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Seat Swap Request Horror Stories

Seat Swap Request Horror Stories

Old Oct 10, 2016, 9:26 pm
  #871  
 
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My husband and I fly like this all the time, and the person in the middle does not realize we are together until the end of the flight, when we stand and start talking about where we are meeting up. But, neither one of us is afraid of flying.

In your case, I think you really need to have him seated next to you, and the aisle is probably the best seat for you. Although I think it will cause some confusion at first, I think you may need to ask the person seated in the middle if they would like to move to the window. If they do not want the window, you may have to move to the window or middle.
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Old Oct 11, 2016, 8:41 am
  #872  
 
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I recently had to ask to switch seats, traveling was myself, wife, and 9 y/o daughter. We had a window in row 7, a middle in row 23, and a window in row 26.

I asked the window seat in row 23 if she would take row 9 window so I could sit with my daughter, she politely refused as her bags were overhead already. Not a problem, my daughter sat by herself and was just fine.

The thing that makes it funny is just after I got my daughter settled in and too my middle seat in 23, I'm such a good guy, 2 people with an infant sat in the row in front of me, and the look on the person's face who had declined was priceless...
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Old Oct 11, 2016, 8:58 am
  #873  
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Originally Posted by kop84
I recently had to ask to switch seats, traveling was myself, wife, and 9 y/o daughter. We had a window in row 7, a middle in row 23, and a window in row 26.

I asked the window seat in row 23 if she would take row 9 window so I could sit with my daughter, she politely refused as her bags were overhead already. Not a problem, my daughter sat by herself and was just fine.

The thing that makes it funny is just after I got my daughter settled in and too my middle seat in 23, I'm such a good guy, 2 people with an infant sat in the row in front of me, and the look on the person's face who had declined was priceless...
I don't understand why you're gloating. You hand't offered her a seat away from the infant. Neither you nor the woman you asked to switch knew that an infant would be seated in the row in front of you. She declined your offer for a very legitimate reason: she didn't want to have to swim upstream to retrieve her bag on deplaning.

As for being a "good guy," because you took your assigned seat and didn't give the woman next to you a hard time, that is called "civil and respectful behavior," and is the baseline for appropriate conduct on a commercial aircraft.
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Old Oct 11, 2016, 9:05 am
  #874  
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Originally Posted by kop84
I recently had to ask to switch seats, traveling was myself, wife, and 9 y/o daughter. We had a window in row 7, a middle in row 23, and a window in row 26.

I asked the window seat in row 23 if she would take row 9 window so I could sit with my daughter, she politely refused as her bags were overhead already. Not a problem, my daughter sat by herself and was just fine.

The thing that makes it funny is just after I got my daughter settled in and too my middle seat in 23, I'm such a good guy, 2 people with an infant sat in the row in front of me, and the look on the person's face who had declined was priceless...
Why did you not offer her window in row 26? I wouldn't taken your offer either because I'd have to fight my way upstream to get my bags. I might however have taken row 26 as I could pick my bags up on the way out.

Also, if sitting beside your daughter was important enough to inconvenience another person why was it not important enough to pre-book your seats?
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Old Oct 11, 2016, 9:38 am
  #875  
 
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Originally Posted by Badenoch
Why did you not offer her window in row 26? I wouldn't taken your offer either because I'd have to fight my way upstream to get my bags. I might however have taken row 26 as I could pick my bags up on the way out.

Also, if sitting beside your daughter was important enough to inconvenience another person why was it not important enough to pre-book your seats?
I was trying to offer her the better seat, and there were no seats available together for pre-selection. I asked politely and she refused politely. I was not upset with her and she was not upset with me. And it wasn't insanely critical, I simply asked another person if they'ed like a better seat than they were currently in. As to not offering her the other window seat, there was a rather large individual in the middle seat making it rather undesirable.

I just found it humorous that after the baby was in front of her, she had this look like "I immediately regret this decision." For the record the baby was very good.

