RRDD, that article was unintentionally hilarious. cohen "always paid for a full-fare first-class seat" and is complaining about seat-swap requests from people who "are often upgrades to first class traveling on cheaper coach fares." sorry to break it to you, mr. firster-than-first class, but there's only one first class.

this topic comes up pretty often. there is no special rule: everyone is entitled to ask to change seats, but no one is entitled to insist on one. and separated couples should remember that they have two choices for which seat to offer in trade, and offering the better one is more likely to be well-received than offering the worse (e.g., when i was upgraded and separated from my spouse, i happily gave up my F seat to be next to my spouse in coach).

LOL :D

Hey, if I can still accrue miles in that situation I'm game.

There is no animosity towards people wanting to sit together. It's just towards those wanting others to move to a less preferred seatthat's the issue.
Why "+1" There is clearly no animosity towards people wanting to sit together.

You nor the airline may ask what special training he might have had. ;) We don't know if he he can or cannot lay at her feet.
I hope someone doesn't get all bent out of shape about emotional support animals and go on a tangent, "are you a qualified medical professional?"
I hope you are not offended Mr FlyingRabbit. My apologies in advance for a little fun.

+1. One more reason is that often we are sharing a carryon bag with books, magazines, snacks etc.


I would not ask someone to switch seats with me, but given the personal space issue, I will admit to being mildly annoyed by people travelling together who take aisle/window of a 3-across row.

Eek, I have a stalker!

Yaatri, I will admit that my husband is quite a sparkler - so maybe I CAN fly him as my emotional support animal.

For the same reason as above....
 

...if I'm sitting in cattle I am in close proximity to someone I'd prefer it to be my wife.
Also at 5'7" and 120 lbs she doesn't take up much width so I can encroach on her space.
When sitting in J it depends, if old timey J seats I still prefer since I can ask her to put down the shade etc.
On pods I could care less.

Yuck!
Of course he is. You should try that. Who knows! It might work.

The want to sit with your family SO is natural and well accepted.
Also the want to not want to switch from a preferred may be justified.

I would not subject a stranger in the middle seat to interaction between me and my companion sitting on aisle and window or two aisle seats in the mid section of a wide-body.

I have booked two windows and two aisle for my family in the hopes of having a middle seat free. If someone is seated in the middle seat we switch them so that we don't have to keep them sandwiched between us. I think it's rude to carry on your exchanges over the middle seat person.

My question is, why aren't all these couples and families booking seats together? I do.

Birds of a feather flock together. Maybe they're planning on "flocking" on the airplane? ;)

Since passengers are treated like sardines, I'd rather be crammed in next to my husband than a stranger. We can have the armrest up, I can rest my head against his shoulder and he doesn't mind me leaning against him. I don't think a stranger would appreciate that kind of behavior from me.

Sometimes they aren't available. As people become more aware, more and more people are picking their preferred seats in advance. You will often find window and aisle seats gone in almost the entire length of the aircraft.

Sometimes you have to book them separately. On NW, Child fare had to be booked separately. If each person is using an e-cert, each person has to boo separately.

Given that people understandably prefer not to be crammed up against strangers, why would companions who both have middle seats think that a solo pax seated in the aisle seat beside one of them would be happy giving up that aisle seat (sitting next to one stranger) for the other companion's middle seat (in between two strangers)?

Clearly, the topic in this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...atmate-up.html

seems to indicate that some would.

I don't mind sitting separate if it is just me and my spouse, in fact if we are booking early we will sometimes be those rude people who book 2 aisle seats. However, if we are traveling with our children, sitting together is absolutely important to me. I have been on 2 recent flights where we were not able to sit together and it was absolute torture. One was a situation where they rebooked the flight onto a differently configured plane, and another was to a funeral where we booked at the last minute and there were no seat assignments available. On the latter, they actually booked all of us randomly in middle seats around the plane, with both my 2 year old and 4 year old by themselves. That is apparently not supposed to happen (no kidding) and they had me literally in tears (didn't help that I was grieving) trying to sort it out. They asked for volunteers to give up their aisle or window seats so that we could sit with our kids, and NO ONE on the whole 200 plus plane would switch. Finally they just picked a couple of people and forced them to move (yes, they can do that) and we at least had 2 seats together in different parts of the plane. That flight was horrible, as I was with the 2 year old and lap baby, and couldn't use the lav or anything because no one was nearby to supervise my kids.

