I once had the pleasure of asking the wrong person for a seat swap. I was in 2E and Mrs. ralfp was in 4F (pmUA 752). I asked the person in 3E if he would swap. He was nice enough to accept, but then Mrs. ralfp pointed out my error. The icing on the cake was that the person in 3F was already seated. :o

^ The relaxed personal space rules can make sitting next to one's SO far more comfortable.

This is why, when flying with Mrs. ralfp and cannot select adjacent seats, I try to select seats to maximize the chances for "fair" seat swaps. e.g. if Mrs. ralfp is in an aisle in a 2-2 config, I'll pick a window.

It's certainly not the end of the world if we can't be seated together, but someone else already touched on the reason it's nice when it DOES work out: The personal space issue. It's a lot more comfortable to share limited space with someone who is familiar as opposed to a stranger.

That being said, I've spent hundreds if not thousands of hours in planes next to strangers, so like I said, it's not the end of the world either way.

I'm surprised that only happened to you once. It is a very common scam to try to get you to switch into a middle seat with the excuse of, "Wouldn't you like to sit next to your friend?" Since I always pick an aisle seat, I get asked to swap all the time. And, yes, I'm tired of it. It is not like only one person, once in a while, asks. It is that I am constantly asked, probably because I'm small. I don't feel like answering the same question multiple times. The answer is "no" and, though I try to be polite, sometimes it's probably a pretty curt "no." The person asking knows -- or should know -- that they're asking you to take a bad seat, so I don't particularly care about their feelings either, since they demonstrably don't care about mine. If you want me to take a middle seat, offer me cash, don't offer me a friend I already have and found all by myself. That's just cheap, cheesy, and sleazy. OK, rant over.

Oh, and what really gets my goat is when they assume my "friend" or my "husband" is just some random middle-aged guy who happened to be put in the window seat. Guess what. I never saw that dude before. If I'm making polite conversation with him for a few minutes while waiting for a flight to board, it doesn't mean I want to sit up close and personal with him. It doesn't even mean I know him. Assumptions are odious.

+1
Between work and other obligations, I have little down time with my husband. I strongly prefer to sit with him on flights so we can have a drink together and catch up without an interruption.
We've never asked anyone to move, but on the extremely rare occasion when we have been seated separately, one of the passengers next to us has offered without any solicitation.

Not to excuse rudeness, but because it is a heck of a lot more physically comfortable to be seated next to one's spouse than next to a stranger, at least in coach. (understood that a few may disagree)

There are many reasons: some of us have been together for decades, and actually enjoy each other's company :eek:; some who are pretty busy in their lives may use the long flight to plan activities at the destination; in others, or at least our case, my spouse needs to have medication administered on a schedule, and I am the one who does that. And what schwarm said; I am much happier with my spouse's head lolling on my shoulder than most other people's. ;)

We've usually been seated together, but on the rare occasion where it has been necessary to ask others to switch (e.g. longhaul flight with two meds administrations scheduled), we do so politely and do not expect that we will take the better seats and discomfort the one(s) we may ask to change, nor do we presume to behave negatively toward them if they decline the offer.

In all instances, there's little need for me to worry myself by becoming judgmental on why people might want to or need to sit together. ;)

Just to be clear: There's no animosity about people who want to sit together. The animosity is reserved only for (1) seat poachers and (2) those who get upset when passengers refuse to switch seats to accommodate their "need."

It almost sounds like some people think it's a character flaw to want to sit together. I don't get tired of my husband's company, so why would I prefer to a stranger's? Someone once offered to switch so we could be together, but I've never asked anyone to do so. I might make the request if we weren't next to each other on a long flight, but I would never "pitch a fit" if no one wanted to swap, and I sure wouldn't offer them a worse seat.

I've had smelly people sit next to me. I've had obese people overflow into me. I've had tobacco chewers spit and stink next to me. I've had people snore next to me. I've had people fall asleep and lean on me.

I'm pretty comfortable that my wife won't do any of these. I'd much rather have a known commodity sit next to me. We can discuss plans for the week, talk about our next vacation, discuss what up at the house, etc. It's extremely rare that a random stranger has as much in common to discuss.

Co-workers - that's a different question. They can sit anywhere.

Note, the poster wrote "we both said..." In other words, one of the passengers was male and the other was female. The male half of the duo said “no thanks, I’m spending enough time with her over the next week”. The female half of the duo said, “no thanks, I’m spending enough time with him over the next week”.

My husband and I run a small business together, and we travel a lot for work. On short, daytime flights we prefer to sit next to each other so that we can run through last minute preparations before we get to wherever we're going. On long haul flights we prefer to sit together simply because it's more comfortable snoozing next to someone you know :)

We usually reserve seats on booking. If we can't reserve seats we check in early to try to get seats next to each other. So far, we've never had to ask someone to swap (although have been asked to swap many times so a family can sit together, and asked by other couples that for some reason assumed we weren't together).

If we weren't able to get seats together, I think we would ask if someone would swap, but if that person said no, that's fair enough. I figure there's no harm in asking, but wouldn't expect a yes.

I like to sit together because my husband could be deployed and away from me at any time, for months at a time. When he is home, he works 60+ hours a week. Why on earth wouldn't I want to be near him when I have the chance?

That being said, the only time we would have a chance of not being seated together is it we were upgraded. I always book Y seats together - doesn't everyone? :confused:

And I'd never switch with someone who wanted to separate us.

I consider myself lucky that my spouse and I, after 12 years of being a couple, are still as giddy and head-over-heels in love with each other as the day we realized that we were, indeed, in love.

When we travel, as much as we hate the middle seat, one of us will take it to be next to the other. I find the discomfort of the middle seat completely bearable when I am able to lift the armrest and hold hands with my best friend and soulmate.

Yes, I am the hopeless romantic. No, I don't want to get away from my spouse because we have lots of other times we are together.

I guess I am one of those rare birds that finds that having my better half along for the ride is what makes the ride that much better.

I'd rather sit next to a known element (the person I am traveling with and I like) than some annoying, obnoxious, pretentious person with personal hygiene problems, or a runny nose, or who has to pee every 20 minutes, or who doesn't understand that my space is my space and their gut hanging over the armrest is annoying to me.

Lets not even get into sitting next to the mother with a crying baby on her lap for the entire flight.

The known > The unknown when it comes to air travel for me.

I don't think it's animosity just because people want to sit together. Despite my earlier facetious post, I prefer to sit with my partner. I think the animosity occurs when people poach seats or try to reorganise the cabin to accommodate them, and particularly when they get huffy if they can't get their own way. Personally I would never ask a stranger to move for me just so I could travel with a friend/family member. I try my best to get the seats I want prior to boarding the aircraft, and if something I can't control separates us during the process, well that's just tough.

(Edit: I posted this before I saw #22 - apologies for saying exactly the same thing but with less eloquence!)