Seat Swap Request Horror Stories
#1006
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 114
I reacted to a comment that said: "People chatting and passing things over you is a good lesson on why you should pay the extra to pre-select a seat." Paying for a window and aisle and sitting there isn't rude. Being inconsiderate to the person sitting in the middle however is.
#1008
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Ontario, Canada
Programs: Aeroplan, IHG, Enterprise, Avios, Nexus
Posts: 8,355
I reacted to a comment that said: "People chatting and passing things over you is a good lesson on why you should pay the extra to pre-select a seat." Paying for a window and aisle and sitting there isn't rude. Being inconsiderate to the person sitting in the middle however is.
If the demand of the self-appointed internet judges of manners and etiquette is that people sitting aisle-window should not speak to each other for the entire flight and never pass anything then they are going to be sadly disappointed.
#1010
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: SFO
Programs: AS Gold (OW), SK Silver (*A), UR, MR
Posts: 3,290
I've sat between two people in similar situations. I didn't consider them rude for interacting or passing items back and forth a couple of times. It is the risk you take when you don't pre-select a seat.
If the demand of the self-appointed internet judges of manners and etiquette is that people sitting aisle-window should not speak to each other for the entire flight and never pass anything then they are going to be sadly disappointed.
If the demand of the self-appointed internet judges of manners and etiquette is that people sitting aisle-window should not speak to each other for the entire flight and never pass anything then they are going to be sadly disappointed.
Air Hostess: And what would you like to drink?
Passenger: Nothing thanks.
Sally: Do you have any Bloody Marry mix?
Air Hostess: Yes.
Sally: Oh wait, here's what I want. Regular tomato juice, filled up about three quarters than add a splash of Bloody Marry mix, just a splash, and a little piece of lime, but on the side.
Harry: (from a row behind Sally) The University of Chicago right?
Sally: (looks at Harry, sighs) Yes.
Harry: Did you look this good at the University of Chicago?
Sally: No.
Harry: Did we ever uh...(makes pumping fist gesture)
Sally: No! No! (to man sitting on her right) We drove from Chicago to New York together after graduation.
Man: Would you two like to sit together?
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
#1011
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Oxford, Mississippi
Programs: Delta Silver thanks to Million Miles; Choice Plat., point scrounger everywhere
Posts: 1,594
I frequently will book aisle-window when traveling with my wife and/or daughter. My wife will sometimes offer to trade her seat. My daughter doesn't like to sit in the middle so we don't board together or talk to each other because strangers will get the idea that she needs to take the middle seat next to me. In any event, we make it a point to talk to each other very little during the flight.
#1012
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 1,879
I'll admit that I was the initial dumbass this morning - if I hadn't spaced it and started out in the wrong seat I would have probably averted the whole scenario (or at least my part in it)
So, I zombie onto the plane this morning and plop down in 3B. I get all of my stuff arranged, look through the movie options on the IFE, decline the pre-departure beverage, etc. As boarding progresses, I realize that I actually sat in 3C - not 3B. I look across the aisle and there is a guy settled in to what should have been my seat.
I got his attention and told him that I had made a mistake, but if he was supposed to be in 3C, I would be happy to switch, or happy to stay since he was settled. He replied that he was actually in 3A (which was currently empty), but I could have that if I wanted. I told him that I much preferred the aisle, and that was why I had chosen that seat, so the window wouldn't work for me. Then he told me that his friend had been upgraded to 1B, and he was sure that his friend wouldn't mind giving up his aisle for a window. No, I said - I don't do bulkheads. His final gambit was "why don't we just stay where we are, if nobody shows for those seats, we will be fine."
I was really starting to get annoyed by his insistence that he was going to stay in that seat. I pointed that there was no way that flight was leaving with 2 empty seats up front (and it didn't), and he was welcome to do what he wanted with the empties, but I intended to sit in the seat indicated on my boarding pass. I had already apologized for the initial inconvenience - though all of the drama would have been averted if he had sat in *his* seat to begin with, regardless of my stupidly sitting on the wrong side of the aisle.
He moved, grudgingly, but he gave me side-eye for the next 4 hours
I normally won't engage, but I went into it thinking that he had done me a favor by taking my seat because I had taken his. I wonder what he would have done if I hadn't messed up, and was in my correct seat when he boarded? He knew that he was supposed to be in a window - would he have just taken some other aisle seat up front?
So, I zombie onto the plane this morning and plop down in 3B. I get all of my stuff arranged, look through the movie options on the IFE, decline the pre-departure beverage, etc. As boarding progresses, I realize that I actually sat in 3C - not 3B. I look across the aisle and there is a guy settled in to what should have been my seat.
I got his attention and told him that I had made a mistake, but if he was supposed to be in 3C, I would be happy to switch, or happy to stay since he was settled. He replied that he was actually in 3A (which was currently empty), but I could have that if I wanted. I told him that I much preferred the aisle, and that was why I had chosen that seat, so the window wouldn't work for me. Then he told me that his friend had been upgraded to 1B, and he was sure that his friend wouldn't mind giving up his aisle for a window. No, I said - I don't do bulkheads. His final gambit was "why don't we just stay where we are, if nobody shows for those seats, we will be fine."
I was really starting to get annoyed by his insistence that he was going to stay in that seat. I pointed that there was no way that flight was leaving with 2 empty seats up front (and it didn't), and he was welcome to do what he wanted with the empties, but I intended to sit in the seat indicated on my boarding pass. I had already apologized for the initial inconvenience - though all of the drama would have been averted if he had sat in *his* seat to begin with, regardless of my stupidly sitting on the wrong side of the aisle.
