Sitting in the middle is bad enough - one simply has to deal with it - but the prospect of the window and aisle passengers talking across you on a multi-hour flight is quite another. I wouldn't be quick to assume it's a scam.

Right on the nose!

In cramped quarters, I'd rather my wife share my space than some stranger. That doesn't mean we won't travel if we can't get seats together -- that happens often. We won't self-combust. However, we're both more comfortable when pressed up against each other, as opposed to pressed up against strangers.

The question, "why the heck do you NEED to sit together??" in reference to those who don't book seats together but then go out of their way to badger/guilt/annoy others into swapping seats for them, is a valid question. But it makes no sense to question why, given the option, people would rather share a cramped space with a friend/family member as opposed to a total stranger. The reasons are obvious.

It's a scam. Especially when the person they imply is my "friend" is a total stranger that I said like two words to, just to be polite. You're not five two, are you? Trust me. There's an assumption that if you're little, you have a little brain, and you can be pushed around. I'm really sick of it. Really!

On my next trip (with a large group) a lady is traveling with us who is a nervous traveller. This is only her third plane trip. We have promised her husband that one of us will sit next to her on every flight. If making sure she sits next to someone she knows let's this person travel and see the world, I can't see the problem with that. On her first trip, flights didn't go as planned due to a hurricane. So on the flights she ended up on she was separated from her husband. Was it really so wrong to ask people to switch seats so a nervous flyer could be comforted - when not in a situation of her own making?

I should add that I have no problem when people book seats so they are next to each other. My issue is with people who don't want to pay for seats in advance and then freak out because they are not sitting with their traveling partner once the airline assigns their seats for free.

Valid points on both sides, especially when sitting next to a stranger we are likely 10 inches closer to them than we would prefer.

My mother is 5'2 and softly spoken and mild mannered to boot. No one scams her any more than they do taller me. If you are talking to someone, it's not an unreasonable assumption that you know them, so I think you are reading far more into it than there is - they made a snap call you knew each other and asked is you wanted to trade. It's hardly difficult to say 'no thanks' in any case.

On top of everything that has already been said here about the advantages of sitting together, I'll add this one: my wife is a really nervous flyer, and I much rather have her near me where I can keep her calm.

Does this make you her emotional support animal? :DThen you can lay at her feet during the flight and not pay for a ticket. ;)OTOH, the airline won't supply F&B, except maybe water if you behave well.:)

NY Times: "Etiquette vs. Entitlement in a Scramble for Seats"
 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/bu...road.html?_r=1

..... “Would you mind switching seats so my wife and I can sit together?” he asked. The wife was looking at me hopefully. Actually, I did mind. I had paid extra for that aisle seat, using an airline credit card that also gave me priority boarding — which meant I was assured that I would have space in an overhead bin near my seat for my carry-on. The extra fee, $20, had bought me a slightly less crummy coach seat on the aisle, but I was happy to have it. .....

..... In a telephone interview, Mr. Cohen said that he thought that some people traveling together on leisure trips exhibited a “sense of entitlement” about being able to sit together. He recalled a recent flight on which a woman sitting in the aisle seat across from him was badgered into giving up her seat and moving a few rows farther back by a couple who insisted on sitting together. The flight attendant also told the woman to swap, and thus “became a tool of this couple to get their way,” Mr. Cohen said. .....

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.