For starters, you should ask your wife if she even feels like moving down to the biz class just to sit with/near you? :)

I think that's the first question that needs to be asked before any discussion of swapping seats. In all honesty though, it would probably be your wife's F seat for some else's seat in C.

Ditto.

That said, I don't recall ever needing to ask anyone to switch with me in coach outside of irrops since getting status in 2000. We book seats together in advance to avoid needing to, and I've been known to book us on slightly less optimal schedules to avoid Boeing narrowbodies to avoid the middle-seat problem entirely.

+2. We'll take poorer schedules just to avoid the issue.

To switch or not to switch is a personal question. It's well within anyone's right not to switch but that still means they are a jerk and an ....... - that is still within their right too.

Karma is a beautiful thing too - there might be a time when one needs to switch but finds that everyone else is sticking to their prime piece of real estate. Or as a poster showed before stick to your seat with the non working power outlet.

What a remarkably arrogant statement! After 20+ years of frequent flying, I've managed to get over a pretty severe flying phobia by, among other things, working out a successful flying methodology. This includes, among other things, having a window seat. In 20+ years of frequent flying, I have sat in a non-window seat exactly twice.

I will not switch for your aisle under any circumstances and, no, that does not make me a jerk and an ....... It makes you an inconsiderate and selfish boor for requiring me to put your comfort above my own.

You might bear that in mind.

Karma is also a ....., and I'll be sure to remember your attitude the next time someone asks to switch with me. My response will be, "No thanks, you entitlement-demanding, karma mis-citing, arrogant boor -- as my choice is switch to my discomfort or be considered by you as a jerk and an ......, I think I prefer the latter."

Ouch.

I would have had the FA help me. In light of the broken seat and all the inconvenience, I would have ended up in first class!

Couldn't agree with you more.

It's fine to ask politely, they might not care (I might not), but to think badly of them if they decline for their own reasons, any reason whatsoever that they may not divulge (none of your business, frankly), is selfish and childish in the extreme.

Its true I can respect your right to your way of travelling and respect your right to be a jerk about it. Nothing wrong with that. If moving really puts you out then so be it - to each his own.

I rarely ask people to switch and am happy to do it when am asked to because its not an issue. Its boors who have to sit in their special space that make switching an issue. My wife an I travel often and often sit in separate middle seats when travelling if we haven't managed to score the right seats before boarding. When travelling alone I don't mind giving up my window or aisle for the middle if it makes someone else happy. Because sometimes you get the middle and someone says do you mind taking the window or the aisle because we would like to sit together.

Yes, I agree. Often during a flight, I'll turn to the person sitting next to me and say, "Fetch me a martini, chop chop!!". It seems that most of my seatmates are jerks because I seldom get a martini out of the exchange. :(

What does Pre-Reserved mean?
 

Why do you think I reserved the window seat or aisle seat? Because this is where I want to sit thank you very much. If you really wanted the window seat or aisle seat then you should have reserved it online when booking or ask the gate agent for your proffered seat. Unless the flight attendant told you to move for reasons beyond your control then you have no right to give up your seat to a demanding passenger(:

I don't get why people keep dragging in this Karma stuff ... do you
seriously think that heaven gives you points for doing little favors for
obnoxious people, which you can cash in when you feel like being
obnoxious yourself?

It's well within anyone's right to post vomitous nonsense, but that still
means they are a jerk and an ....... - that is still within their right too.

It's happened to me too. The last time I had a middle seat someone in an aisle seat a row or two up asked if I would be willing to swap with them. It took me moment to understand they were offering an aisle for a middle seat.

I'm not sure how it happened but somehow they were a group of three and I had ended up between two of them. Seems like a hard thing for the computer to manage to do.

I never sit in that row, Sorry. I've crashed twice--two times--sitting in that row.
 

I seldom switch seats unless it's clear the other person has a real hardship--a small child separated from its mom or pop, for instance. Otherwise, if some old or young farts tell me they're separated, when I've made my reservations months in advance to get the seat where I'm most comfortable, I tell them this, after carefully noting what row they want me to move to: "I'm really sorry. You won't believe, this but I sat in that row many years ago, and the plane went down. Five years later, same row, same tale of horror. I've been flying safely now for the past 35 years, by avoiding that row. I'd really like to stay out of that row, if you don't mind. It would be bad luck for both of us."

I don't think anyone has ever even answered me. They just turn sheepishly and return to their horrible airline seat.