He moved, grudgingly, but he gave me side-eye for the next 4 hours
I normally won't engage, but I went into it thinking that he had done me a favor by taking my seat because I had taken his. I wonder what he would have done if I hadn't messed up, and was in my correct seat when he boarded? He knew that he was supposed to be in a window - would he have just taken some other aisle seat up front?
#1013
Moderator: Travel Safety/Security, Travel Tools, California, Los Angeles; FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: oneword Emerald
Posts: 20,483
For a change, here's a feel good seat swap story:
Mom with sick baby thanks stranger who gave them his first class seat on a flight
And a longer, more detailed story from the Today Show:
A mother wrote a heartfelt message to a mystery man who helped her and her baby daughter on a flight from Orlando to Philadelphia last week. Kelsey Zwick said she and her daughter, who was born prematurely and needs an oxygen machine, were on their way to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) when the stranger's random act of kindness warmed their hearts.
"To the man in 2D," Zwick wrote on Facebook, hoping the mystery man would see, "I don't know you, but I imagine you saw us somewhere. I was pushing a stroller, had a diaper bag on my arm and also lugging an oxygen machine for my daughter."
<snip>
"We pre-boarded the plane, got cozy in our window seat and made jokes to those around us about having to sit by my yelling-but-happy baby," Zwick wrote. "The flight attendant came over and told me you were waiting to switch seats," Zwick wrote in her message to the man. "You were giving up your comfortable, first class seat to us."
<snip>
"To the man in 2D," Zwick wrote on Facebook, hoping the mystery man would see, "I don't know you, but I imagine you saw us somewhere. I was pushing a stroller, had a diaper bag on my arm and also lugging an oxygen machine for my daughter."
<snip>
"We pre-boarded the plane, got cozy in our window seat and made jokes to those around us about having to sit by my yelling-but-happy baby," Zwick wrote. "The flight attendant came over and told me you were waiting to switch seats," Zwick wrote in her message to the man. "You were giving up your comfortable, first class seat to us."
<snip>
#1014
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 1,808
For a change, here's a feel good seat swap story:
And a longer, more detailed story from the Today Show:
And a longer, more detailed story from the Today Show:
#1015
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 337
Lucy came out blue and had to be intubated and placed on a ventilator for the first week of her life. Though the ventilation saved her life, it also left scarring in her lungs that caused her chronic lung disease. Zwick has been traveling to CHOP with Lucy for treatments every three months.
#1016
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: SJC/SFO
Programs: WN A+ CP, UA 1MM/*A Gold, Mar LT Tit, IHG Plat, HH Dia
Posts: 6,282
Here. DW and I often sit aisle-window or even in different rows. We treat our flight time as individual time. We rarely pass things back and forth if there's anyone between us and don't talk much, either. When we're flying together we have the whole rest of the trip for that!
#1017
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 6,349
I normally won't engage, but I went into it thinking that he had done me a favor by taking my seat because I had taken his. I wonder what he would have done if I hadn't messed up, and was in my correct seat when he boarded? He knew that he was supposed to be in a window - would he have just taken some other aisle seat up front?
Why sit in the wrong seat to start?
Why the elaborate story - you don't do windows, you don't do bulkheads blah blah?
Not every other passenger is telepathic. Either you say "sorry, we are in the wrong seats, can we please swap as I booked an aisle," or grin and bear it.
#1018
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,042
When flying solo, I fly Economy Plus and when there’s a center row I will pick an aisle seat where the other aisle is already taken, leaving an empty middle. So Sunday on a United from Berlin the empty middle was still there and many middle seats remained unoccupied thoroughout the flight. But next thing I hear is a guy in the row behind saying “no, no, I can switch” and plopping down in my row’s empty middle. The person in other aisle seat was his wife. What kind of trick was he playing, do you think? Did he not pay for EC and first tried to poach the aisle seat behind his wife, then when that did not work move up to my row’s empty middle beside her?
#1019
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 1,879
That's where I started - I thought that he took my seat because I had taken his. But that wasn't the case. I sat across the aisle from where I was supposed to be, and he took an aisle seat because he didn't want his window.
It was my mistake - that was the point. I sat on the wrong side of the aisle.
When I asked to move to my correct seat, he tried to get me to sit *anywhere but* the seat that was on my BP. I was just recounting his repeated attempts at deflection.
If you re-read my post, it seems fairly obvious to me - the other guy was booked in 3A (window) but was sitting in 3B (aisle). I was booked in 3B, but had mistakenly sat in 3C. I was trying to vacate that seat before the rightful 'owner' arrived, but the guy in my seat didn't want to give it up. He wanted me to take his window. Then he wanted me to swap with his buddy in the bulkhead. Then he wanted me to stay where I was and work something out with the person who showed up with a BP for 3C. At each of those "offers", I said that I wanted to sit in the seat I had been assigned. I don't see how telepathy enters in to the conversation.
Hey, that wasn't you, was it?
It was my mistake - that was the point. I sat on the wrong side of the aisle.
Hey, that wasn't you, was it?
#1020
Moderator: Manufactured Spending
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,576
If anything, I think that having the sick baby in F would be better, because passengers are more spaced out than in Y, so there is less chance of someone else catching the illness if it is contagious.