I've given up my aisle seat twice... both times for the elderly. My problem is that I think it's the elderly that use their age to get waht they want. But how can you say no to them without looking like a callous a-hole? At least one of the times (the first, I think), before I moved I stated that I booked myself an aisle seat specifically because that's what I prefer.

There was a period of about 2-3 months a year or so ago when there seemed to be a disconnect between the London Paddington Star Alliance checkin (ah, how I miss it...) and the bmi checkin systems. Just about every time I flew, there'd be somebody in my seat.

So I'm very polite about it, and got into a routine of asking them to double-check, standing out of the way of the aisle, pressing the crew call button, and waiting for them to sort it out.

Which, every time, resulted in an upgrade for myself, so I'm not complaining

"I am sure someone sitting next to your wife would be happy to switch into the exit row so that you can move back and sit next to her."

Gotta remember that one. ^ ^ ^

Recently I was flying SCL-EZE on LAN. Wonderful experience (i'm AA Plat, and they treat you REALLY well down here...5x better than American treats its own plats). Got put on an earlier flight (as I was to the aiport before Chilean standards) and got an very roomy bulkhead seat on the A340. When I get there , there's a woman with 8yr. old child asking if I would switch seats with her (center block aisle pretty close). I immediately said yes, as I didn't want her separated from her son. In some situations I'm willing to be very accomodating, as she was very nice about posing the question. (That and it was 1hr 40min flight).

Recently on a flight ORD-MSY i had a window bulkhead seat, got up during flight to visit bathroom -- upon return found someone had taken my seat!!! Actually went to the FA with that one.....

Nope, you're not. Sadly, the sense of entitlement among some passengers gets so inflated they think they have a right just to take your seat because you aren't nearly as important as they are. It's people like that who will fry at the end.

If the man REALLY wanted to sit next to his wife, not give the better seat to the person seated next to her so he could join her IN THE BACK? Funny how he doesn't want to be with her THAT MUCH??

Last March, I had quite an experience with a woman who thought her baby carrier should be situated in my seat.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...eferrerid=5479

Ha ha - I once had an old guy sitting in my seat and I politely pointed out to him that I was flying to Miami (as was the plane) and he was flying to (if memory serves Pittsburgh). If I'd been a gent about it and just sat somewhere else then he could have started a whole new life for himself...

I don't know how old people always seem to manage to do this sort of thing although I doubt it would happen post 911.

I was on ORD-RDU flight last week, when pushy passenger starting negotiating with all of us in exit rows, with request that one of us give up our seat so her boyfriend could sit with her. Boyfriend's original seating assignment was somewhere near back. My husband and I wouldn't budge. Nice man across aisle graciously volunteered. Here's where it gets good: Women and boyfriend get settled and are so happy. Another women, with 3 children takes row right in front of them. Three children (ages 4, twins ages 2) cry almost entire trip, most often hanging over back of seats crying right in faces of women & partner. Children (twins) climbed over, completely over, seatbacks at one time. Child spills one of those little cups on woman who negotiated these seats. Mother seemed to think it was funny. I was so sorry that the man, who so kindly relinquished his seat, could not have seen this all unfold. I endured it all from across the aisle and I just hope he was sitting quietly, with good seatmates, someplace in the back.

This has happened to me twice. Once on Lauda there was a guy in my seat and for some reason the FAs just would not move the guy. They found me another aisle seat and I got to site next an attractive member of the opposite sex - so all was not lost

Then once on VS this extended American familiy had seats over a couple of rows and decided their assigned seat numbers were really only guidelines, as opposed to any requirement to actually sit there. Needless to say they left me the middle seat - and as you know with VS, this is not good.

The FA talks to them and triumphantly tells me I can have the middle seat in the next row back! (I had an aisle). Took some negotiation to secure another aisle seat...

Not good when the FAs aren't on your side

A few weeks ago: I was one of the first to board in Y on a UA flight LAX-ORD. About 3/4 of the way through boarding, the woman in the bulkhead row in front of me & across the aisle asks me if I'll switch with her because she doesn't like the bulkhead. Sure, no problem. I get settled in, and put my nose in my magazine. A few minutes later, a straggler arrives, and accuses the woman in the original seat of being in "her seat," demands to see her boarding pass, etc. Minor chaos ensues because her boarding pass was for a different seat, and as I try to calm the woman down, the FA comes over and asks for my boarding pass. She tells me and the bulkhead woman to take our original seats, that she'll straighten it out, and walks away. I knew I had been op-upped, but I played it cool, as these two women were obviously not FF'ers, and I wanted to wait for the FA to "make it official." As I was walking up front, I heard the FA tell the latecomer that there was a woman who was going to ask her to switch seats, but "don't you switch with her if you want to keep this seat."

As I'm gathering my belongings to move up front, the woman who was originally assigned the bulkhead asked out loud why I was bumped up front instead of the latecomer. (Another clue that she was obviously not a FF'er.) Shortly after takeoff, I looked back into Y, and I saw that the original bulkhead woman had convinced somebody else to switch with her.

Well the pushy passenger met up with a parent who let her kids go wild to the effect of having one her offspring spill something on someone else why the parent thought it was FUNNY. So for all you pushy passengers, be careful what you ask for. You might just get it.

It still happens. I was in Pittsburgh on a Miami-bound flight, and the person next to me was supposed to be on the Orlando-bound flight at the gate next door. He caught the mistake on time.

I've had it happen coming out of BOS. Two kids ended up boarding the wrong Chicago bound flight on UA (the one flight was boarding at the latter flights boarding time due to delays). The kids went to the back of the bus, only to discover that row 32 did not exist. At this point an FA caught them and sent them back to the other plane. How do these people board the flight. Doesn't the GA scan/look at the BP?

W

I'm sure your memory serves correctly in this case.