omahajim

Was going to write exactly that reply, until I read downthread to see that you had beat me to the punch

http://www.row22.com/

(so I'm doing it anyways in order to share the link)

milepig

I guess this doesn't surprise me all that much.

I tend to always book the same seat if it is available, and suspect others do the same. So, if I happen to get the same outbound and return flights as another FF it seems entirely logical that both of us might happen to choose our regular seats and wind up together both times.

My funny story is flying across the aisle from a couple AMS-FLR who were all lovey dovey on the AMS-FLR leg. Got on the return FLR-AMS flight a few days later and they wound up right across the aisle from me again. This time you could cut the tension with a knife and I thought they were going to strangle each other at any moment.

RonDace

This happened once to me. One the return from Colombia, SC I noticed that the woman sitting next to me had been in the exit row across from me on our way from ORD. We talked briefly about this then we found out that we were both visiting the same company although completely different people/departments.

4444

one year flew ewr-fll i think 39 weekends in a row. the whole fist class cabin was almost the same people every weekend coming and going.

Yaatri

When you travel like most FTers do, it's not extremely unsual. I had the same crew on three legs. MSY-MEM-EWR-MSP.
Moe than a few times, I have had the same crew going and coming between MSP and LAX.
Once I had the same person siting next to me in F both ways.

fnothaft

Strangest I've ever had was flying a same day SFO-PDX-SFO, sat across the aisle from a girl both ways. Wasn't so much that it was strange otherwise, except for the fact that it was a same day turn, on a Saturday, on an extremely lightly loaded plane.

pinniped

There have been three periods in my life when I got to know my fellow passengers:

(a) MCI-ORD-MCI in the mid-'90s. Monday 8-ish AM flight out, Friday 2:55PM flight home. Frequently sat next to the same people over the course of the two years I was doing it.

(b) MCI-DCA-MCI in the late '90's. 7AM flight out on Monday, last flight back on Thursday night. I'd see Congressmen on that Monday flight on occasion, although I never bugged any of them. I sat exit row aisle and sort of got to know the guy who liked exit row window on that Thursday flight.

(c) MCI-DEN-MCI about two years ago. My returns were always random, but the Monday morning outbound crowd became familiar to me. 16D was usually the same guy; I was 16F. We were both 1P's and it was a very early AM flight...that's why we rarely chose to upgrade the flight.

I'm not sure exactly why, but at some point in the past decade I switched from an Exit Row Aisle guy to an Exit Row Window guy. In non-exit rows, I still go for the aisle.

BamaVol

Flying regularly out of a smallish airport, I've seen the same people at the gate Sunday night after Sunday night. I can't recall sitting next to the same one, though.

Even odder for me is bumping into pax from my incoming flight afterwards. We once ran into a family in El Yunque that had arrived at SJU on our flight 2 days earlier. They recognized us as well and we sat and talked while the kids had snacktime.

davidcalgary29

I can't tell you how many times this happened to me when I was a frequent flyer in the NWT -- week after week, the same gang would all troop down to Edmonton for the weekend or up to Inuvik, Norman Wells, or Hay River for biz, and we all had our favourite seats that we'd return to. Of course, those chance random encounters become somewhat less so when the entire flying population is a minute (and consistent) percentage of 40,000 people.