you have to move fast, if you do the last step immediately, it seems you can beat the block on the seat. If you wait a second or two, it's blocked.

What I just said above could be entirely wrong - as I did this multiple times in slightly different ways until it worked, so I'm not 100% certain what I did.

Now I'm worried that at some point the system will realize what I did and punish us by moving us both to middle seats.

Glad to hear it's still possible.

Won't happen, but technically someone could still pick the middle seat... ;)

Just imagine if KLM would "punish" people circumventing the system with these kinds of shenanigans. "You want to row hog? Here's middle seat hog for you!"

I think I'd laugh at it for a while.

:D:D

I have to say I never heard the phrase "row hog", AFIAK pretty much everyone who knew what they were doing would do this, and it was not considered bad form. I still don't see the problem with it frankly - whether 2 people sit aisle and window or window and center there will only be one seat left in the row. Yes, the remaining seat would be a center seat, but aisle and window seats are always the first to go.

My guess is that various idiots on TikTok started promoting this as a "travel hack" and when the technique became more ubiquitous KLM decided to end it.

The problem comes if you continue to interact with your partner across the poor soul in the middle. If you’re happy to ignore each other for the length of the flight - or offer to swap should the seat be filled - then it’s not an issue.

I think the point is that if the middle seat is filled, you ask if they want to swap.

That's certainly kinder, but I think it's fair to want window/aisle and keep those - as long as you act like complete strangers for the flight duration. Act as though the middle-seat dweller isn't there and yeah, YTA.

At that point why go through the effort of sitting in the same row?

I assume the main hope is that the middle stays free, giving pseudo-business class in European terms. It's a tad cheeky, and presumably by KLM have tried to interdict attempts at it.

I'm a window person, and would just take window-middle when travelling with my wife - at least on short haul - but some people are really keen on aisle seats [and that's ok too].