Seat Swap Request Horror Stories
 

Since there have been a few funny/horrifying stories of seat swap requests over in this thread, I thought I would try to start a "master thread" for venting about such requests.

I'll start with a couple I've mentioned elsewhere:

I once was next to a woman, who was in a middle seat, and whose boyfriend was in the middle in front of her. After they got settled, he looked at her and said "well, go ahead, ask!" and she proceeded to ask me to switch with her boyfriend.

Sometimes, swap requests are the opposite of bad. I've been the beneficiary of what I call a 'friend-up', when a passenger in F offered to swap with me to sit with his friend in Y. I didn't mind pretending to be a 1K up in F for the flight :)

while flying SMF-PHX the day after thanksgiving, i overheard someone else's seat swap horror story in the row in front of me.

family of three, two parents and a girl that was high school aged. the parents had the window and aisle seats and the girl was in the middle. she was complaining throughout the boarding process about the middle seat and how she would get airsick if she could not see out the window all the time. her mother, seated in the window, was having none of it until the girl literally started bawling and shouted "if you don't switch with me, i'm going to vomit in your face as soon as this plane takes off!!!"

a moment later, the switcheroo took place.

on the good end of things, about 8 years ago when i was still wild and free, i was flying from ATL-SMF the day before thanksgiving and i was in an aisle seat (C). across the aisle in the middle seat (E) was a gorgeous girl my age or maybe a year or two older. we chatted casually and hit it off well until the D seat was filled when another guy showed up and started awkwardly chatting her up as we waited for departure. about an hour into the flight as we were still making eyes at each other across the aisle during the in flight movie and after a long conversation in the galley with her, i pulled my headphones down and said to the guy in D "look, i'm sorry, i realize you would like to sit next to her, but i also realize she wants to sit next to me. either we can flirt across you for the next 3 hours or you and i can switch. what do you say?" she burst out laughing, the guy was shamed into moving, and i got her number. sadly though we spoke on the phone a few times, i never saw her again. needless to say the guy who was formerly seated in D did not have alot else to say to me the remainder of the flight.

Why not just add on to the existing thread that's been in the top 25 of this forum for the last month?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...isle-seat.html

This started as a thread in the UA forum, and was moved. I'll alert the mods.

My best seat swap story was related to me by a friend who has told this story for years with much better effect than I am about to relate. He was travelling home in J from YYZ to YVR when "the most beautiful girl in the world" sat down beside him. They hit it off famously from the moment she sat down and were engaged in conversation and he was very much looking forward to the flight. Moments before the doors were about to close, an unkempt man of size rushed onto the plane, looked at his boarding pass and said to the girl "you're in my seat!, whereupon my friend promptly replied "No she's not!" Turns out, she was.

"Here's $100 Mr MOS. Go sit in her seat!"

Not really horror stories but more like "what the what?" stories -

In first, on the way home from the Caribbean, after we board I discover our seats have been shifted due to a change in aircraft. Not a big deal since we had two of the three seats adjoining each other, or so I think.

Turns out a man is sitting in my son's seat and refuses to move because he wants to sit next to his wife. He keeps insisting that I move my then 6yo son back two rows, where he would have been sitting without me or my husband to supervise him. (He was sitting in my son's seat.) It finally ended with me yelling at him. He and the wife jumped up and moved to the back of the cabin. Eventually, enough people shuffled around and they sat together. In hindsight, I should not have engaged him and just went straight to the FA.

Same route, earlier this year - A man and woman board behind us. The wife is dressed very strangely for the weather - long pants, turtleneck sweater, floor length wool coat and a huge scarf wrapped around her neck in 90 degree weather. She follows her husband, who is seated next to my husband, and stands in the aisle. Just stands there. After a while, her husband screams at her to "go sit in your seat!" several times over and then starts ranting at her how it doesn't matter where she sits, that she is going to just fall asleep right away. She sulks off and sits in the first row, against the window. He then turns to my husband and starts ranting about how she wanted him (her husband) to ask my husband to switch seats and why the f_ck does she need to sit next to him and so on. After he downed his beverage, he took off his shoes and slept most of the flight.

I don't switch because I always sit next to our son but my husband will often switch as long as the trade is even-up.

The consistent theme here and elsewhere is that one has to be sufficiently self-assured to make a quick evaluation and have the ability to say "no thanks" when that's the answer. If you are offered something acceptable or better, take it. If you aren't and don't want to, just say "no thanks". No silly excuses or lies. Just say it.

Or if you want to be a doormat for others, just say "yes" and enjoy the middle seat near the lav.

This one still raises my hackles because it was the fault of the FA.

I was on KLM DEL-AMS in a window seat of my choosing. I was barricaded in by a couple that was sleeping on each other, but they weren't bothering me.

About an hour into the flight, the FA comes up and tells me there are empty rows on the other side, or rows with empty middles. I confirmed with him that there would be a window before gathering all my things, disturbing the sleeping couple, and moving to where he directed me.

As soon as I got settled, the man who'd been occupying the seat the FA had just put me in came back. Apparently it was his assigned seat and he'd just been in the lav.