That's really sad for the people who had picked seats out ahead of time - I'd be very angry if I were forced to move. Funeral or not, there's no reason to make people move just because you have kids. IMO.

I wish "they" would force people who are obnoxious or rude to move if that would improve things. (Give those people a chance to behave better first.)

Are you serious? You clearly have no common sense (or experience with kids) if you: a) think it is reasonable to force a 2 yr old to sit by herself so you can have your assigned seat; and b) that sitting next to an unaccompanied 2 year would be a tolerable flight.

Flying is/was a special experience for everyone on this board...... and for me, special experiences are really only special if they are shared with a friend. Who are we to deny somebody else a special experience, IF it causes us no inconvenience.

(Personally, I almost always offer like-for-like, or like-for-better, when trying to sit with my wife. And if the other party says 'no', that's fine. So yes, my wife and I still like to sit together for 100K+ miles per year!)

No, I don't have kids or experience with them - therefore I don't believe it's right to "force" others to change seats (that they have likely put a bit of thought into selecting) simply because they have kids.

I understand that it was a last minute flight, but perhaps the family could have taken another last minute flight, one with more seats available. I'm sorry, but your choice to have children should NOT affect me.

On Southwest, there's a process known as "Unite the Couple" where they select the window and aisle seat. If you can guess they are a couple, you take the middle seat and call their bluff, forcing one into the middle.
(search for the term on the Southwest board and there are loads of threads about it - unite the couple success, failure, un-unite the couple, ect)

Of course, they could be utterly content to sit apart :p

May I suggest you travel by private jet to your private island, then?

If you have paid extra for an advance seat assignment or a particular type of seat, I'm sure you could write to customer service and get a refund.

(I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here and assuming you're joking, but I don't actually know if you're serious or not.)

Fortunately, what you believe has no bearing on this issue. Airlines rightly don't allow very young children to sit by themselves, and also don't guarantee seat reservations (thus allowing them to make such changes as necessary).

Astonishing attitude considering you're the one who wants to inconvenience others to suit yourself. Perhaps you should ensure you can sit as close to your kids as you like by traveling private. That would make much more sense than demanding others treat you like the center of the universe.

Why should the person that you're inconveniencing be further inconvenienced by having to waste time writing in to customer service? At the least, you could refund treble their seat reservation fee in cash.

May I suggest the ones who are causing the inconvenience (ie the unprepared last-minute travellers) be the ones to go to the extra trouble and expense of traveling by private jet rather than the person who is doing everything right.

Let me preface this by saying I am NOT saying that this was craezie's circumstance.

But what about this situation:

1) 2 adults with 2 young children book a flight
2) only way to get seats together is to pay for preferred seats
3) they decide not to pay, even though they are available because
4) they know the airline will move people to accomodate them
5) so when they get to the flight, that's what happens
6) even though it means people who reserved or paid for preferred seats get moved
7) even though the family could have booked seats together, at a cost, and not inconvenienced anyone.

Now I am not saying this happens a lot (or even at all) but it is certainly conceivable.

as an aside, airlines do block seats to conform with regs but sometimes demand > capacity.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this amidst the posturing: Certain flights frequently do not allow seat selection in advance and parties connecting with small children (or adults requiring care) may be inadvertently split, requiring someone to move.

IRROPs happen too: glitches in the reservations system, delayed/canceled flights, etc. There are many reasons people traveling together could be split up through no fault of their own and it's not reasonable to separate small children from their parents or the disabled from their caregivers.

My husband and I almost always choose two aisle seats on short flights. Under 4 hours or so. We both like the comfort and flexibility of getting up without crawling over someone and I don't want to sit in the middle. We don't engage in loud conversation across the aisle and use the time to catch up on reading newspapers or in my case to enjoy music. On longer flights or when we are in a premium cabin I compromise and sit in the window seat He is left handed and with a separate glass or scotch and soda it just works out better for all concerned. Whatever works.

