Seat Hog?
 

Last night flew on a redeye flight in a 737-800. The flight was fairly full with many pax, including myself, sitting three abreast. However I noticed a pax sleeping while occupying three seats. Asked a FA if this was acceptable seeing how other pax were cramped. She responded that she thought this was inconsiderate on the part of the pax, but was not prepared to awaken the pax so some else could share the three seats.

What are your thoughts about allowing a passenger to occupy three seats when others are crowded? Should the FA have reacted differently?

Head down the aisle to the lav.

Stop beside him.

Pee down his leg.

Loudly call out "It's raining!" to wake him.

or better yet, have the FA to wake him and say:

"The gentleman back there wants to buy you a drink."

Always best to let sleeping dogs lie.

People sometimes change seats as boarding completes, and I think it would be unreasonable to try to hold 3 seats at that point, on a packed plane. But if the pax was lying down asleep, this must have been after takeoff. If I'm on a redeye, and the plane takes off, and I'm lucky enough to have a row to myself, yeah, at that point I'll lie down to sleep.

How is it not acceptable, so long as the sleeping passenger was not denying another passenger their assigned seat? Luck of the draw (or careful planning) to end up with a row to yourself.

Anyway, only 3 additional passengers could benefit in the scenario you outlined. That would entail a middle seat passenger moving from a full row of three over to the aisle seat of slightly less empty row (assuming the sleeping passenger wants to keep the window). Not worth the FAs trouble if you ask me. If you wanted the seat you should have asked for it before the other passenger fell asleep.

+1

Agreed! Plus, some airlines will try to give their best customers a row to themselves if they're on a particularly long flight and availability permits.

Lucky guy!

if no one thought to ask before boarding "are there any rows I can move to with an open middle seat" and had it assigned to them... then I say the guy can do whatever he wants.

Unfortunately (and YES it would irritate the heck out of me) first come, first serve. Too bad for the other pax. Myself included - I've been in similar situations.

I dont' see anything wrong with this. That guy was just lucky to have no paxs next to him at all. That's all.

Drooling, twitching, and talking to yourself in a loud voice pretty much guarantees the empty 2 seats :D

Some years ago I was travelling on a 80% full flight from MEL-LAX in coach. As an elite I used First Class check-in.

I was asked if I would like to have a row to myself. The 747 was 3x4x3 in coach and the Agent advised they could block a window and a middle seat then allocate me the aisle in a row of 3.

She said this would be easier to for me to "defend" than "a row of four".

So, to the OP, you do not know the circumstances of this guys travel, perhaps he was a "disrupt" and had been accommodated with blocked seats - or simply an Elite being looked after.

Prime example of a situation where if the OP had such an opportunity nothing would be wrong, but since it's not the OP it's not fair.

If I got a whole row to myself would I tap the person infront of me and let that person know? probably not. As others have said it's the luck of the draw. Sometimes I get an open middle, sometimes I get packed in. It's all fair in the long run. To guarantee yourself space you'd want to buy the seats or pay for a higher class.

I remember many years ago as a freshman writing a paper about Kantian vs utilitarian systems of ethics and this seems like a perfect example.

Kantian analysis (categorical imperative; "do unto others") would suggest that the guy should not hog a whole row. Utilitarian analysis (maximize benefit) would likely yield the opposite (1 vs 0 relatively comfortable people).