How do you handle someone sitting in your seat when you board?
Nov 16, 2017, 7:24 pm
#691
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: MSP
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Somewhere in your profile (at least on Delta) there's a way to indicate whether you prefer aisle or window seats. So if the GA knew someone preferred window, they'd apologize if only aisle were left.
Nov 23, 2017, 5:41 am
#692
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Olde Dominion
Programs: DL Silver - uh huh!
Posts: 948
Data point from this morning: I’m in 10A on an American Eagle CRJ and hear someone behind me asking to see someone else’s boarding pass. This starts a cascade effect that ends with the guy sitting in 11C revealing his BP is for 9A.
I guess he wanted an aisle. He ended up moving to his assigned seat.
I guess he wanted an aisle. He ended up moving to his assigned seat.
Apr 25, 2018, 9:17 pm
#693
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Denver, CO USA
Programs: UA GS 3Million, Marriott/SPG LIFETIME Platinum - current Titanium, HHonors Diamond
Posts: 633
Etiquette if I swap seats...
People need an etiquette lesson for seat swaps - especially those in first.
1. Always make sure to tell the FA you’re not in your original seat. I don’t want you getting my benefits and being called by my name
2. Always offer drink and food choices to the person who gave up their seat - if they’re behind you.
3. Just ask. Don’t make excuses about how the airline jerked you around. Honestly, it’s the best policy.
4. Say thank you - twice. Once when I swap and when I get off the plane
Don’t forget, karma’s a harsh mistress. It might come around and bite you.
1. Always make sure to tell the FA you’re not in your original seat. I don’t want you getting my benefits and being called by my name
2. Always offer drink and food choices to the person who gave up their seat - if they’re behind you.
3. Just ask. Don’t make excuses about how the airline jerked you around. Honestly, it’s the best policy.
4. Say thank you - twice. Once when I swap and when I get off the plane
Don’t forget, karma’s a harsh mistress. It might come around and bite you.
Apr 27, 2018, 5:20 pm
#695
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: RNO
Programs: AA/DL/UA
Posts: 10,775
People need an etiquette lesson for seat swaps - especially those in first.
1. Always make sure to tell the FA you’re not in your original seat. I don’t want you getting my benefits and being called by my name
2. Always offer drink and food choices to the person who gave up their seat - if they’re behind you.
3. Just ask. Don’t make excuses about how the airline jerked you around. Honestly, it’s the best policy.
4. Say thank you - twice. Once when I swap and when I get off the plane
Don’t forget, karma’s a harsh mistress. It might come around and bite you.
1. Always make sure to tell the FA you’re not in your original seat. I don’t want you getting my benefits and being called by my name
2. Always offer drink and food choices to the person who gave up their seat - if they’re behind you.
3. Just ask. Don’t make excuses about how the airline jerked you around. Honestly, it’s the best policy.
4. Say thank you - twice. Once when I swap and when I get off the plane
Don’t forget, karma’s a harsh mistress. It might come around and bite you.
May 1, 2018, 9:07 pm
#699
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May 2, 2018, 12:35 am
#700
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada, USA, Europe
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 31,452
May 2, 2018, 1:16 am
#701
Moderator: Manufactured Spending
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,580
I have only seen this happen one time in all my years of flying. A man was refusing to move to an equivalent seat in order to allow a couple to sit together. I believe one of the members of the couple may have had health issues but I am not sure. He loudly declared that it was not his problem and they should have planned better, and when attempts by other passengers to convince him to cooperate were unsuccessful, the FA came and told him that he could either move or be escorted off the flight. He finally relented, huffing and puffing and complaining about their bad planning for the rest of the flight.
May 14, 2018, 1:01 pm
#702
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 765
Legally speaking, your seat assignment is not part of your contract with the airline and can be changed by the airline, or its authorized agent, at any time. Most seating issues can be worked out through voluntary changes, so it would be rare for an FA to force you to move to another seat without your approval, but it can happen.
I have only seen this happen one time in all my years of flying. A man was refusing to move to an equivalent seat in order to allow a couple to sit together. I believe one of the members of the couple may have had health issues but I am not sure. He loudly declared that it was not his problem and they should have planned better, and when attempts by other passengers to convince him to cooperate were unsuccessful, the FA came and told him that he could either move or be escorted off the flight. He finally relented, huffing and puffing and complaining about their bad planning for the rest of the flight.
