AAExPlat

Btw...I had had it happen once before where the GAs took care of the issue (on UA as well), so while this isn't a super rare occurrence, it doesn't always require the pax to settle the issue.

pbuntrock

Couple of years ago sitting in the last row of F in aisle seat, seat in window open. Flight just about to close when a young women comes running; holding her McDonalds dinner bag. Points to the open seat next to me. So, I get up and let her in. FA gives her PDB. Four minutes later a guy comes running on the plane, obviously just barely made his connection. You guessed it, he comes over to my row and show a boarding pass for the F seat next to me. FA comes over immediately and asks the young for her boarding pass - 35F. Her excuse was the she was in a seat in with a seat marked "F". FA gets her to move in about 10 seconds.

The young woman's strategy clearly was to get on the plane as late as possible and look to upgrade herself to some good empty seat. Guessing this wasn't her first time trying this.

mapleg

There's the red flag right there. Who normally travels in F scarfing down McDonalds products?

tuolumne

Had a whacko, late 20s women with a travel duffel, a few years ago leaving Geneva for Dulles, 3-class 767. She walked in, during E boarding, as I had started the first 10 minutes of a movie, and claimed my seat (1K), was hers! I was polite and asked to see her BP, to which she claimed she had "lost". I chuckled, sat down, put the headphones on and continued watching the movie. She didn't like being ignored and tried to step into the suite floor. I ripped my headphones off and told her sternly that's I knew exactly what she was doing, and that perhaps the Air Marshal sitting close by could "help her", OFF the plane. (I was 90% sure he was an AM).

At this point the FA saw the bottle neck and asked what the problem was. I told her this woman thinks she is in seat 1K. FA demands BP angrily - now the woman "finds it" in her back pocket - she was in seat 35E!!

FAs later told me this creature got her multiple requests for alcohol denied for the entire flight. It seems she was drinking before and got a little too courageous.

chavala

But do you agree they should ask first? Is there ever an instance, even with a toddler, that its OK to just sit your butt down in someone's seat?

tarheelnj

Done that. My seat in F (CPU), wife & child in Y in E,F bulkhead seats. I didn't sit down, but stood in front of the D seat and waited for the owner to show up and ask if they would like to trade 7D for 2D. That was a short conversation. If the owner had said no, then Mrs. Tarheelnj would have taken 2D, so there was no way I was going to get that seat either way.

drewguy

Indeed, all that's needed as a tweak to the rule of "first on last off" is "except if you have a tight connection, in which case we'll help you off early".

drewguy

To answer the previous question with a response to this - I would have no objection to your actually sitting in D and keeping your eyes open for someone clearly in that seat, and then immediately stood up to explain the situation.

txaggiemiles

This +1

Thanks for being sensible.

PTravel

They should take it up with the airline. Once again, it is not the problem of strangers. Unless they're traveling in an emergency, I don't care, any more than they care about my travel arrangements.

No, it's planned extortion if they're going to pull the, "okay, if you won't switch then YOU take care of my kid," stunt. Why would they board without adjacent seats? Why wouldn't the take it up with the gate agent and, if necessary, take a later flight or, if worse comes to worse, a different airline?

I assure you that I won't be disadvantaged if he tries this stunt with me. I'm not caring for his child or, for that matter will I pay any attention to the child, assuming the parent is insane enough to allow a small child unable to care for itself to sit next to a total stranger. The parent has created this situation by not assuming that this very common occurrence might happen. It's not my responsibility to rectify. If the specter of an equipment change is too much for a parent to handle, then don't fly with the child. Once again, there's no reason that I should be inconvenienced just because a parent is ill-equipped to handle the vagaries of contemporary commercial air travel.

That's exactly what you should do.

And they might, in which case the displaced passenger's argument is with the airline and not with you.

In other words, lie and steal someone's seat?

It's not the requests to which I object. It's the "move or you have to take care of my toddler" stunt that I find unacceptable. You can certainly ask. Just be prepared to be refused.

Becca1007

I had this happen last year traveling with my significant other and our 7 month old. It was New Years Eve and due to IRROPS we were rebooked onto a different flight. We had pre-selected seats on our original flight so that we would all sit together. On the rebooking the best the gate agent could do was two seats together (myself and the infant) and significant other got a seat further back. Well as we board the gate agent scanned the infant ticket first, then my significant others ticket and then my ticket got the dreaded BEEP, see gate agent.

Somehow my seat assignment had been given away and now I had a seat no where near the other two members of my party. Oh and my SO had to continue boarding the plane, so he technically "poached" a seat by sitting down next to our infant and then making a request to swap with the person who showed up with that seat assignment. The gate agent had no ability at that time to swap my seat back to the originally assigned seat and she said I would have to ask the flight attendants for assistance.

Granted we did the best we could in the situation, and yet some people here would still consider us the "bad" guys.

physioprof

I once boarded and sat in 1E on 737, everything goes normally, plane takes off, and during the drinks+nuts I start chatting to the person in 1B. At some point I was fiddling around with the UA app on my tablet, and I realize that I was supposed to be in 1B. So I said to the person, "Oh, my gosh. I just realized I was supposed to be in 1B. What is your assigned seat?" And she said, "I am 1E, but when I saw you in 1E, I just sat in 1B."

JBord

Good point, when I'm in F it's usually Subway. The other day DFW-ORD it was a turkey bagel sandwich. The others in F surely were jealous when they got their dinners. But I can't ever recall eating McDonalds in F, unless you count the old (delicious!) Jeff McMuffin.

chavala

If you stand up you no longer have your butt in my seat when I get there.
Of course that would be fine -- nobody expects you to stand during the entire boarding process. (It would just be annoying as people are trying to get into the overhead). I'm talking about butt-in-my-seat, making yourself comfy, and EXPECTING me to take your seat. I don't care how many toddlers you are towing.

rickg523

Really does that happen to you often? Mostly I encounter, see, or read about adult couples being that rude. In my experience, parents are generally the most polite, almost to the point of timidity. For example, I've never had a parent threaten me with their child ("Well, then YOU take care of him! He's a total brat.") Doesn't sound like a parent and seriously doubt that it's anything but an airways legend. Most parents faced with an assigned separation, go immediately to the GA or the FA and enlist their assistance. They come over and they ask if you'll swap. You want to engage her in an investigation of just why parent and child are separated and whose fault it is, knock yourself out. FA will just ask someone else. Every FA I've spoken with (otr) says they make mental notes of the cooperative and not so cooperative pax and treat them accordingly.