Will You Switch Seats with my Husband?
Nov 5, 2017, 8:27 am
#241
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Ontario, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan, IHG, Enterprise, Avios, Nexus
Posts: 8,355
So I was watching Mindhunter (good show BTW - Netflix allows you to download episodes for offline viewing on the plane)
Anyways, at one point the two FBI agents are confronted by a man with a ticket for the middle seat. One of them (somewhat rudely and dismissively) says he wants to talk his partner, and that the man can have the aisle.
The man doesn't seem annoyed but insists on using his assigned seat.
What would you FT do in this situation?
Personally I'd be a little annoyed by the demeanor (telling rather than asking) but an aisle is an aisle.
Anyways, at one point the two FBI agents are confronted by a man with a ticket for the middle seat. One of them (somewhat rudely and dismissively) says he wants to talk his partner, and that the man can have the aisle.
The man doesn't seem annoyed but insists on using his assigned seat.
What would you FT do in this situation?
Personally I'd be a little annoyed by the demeanor (telling rather than asking) but an aisle is an aisle.
Nov 5, 2017, 9:20 am
#242
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,310
Although I prefer a window seat, hubby and I always pick 2 adjacent aisle seats if the plane is a 3-3 (or worse) configuration. On a recent flight, the guy in one of the middle seats figured out that we were together and kindly offered to switch with one of us "if we wanted to sit together" (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the smelly drunk sitting in the window seat next to him). I could actually see the hope in his eyes that maybe he had found a solution to what would undoubtedly be 4.5 hours of personal hell. Still, there was no way I was voluntarily putting myself in that position.
Nov 5, 2017, 1:37 pm
#243
Join Date: Apr 2015
Programs: AA Gold, Enterprise PLT, Marriott Gold
Posts: 604
It's very simple to me, if you are already sitting in my seat I almost always can tell if you are genuine or you are playing dumb. Sometimes it happens, I had an older gentlemen likely in his 80's in my seat 8F on a CRJ7 recently. When I told him he was in my seat he seemed confused, and I actually saw his boarding pass he pulled out that was in fact 8F on an earlier flt he took somewhere to CLT. He was going to move but I told him not to worry about it, there are no middles and it was an hour flight and I was simply going home. Had it been someone who was just being ignorant, I'd have given them the boot.
I do not feel the slightest bit of guilt when asked to move if I do not wish to. If you are asking me to take a crappy seat for my good seat, I will decline, if you get all mad, I could care less, back on go my wireless Bose headphones. If you ask me to make a switch and it greatly favors me, I will even ask "Are you sure?" I had someone offer their aisle MCE seat recently for my regular aisle seat. I told him he was losing the legroom, but they did not mind.
Nobody should ever feel bad declining, even it's a reasonably fair trade, you don't know their reasons and they should not have to give you theres. If you want to trade someone 12C on a CRJ7 but they have 9C and they decline, they are not obligated to do it even if it appears a fairly even swap. Perhaps they have a tight connection and ever bit closer could help.
I do not feel the slightest bit of guilt when asked to move if I do not wish to. If you are asking me to take a crappy seat for my good seat, I will decline, if you get all mad, I could care less, back on go my wireless Bose headphones. If you ask me to make a switch and it greatly favors me, I will even ask "Are you sure?" I had someone offer their aisle MCE seat recently for my regular aisle seat. I told him he was losing the legroom, but they did not mind.
Nobody should ever feel bad declining, even it's a reasonably fair trade, you don't know their reasons and they should not have to give you theres. If you want to trade someone 12C on a CRJ7 but they have 9C and they decline, they are not obligated to do it even if it appears a fairly even swap. Perhaps they have a tight connection and ever bit closer could help.
Nov 5, 2017, 2:36 pm
#244
Join Date: Nov 2011
Posts: 149
Always always always always demand to see the requestors boarding pass.
It demonstrates that you are not going to take them at their word. If they are pulling a fast one on you, you will know right away. If they say they don't have it or it's hidden away in their bag or they suddenly act like sovereign citizens and indignantly claim they don't have to show you their damn bp...then decline the swap. They DO have it..but it proves that they are in the middle by the lavs or are non-revs.
If they are not pulling a fast one and actually offering like for like, then you will know it right away. They should have no problem showing it to you.