This is the best thing I have heard all day. I want to try this the next time I fly Southwest.

Makes you wonder if the airlines will ever launch adults-only flights (for an additional fee, of course).

I'm not bothered on a short haul, especially on BA because there is no middle seat passenger in CE.

However, I prefer my husband to be next to me on a longer flight if the seats are in pairs. That's only because if he's sitting there, no-one else can, not because I feel the need for him to be sitting close to me. I would avoid having a stranger sit next to me if I can.

Again on BA long haul I am not too bothered - CW divider up, goodbye neighbour! :D

Wow, I didn't realize I would ignite such a firestorm. I took it as a given that most people would understand that a 2 and 4 year old would absolutely NEED to sit together, but apparently not. I assure you that the result was entirely the screw-up of the airline and not at all the result of some kind of entitlement attitude or desire to get out of paying fees on our part. We actually phoned in the reservation for bereavement fares, the one and only time I have made reservations by phone. I am guessing that some lack on the part of the agent caused the screw up that allowed preschoolers to be seated alone in the first place.

Either way, I am slightly shocked at how hostile some people can be about children. Yes they are inconvenient, can be unruly, and even downright unpleasant at times. But we were all children once before, and someone sacrificed to get us where we are today. I just wish that everyone could have a little more tolerance and compassion for others, especially the very young and old.

You provided two situations: in one, you were flying with your children in an emergency -- you had to go to a funeral. Speaking for myself, I always try to help out people in an emergency, and would have switched with you if asked . . . AND the circumstances were explained to me.

In the other, however, you were engaging in discretionary travel. You chose to fly with your kids and take the risk that previously allocated seats would not be available. You're right -- parents should not be separated from their children. That, however, is not my problem. It's yours to resolve with the airline. I wouldn't have switched seats with you. You had another option -- wait for another flight, or don't engage in discretionary travel with your young children. Thinking that you have a right to someone else's seat because you're traveling with your children is the very definition of entitlement and it cuts no ice with me.

No one owes you special consideration because you're flying with children.

I've unknowingly played this game...

Now that I know, game on ^

I find, on flights where you have to pay for snacks and drinks, it's easier for me to sit next to SO as he keeps his wallet in easier reach so I don't have to go rooting in my bag, disrupting everyone and it saves making an order and asking "him 2 rows back 1 aisle over" to pay for it LOL

If it's full service that's not an issue.

Short haul flights, i'm not so fussed about.. in fact if we can't get the 2 seats near the exit then we will purposefully pick 2 aisle seats. Close enough to chat quietly but far enough away for some 'space' but long haul, I'd like to spend the flight with SO but that's just so, like mentioned, we can share the same movies on ipad, we switch plane food round a lot between us and we use each other as a pillow prop.

I don't think anyone doesn't understand that. What you don't seem to understand is that it's your responsibility to make sure your NEEDS are taken care of, not the responsibility of strangers.

I don't see anyone being hostile about children. People are understandably fed up with "grown ups" who think everyone else should have to be inconvenienced to accommodate them simply because they decided to procreate.

(I made a mistake with my earlier post on this matter. I thought I was replying to the OP when clearly I was not.)

Let me say that I believe that people have a right to the seats which they are assigned. I certainly am not going to switch my window or aisle for a middle, not on any day.

But to answer the OP's question, on a personal level I find interaction with strangers somewhat stressful and unpleasant, and I find extended physical touching by strangers downright loathsome. I find interaction with people I like to be highly pleasurable. So maybe the reason people want to sit next to people they like is so they can have a highly pleasurable experience rather than an intensely unpleasant one.

I like the fact that more airlines are selling premium seat locations. People who want to sit together can pay a bit more and do so. And it gives a perfect excuse for not exchanging seats with the mother of a child: "Ma'am, I paid extra for this seat because of its premium location, and somebody would have to pay me an awful lot to move out of it and into a middle seat."