Irritated, I got up and moved to the aisle in that row, pointedly looking at the FA. My new row-mate was a chatty rural-type Indian (my husband is Indian; this is not me being racist) who was far too fascinated with me, asking me question after question before finally curling up and laying down in the window and middle seat in the fetal position with his feet touching me.

As angry as I already was over being lured from my quiet window seat for no good reason, having this guy's feet on me really put me over the edge. Of course, the "helpful" FA disappeared, never to be seen again.

Between this and other experiences with KLM involving AMS and DEL, I will never fly KLM again (and I will never connect through AMS if I can avoid it. Ugh).

Between the second post and this one, I have to wonder if spectacularly attractive women get tired of being chatted up All. The. Time.?? :D

Even reasonably attractive women get tired of being chatted up All. The. Time.

Not a horror story by any means, but a husband once asked me to swap seats so that he might sit next to his wife. Naturally, he was in the first-class bulkhead on a Delta 737 and I was in row three. Why would I ever accept the cramped legroom of the bulkhead (on a 4 hour flight!) so that a random couple could sit together? If it was so important for them to be together, the wife should have moved up to the bulkhead and sent the husband's seatmate back to sit with me.

As it turned out, the wife was somewhat embarrassed that the husband even asked and we went on to have a pleasant flight. I admit I felt a little bad about denying them, but then again I would never have made such a request myself.

Here's one that was good for us but certainly a horror story for some others:

Just settling in on the right side of the 747, towards the front, for SYD-LAX. A guy sits directly in the aisle seat in row in front of us. He looks presentable but has the worst body odor I have ever experienced.

Just before doors close, a woman comes up to him and says, "I got someone to switch with you." The guy gets up and takes his things elsewhere, far away. His seat is taken by a different, non-offensive-smelling guy, who had walked over with the woman.

Wait about 20 or 30 seconds, and our whole section of the plane breaks out giggling. Lots of big smiles, eye contact and expressions of relief for three or four rows in every direction.

Maybe. I think it depends on who you are talking about. The fellow I am talking about is pretty smooth and women seem to have all sorts of time for him. If it was me you were talking about, I would understand. I don't get the time of day! :D

Here's a somewhat different twist on the situation. I was flying MGA-IAH in F on a 737 (I don't remember which version). I was in row 2 and was asked to switch to row 4 to allow a man to sit with his elderly father. Empowered by FT and knowing that row 4 meant limited recline and the possibility of not getting my choice of meals I proudly refused. Ever afterward I have regretted being such a selfish jerk. How much worse is row 4 than row 2 anyway, and how good is the food whatever you get? Luckily, there were non-selfish passengers and the two managed to sit together.

One problem that comes up with the type of request that you now feel guilty of refusing is that all too often the requesting party seeks both family unification and a promotion in seat status.

I don't know all the facts, but I wonder if these people first offered a person in Row 4 a better seat in Row 2 before approaching you and asking you to swap your Row 2 seat for an inferior seat in Row 4. In the coach section, more often than not those seeking to unify groups will seek to do so by placing the unified group in the front of the cabin versus offering the seat or seats they have in front to a person or persons in the rear.

Perhaps the airlines should stop giving out seat reservations for the very back row of coach, and perhaps even of first class. These rows can be treated as family unification areas. Anyone wanting to be unified with their family should be allowed to move to the back row, with new seat assignments being given, preferably before boarding.

Not everyone considers the last row of F to be the worst row of F. I'd take the last row in a heartbeat over the bulkhead any day.

Same here. I avoid the bulkhead whenever possible. Row 4 in F isn't that bad and at least I don't have to stare at a wall.

Did not know where our seats would be
 

On a free miles trip, one leg was from Chicago to Frankfurt on Luft. Prior to boarding my wife and I were ask to change seats so a family could be together. No problem, we have traveled when our kids were young and sometimes you are not able to get seat together. Then we are called up a second time to change seats, again no problem. As long as I had leg room I would make the change (I'm 6'5"), their reply was that I would have no problem. This was our first overseas flight and did not pay attention to the seat number. When we entered the plane we found out we were bumped up to business class. Way to go! Sure made that overnight flight comfortable.

Point well made. But I do think everyone considers the last row of coach to be the worst row of 2nd.

This guy certainly agrees....
http://www.gadling.com/2007/06/28/hi...ine-complaint/

Not really a horror story - was flying from NY to Denver. I had an aisle fairly close to the front, my husband was also in an aisle seat about 10 rows back. Young couple boards - one has the middle next to me, the other middle across the aisle. Man asks if I'd switch with his wife. I said no at first but they were a cute young couple so I changed my mind and moved. As I sat, the gentleman in the aisle next to me said something to the effect of, "You gave up an aisle for a middle?" I told him it seemed more important to them and this wasn't my first (nor probably my last) time in a middle seat. Besides, my husband and I were split up so - no big deal. He asked me if my husband had an aisle seat. I said yes, about 10 rows back. With that, he got up, asked me my husband's name and switched seats with him.

I called it quick karma.