You would be amazed how many times this little act of verification flushes out the sneaky ones. Last summer I had a very odd interaction with a couple. It was IAH to SAN, UA. I had just gotten off the GRU-IAH flight and was exhausted. I get to my E+ Aisle seat and there is a guy in it.
He asked to switch to sit next to his GF in the middle. He says he was in an "aisle seat" a few rows up. I ask to see the BP..he shows me, but keeps part of it folded over..he was trying to hide the NRSA line on the BP. It didn't work, I could see it so I knew he was a non-rev. Worse, the BP he showed actually had him in the middle seat, not the aisle as he claimed.
Suddenly his story changed...now he admitted it was a middle, but he had arranged with the guy in the aisle to take the middle so really he had the aisle. I looked up at the row in question..the middle was empty..not the aisle. Someone was sitting in the seat he said he arranged to have.
At this point I was already committed to NO. Honestly, I was going to say no from the second I saw him sitting in my seat as I was boarding..it was a poach. Poachers get the boot instantly..not sure why I asked to see the bp. I guess I was just tired. But as he lied about where his seat was and was not only a non-rev, but a non-rev who tried to hide it because he knew the rules, I said no and took my rightful seat.
His GF gave me a sarcastic "Thanks alot". Then she began chatting with the guy in the window. She even placed her UA badge on the tray table and began telling the guy how she was a UA FA and that her BF, the guy who poached my seat, was a WN employee and that they were flying non-rev.
Yeah, I made sure I let UA know about that as soon as I got off the plane. I even mentioned it to the station sup at SAN.
Another incident involved a poacher in my emerge exit aisle seat who claimed we must have been given duplicate BP's. To verify, I asked to see his. He claimed he left the whole BP at the scanner when boarding. So I got the FA, and he told her the same thing. She asked for his name, left, came back a few minutes later with his BP...for 22B.
Always demand to see the BP, or say no.
It demonstrates that you are not going to take them at their word. If they are pulling a fast one on you, you will know right away. If they say they don't have it or it's hidden away in their bag or they suddenly act like sovereign citizens and indignantly claim they don't have to show you their damn bp...then decline the swap. They DO have it..but it proves that they are in the middle by the lavs or are non-revs.
If they are not pulling a fast one and actually offering like for like, then you will know it right away. They should have no problem showing it to you.
You would be amazed how many times this little act of verification flushes out the sneaky ones. Last summer I had a very odd interaction with a couple. It was IAH to SAN, UA. I had just gotten off the GRU-IAH flight and was exhausted. I get to my E+ Aisle seat and there is a guy in it.
He asked to switch to sit next to his GF in the middle. He says he was in an "aisle seat" a few rows up. I ask to see the BP..he shows me, but keeps part of it folded over..he was trying to hide the NRSA line on the BP. It didn't work, I could see it so I knew he was a non-rev. Worse, the BP he showed actually had him in the middle seat, not the aisle as he claimed.
Suddenly his story changed...now he admitted it was a middle, but he had arranged with the guy in the aisle to take the middle so really he had the aisle. I looked up at the row in question..the middle was empty..not the aisle. Someone was sitting in the seat he said he arranged to have.
At this point I was already committed to NO. Honestly, I was going to say no from the second I saw him sitting in my seat as I was boarding..it was a poach. Poachers get the boot instantly..not sure why I asked to see the bp. I guess I was just tired. But as he lied about where his seat was and was not only a non-rev, but a non-rev who tried to hide it because he knew the rules, I said no and took my rightful seat.
His GF gave me a sarcastic "Thanks alot". Then she began chatting with the guy in the window. She even placed her UA badge on the tray table and began telling the guy how she was a UA FA and that her BF, the guy who poached my seat, was a WN employee and that they were flying non-rev.
Yeah, I made sure I let UA know about that as soon as I got off the plane. I even mentioned it to the station sup at SAN.
Another incident involved a poacher in my emerge exit aisle seat who claimed we must have been given duplicate BP's. To verify, I asked to see his. He claimed he left the whole BP at the scanner when boarding. So I got the FA, and he told her the same thing. She asked for his name, left, came back a few minutes later with his BP...for 22B.
Always demand to see the BP, or say no.