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Seat Swap Request Horror Stories

Seat Swap Request Horror Stories

Old Dec 9, 2018, 1:15 am
  #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.
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Old Dec 9, 2018, 4:17 am
  #1007  
 
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Originally Posted by pepe C
It may be a good idea to bring a newspaper on board
What is a newspaper?
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Old Dec 9, 2018, 5:55 am
  #1008  
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Originally Posted by pepe C
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.
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.
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Old Dec 9, 2018, 7:51 am
  #1009  
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
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I don't think we will ever agree on this. A little courtesy doesn't hurt.

Edit: Saying "excuse me" once in a while wouldn't be that hard.
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Last edited by zitsky; Dec 9, 2018 at 8:11 am
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Old Dec 9, 2018, 8:26 am
  #1010  
 
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Originally Posted by Badenoch
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.
(in the plane, Sally day-dreaming about something)
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)
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Old Dec 10, 2018, 12:46 pm
  #1011  
 
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Originally Posted by zitsky
The whole aisle/window thing is annoying. How many people really *do not* talk over the middle or pass things back and forth?
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.
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Old Dec 10, 2018, 3:10 pm
  #1012  
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
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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?
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Old Dec 11, 2018, 11:57 am
  #1013  
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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

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>
And a longer, more detailed story from the Today Show:
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Old Dec 11, 2018, 4:35 pm
  #1014  
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Originally Posted by TWA884
For a change, here's a feel good seat swap story:
And a longer, more detailed story from the Today Show:
That's not a "feel good" story. Now we have a baby in F, and a sick one at that. That's inconsiderate to fellow F pax.
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Old Dec 11, 2018, 5:18 pm
  #1015  
 
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Originally Posted by Proudelitist
That's not a "feel good" story. Now we have a baby in F, and a sick one at that. That's inconsiderate to fellow F pax.
It doesn't look like the sickness was in anyway contagious or communicable. From the article:

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.
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Old Dec 11, 2018, 5:44 pm
  #1016  
 
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Originally Posted by zitsky
The whole aisle/window thing is annoying. How many people really *do not* talk over the middle or pass things back and forth?
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!
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Old Dec 11, 2018, 9:38 pm
  #1017  
 
Join Date: May 2013
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Originally Posted by Qwkynuf
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 didn't you just ask the other traveller to switch?

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.
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Old Dec 11, 2018, 9:43 pm
  #1018  
 
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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?
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Old Dec 11, 2018, 9:52 pm
  #1019  
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
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Originally Posted by simons1
Why didn't you just ask the other traveller to switch?
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.

Originally Posted by simons1
Why sit in the wrong seat to start?
It was my mistake - that was the point. I sat on the wrong side of the aisle.

Originally Posted by simons1
Why the elaborate story - you don't do windows, you don't do bulkheads blah blah?
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.

Originally Posted by simons1
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.
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?
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Old Dec 11, 2018, 11:39 pm
  #1020  
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Originally Posted by Proudelitist
That's not a "feel good" story. Now we have a baby in F, and a sick one at that. That's inconsiderate to fellow F pax.
But having the sick baby in Y would be fine? Is the health of F passengers more important than those in the back?

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.
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