Virgin Atlantic, circa 1996. My father and I were flying BOS-LHR... this happens at check-in:

AGENT: Oh dear... your seats were erroneously assigned to someone else (taps on his keyboard) shoot, flight is completely full - looks like all we have are scattered middle seats.

DAD: You don't have anything together? My son is only 10 and I don't want to sit apart from him for seven hours.

AGENT: Unless you want to fly tomorrow this is all we have. Tell you what, as soon as you get through security go straight to the gate and talk to the agent, I'm almost positive they'll be able to move somebody around so you can sit together.

He hands us our boarding passes and puts our bags on the belt. As we're walking away he calls us back.

AGENT: Hang on, I found a pair. Here's your new boarding passes.

My father looked at the boarding passes and his jaw dropped, they were for 1H and 1K

DAD: Thomas... you and I are both going to sleep very well tonight.

After that experience I've been finding ways to fly in front of the curtain ever since :D

I wouldn't beat myself up on this. There was another seat swap that could have happened. Whichever of the two that was sitting next to you could have moved back to row 4, sacrificing the recline and meal.

It's funny because it's true :p.

Here's a conundrum: SEA to EWR I was asked by a gentleman if I would switch an E+ aisle with his middle seat so he could sit with his wife and son in my row.

Well, no. I don't think so.

The wife had the worst sewer breath. The stink was awful especially when she took these large heaving breaths... the kinda stank cloud where you squirm and kick and can't think straight.

There's no winning sometimes.

A story I forgot to share in the OP: I was in the aisle seat of a five-seat middle section on a wide-body. The flight was an 8-hour TATL flight.

The woman next to me, in the middle, asked me to switch because she'd be going to the bathroom often. I declined.

http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/...reyfus/n35222/

Julia Loius-Dreyfus doesn't get why people wouldn't switch with her, even her Dentists husband! LOL

LOL, that was great! Thanks for sharing.

:confused: What makes this a horror story?

I was under the impression that some airlines do inhibit the last row of coach from being pre-assigned.

A post in the Delta forum says that DL blocks the last two rows in coach.

Meanwhile, I have a story in which I offered to switch and the offer was ignored.

I was flying PDX-MFR in a Jetstream 31, in which seating was 1-2. I was assigned to a seat in the 2-side side, with an empty seat beside me.

The row in front was the exit row. The two seats in that row were taken by a woman and a boy, possibly her son, who appeared to be about eight years old. The crew (co-pilot, iirc, as there was no FA) asked them to move, because the boy was too young for an exit row. They refused, then switched seats with each other - which made no difference. A complicated seat-swap discussion ensued with the passengers on the 1-seat side, to no avail. I offered several times, loudly I thought, to switch with them, but neither the woman passenger nor the crew member paid any attention. The boy was finally moved to the only other empty seat, but moved back as soon as the co-pilot wasn't looking.

Rather than asking me if I would move, the ......... controlling boyfriend was ordering the girlfriend to ask me. Right in front of me.

A few years back, when my daughter was about 1.5 years, I was traveling on biz trip to Asia; flying LH.

I got the business seat cause of work and I bought my wife an economy class ticket to travel with my daughter.

We took our seats, planning to talk to the FA, after departure of the flight to change our seats.

The part of the plane that my wife sat with my daughter was a window two seat side, so there was a man sitting next to her in the aisle.

I took my seat and told my wife and daughter to take theirs. When my wife took her seat with our child...I could see the aisle guy's expression that he would have to sit 9+ hours with a 1.5 year old lap child.

He did not look too pleasant.

Understanding this, I just went up to the purser and asked if we could just switch from the very beginning...I would sit in the window and wife would take the business seat. Purser says "no problem"....you should have seen the guy's expression of joy, when he heard that my daughter moved to business class with my wife.

Too bad...I could not sit with them....

You could have...just give the stranger the J seat. ;)

On a LHR-JFK flight,as I boarded the plane,I came across a gentleman sitting in my aisle seat. (Coach...way before I'd heard of FlyerTalk).
I explained to him that he was in my seat and he tried explaining to me in broken English (with a Russian accent) that he wanted to sit next to his wife and his seat was in the next row.

Having lived in Russia for 6 years, I speak fluent russian and told him in russian that it wasn't a big deal and I'd be glad to switch seats.

The lady in the next row overheard us talking and says to her neighbor in an audible whisper, "Oh my God what are they talking about in that strange language?" I looked at her and she rolled her eyes in apparent disgust (!?)
Normally I could care less, because I've dealt with a lot of racism in my time in Russia but the whole eye roll just got under my skin.

Turns out that the seat I was being offered to switch for was also an aisle seat and it was all good.
I take my seat and a few minutes later she taps my shoulder and asks me in a voice dripping with honey, if I'd be "so kind" to switch seats with her, because she likes sitting in the aisle seat.

Needless to say, I refused.

If one finds being asked for an uneven seat swap to be a "horror story," I wonder how that person copes with a real problem.

If one has trouble recognizing hyperbole, I wonder how one functions on a website full of it.

So liking something is a valid excuse? At least come up with an entertaining story!