I have only seen this happen one time in all my years of flying. A man was refusing to move to an equivalent seat in order to allow a couple to sit together. I believe one of the members of the couple may have had health issues but I am not sure. He loudly declared that it was not his problem and they should have planned better, and when attempts by other passengers to convince him to cooperate were unsuccessful, the FA came and told him that he could either move or be escorted off the flight. He finally relented, huffing and puffing and complaining about their bad planning for the rest of the flight.
May 14, 2018, 2:15 pm
#704
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: ORD
Posts: 14,231
Happened to me last Thursday for the first time, actually. There was a lot of back and forth at the gate - flight was delayed various times, I got rebooked on a different flight, and then the original one was no longer delayed 3 hours so I got back on it (but in a different seat). I was given a window seat towards the back. When I got there, there was an older lady already there. I asked to see her bp, thinking that maybe in the confusion they had assigned the same seat twice. She said that she'd originally been a few rows back, but "the lady up front" told her this seat was free and she could sit there because her bp was for the middle seat and she doesn't want a middle seat.
Thinking I'd just have the FA sort it out, since she was presumably the "lady up front", I asked her to help. She told the poacher in no uncertain terms she hadn't told her she could sit in the window seat and she'd have to move. The lady then asked "which window seat will you put me in then?". At that point, I decided I would rather sit in a middle seat next to a happy lady than in a window seat next to a grumpy lady, so I said I'd take the middle and it wasn't a big deal. The FA thanked me and said once boarding was complete she'd find another window for me. I said thanks, it's not a big deal.
I wound up being in the middle for the entire flight (I think the FA forgot, or the flight was totally full). The lady gave me a candy. I ordered a cocktail. The FA (different one) asked if I wanted one vodka or two. The bro who was in the aisle looked at me and said, "two, of course". I agreed. She only charged me for one.
It was fine. Like a friend of mine is wont to say, don't sweat the small stuff.
Thinking I'd just have the FA sort it out, since she was presumably the "lady up front", I asked her to help. She told the poacher in no uncertain terms she hadn't told her she could sit in the window seat and she'd have to move. The lady then asked "which window seat will you put me in then?". At that point, I decided I would rather sit in a middle seat next to a happy lady than in a window seat next to a grumpy lady, so I said I'd take the middle and it wasn't a big deal. The FA thanked me and said once boarding was complete she'd find another window for me. I said thanks, it's not a big deal.
I wound up being in the middle for the entire flight (I think the FA forgot, or the flight was totally full). The lady gave me a candy. I ordered a cocktail. The FA (different one) asked if I wanted one vodka or two. The bro who was in the aisle looked at me and said, "two, of course". I agreed. She only charged me for one.
It was fine. Like a friend of mine is wont to say, don't sweat the small stuff.
May 14, 2018, 2:20 pm
#705
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Join Date: Feb 2003
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What happened? It sounds like the guy was either a stowaway or had fraudulently assumed your identity to fly or he was totally on the wrong plane, but somehow had gotten your travel documents. [Did you lose your boarding pass etc. at some point and have it reprinted? Or could you have had multiple copies and misplaced one set? Could your FF account have been hacked, thereby permitting him to print the boarding pass?] I would have expected airport security and more to be very concerned and insist on investigating before letting him go.
The more I think about your story, the more I'm amazed that I've never observed airline personnel of airport officials/security staff ask for photo ID when there's a case of duplicate boarding passes or even appear to look beyond the seat assignments at passenger names and other details.
The more I think about your story, the more I'm amazed that I've never observed airline personnel of airport officials/security staff ask for photo ID when there's a case of duplicate boarding passes or even appear to look beyond the seat assignments at passenger names and other details.
On the day I flew out of CPT there was a huge power outage, it affected almost the whole city and the airport too. My guess is that boarding passes were pre-printed for all passengers and this guy probably asked for 1A and was given my pre-printed boarding pass (I had checked in online) and nobody had paid much attention because the airport was in complete chaos. Checked bags were being searched by flashlight in the check-in area, lines were almost out of the terminal, etc.
I am not sure how he got through exit immigration, security or the gate but it happened. I'm thinking in the chaos of everything people weren't paying full attention.
When I was seated and the flight attendant or whoever it was came up to me and asked to see the boarding pass I assumed they reckoned this 22yr old was trying to steal the seat of this guy in his 60s so I did show my passport with the boarding pass I was given at check-in and nothing else was said.