But thanks for jumping down my throat about it.
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Old Oct 11, 2016, 11:37 am
  #876  
 
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Originally Posted by kop84
I just found it humorous that after the baby was in front of her, she had this look like "I immediately regret this decision."
You appear to have a some what perverse sense of humor.
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Old Oct 11, 2016, 8:46 pm
  #877  
 
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Originally Posted by Segments
Let the middle seat pax decide which they would prefer?
I couldn't figure out how to multiquote, because I think multiple people said this, but this is what I'm going to go for. Thanks, all, for your suggestions.
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Old Oct 16, 2016, 10:41 am
  #878  
 
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A bit off topic, but related (nervy behavior). Recently on a Delta flight PHX to MSP, first class full and all seated, hubby and I were sitting in 4A&C. Near the end of boarding, a thirty-ish guy carrying a duffle bag, wearing shaggy cut offs and a muscle shirt, stopped, pointed to the open overhead bin row 3, and said to the elderly woman in 3D, "that yours?" She nodded and he then told her that she needed to place it under the seat in front of her so he could put his bag up there. She looked confused and the guy repeated it. My husband, bless his heart, leaned over and said to the woman that he would get the flight attendant for assistance, as he gave the guy a look. The guy said over his shoulder to a man behind him, "Dude, it works sometimes". And moved on to coach. Never experienced that before.
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Old Oct 16, 2016, 10:53 am
  #879  
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Originally Posted by kaija
A bit off topic, but related (nervy behavior). Recently on a Delta flight PHX to MSP, first class full and all seated, hubby and I were sitting in 4A&C. Near the end of boarding, a thirty-ish guy carrying a duffle bag, wearing shaggy cut offs and a muscle shirt, stopped, pointed to the open overhead bin row 3, and said to the elderly woman in 3D, "that yours?" She nodded and he then told her that she needed to place it under the seat in front of her so he could put his bag up there. She looked confused and the guy repeated it. My husband, bless his heart, leaned over and said to the woman that he would get the flight attendant for assistance, as he gave the guy a look. The guy said over his shoulder to a man behind him, "Dude, it works sometimes". And moved on to coach. Never experienced that before.
Wow! . Kudoes to your husband for politely offering to call backup for the elderly lady.
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Old Oct 29, 2016, 5:04 am
  #880  
 
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What would you do here?

So on a recent early morning 3 hour flight I was sitting in 1A, a seat with no bulkhead, so a nice long stretch out. 1A & 1B were paid for by me, for the mrs, but she didn't' come, so the seat was empty. 1C was occupied.

As is the norm, we both nicely spread ourselves out, and threw magazines etc onto the spare seat.

At some point in the flight, the guy sitting in 1D (D, E & F all having a bulkhead) got up, and pointed at our seat, making a breast stroke swimming motion, ie please move your things away, and proceeded to sit down in between us, stretch out pull his eye shades down and go to sleep, which obviously had a big comfort effect on myself and the neighbour, who was clearly as miffed about it as me. Obviously I felt a bit of a (misplaced) sense of ownership over that seat since I had paid for it, but ignoring that it certainly had a direct effect on my comfort, I was in essence trading my comfort, for his.

Thoughts? Deny him? suck it up?
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Old Oct 29, 2016, 7:08 am
  #881  
 
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Unless you are getting a refund for the Mrs, tell the PAX the seat is paid for as an extra seat and he can not use it.
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Old Oct 29, 2016, 11:49 am
  #882  
 
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The guy got up from the aisle and sat in the middle of two strangers, I don't know about anyone else but that would set the "weirdo" alarms off in my head.
I agree with above, if you didn't get refunded, it's your seat, it's up to you how you use it and you should have told him straight up that you bought it and to give you the money for it if he wants to sit there.
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Old Oct 29, 2016, 12:14 pm
  #883  
 
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Originally Posted by FlyingUnderTheRadar
Unless you are getting a refund for the Mrs, tell the PAX the seat is paid for as an extra seat and he can not use it.
Originally Posted by chris19992
I agree with above, if you didn't get refunded, it's your seat, it's up to you how you use it and you should have told him straight up that you bought it and to give you the money for it if he wants to sit there.
Not disagreeing with anyone, but I have a question - If that seat was purchased for someone who never got on the flight, then would the OP have checked in and received a boarding pass for that seat? And scanned both boarding passes as he boarded the plane?

It seems like from the standpoint of the airline this wouldn't be any different than a misconnect, where if the passenger hasn't checked in by T-15 or so, the seat can be given to a standby passenger?

That said, I would have likely asked to see his boarding pass, or called the flight attendant over to referree.
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Old Oct 29, 2016, 6:37 pm
  #884  
 
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if someone sat in a seat that had paid for, I would deal with it then, not days later on FT. I'm weird that way.
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Old Oct 29, 2016, 7:34 pm
  #885  
 
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I think it is quite odd to move into a middle seat in such a fashion. As I understand it, you have no official claim on your wife's seat. When she didn't board, she lost the right to the seat. The airline could have assigned the seat to someone else and there is nothing you could do about it.

Having said that, I would have considered telling the guy that you paid for an extra seat, and that he can't take the middle seat. Even though that isn't true.
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