iluv2fly

Absolutely! Not even a close call. I'd make sure he weren't flying on my flight.

thefiverivers

Yeah, it didn't really cross my mind at the time because I was just appalled at how he handled the situation. I do remember being annoyed though, but it was one of those moments that in retrospect I wish I did more/said more, but I think I might have been curious as to how he was going to make my flight miserable haha.

TennisNoob

Only had this situation come up twice. Once I did and once I refused. Lady tried trading my E+ seat for the 2nd to the last row in E-. Crazy......

Proudelitist

The moment someone uses profanity, I consider them a potentially unruly pax and I am obligated, for the security of the flight, to advise the crew. Adding threats on top of that and all bets are off.

Rather than hitting the button though, I would get up and quietly advise the crew. No doubt he would poach the seat in the interim..but that's just another mark against him when they confront him.

fezzington

That's not true. Confirmed NRSAs with seat assignments no longer have NRSA anywhere on them. There is a way to tell, but I won't be posting that in a public forum.

They're not supposed to do that. Of course, they're also supposed to board first (assuming the wheelchair guy didn't go AWOL )

Definitely tell the crew. Doing it in the galley is even better. I've heard of flights where passengers have come on arguing and the crew has had to remove one. Since crew is coming in halfway to the conversation, it's best to be able to tell your side of the story without the other party present (and making sure you come across as the calm, level headed party)

It's not fun for crew, but it beats having to deal with it mid flight.

jcamp028

One thing I sometimes see is people who want to switch with someone board earlier and just set themselves up in the desired seat with the plan of informally asking after the fact if it's "alright." Very, very rude..

One thing they need to fix though, if they haven't already, is separating young children from their parents.

Proudelitist

That's called "Poaching" and is the single worst seat swapping sin. Some people..even people here on FT attempt to justify it as easier than holding up boarding..but that's a red herring. They can wait until boarding is done and then approach someone to panhandle the seat. The notion of asking for forgiveness rather than permission is self-serving and arrogant.

Poachers get an INSTANT "no", without explanation, and if they refuse to leave or continue to try and make their case, I am getting the cabin crew to remove them.

As to airlines splitting up children and parents. Yes. But that's not MY problem. That's on the airline and the parents to sort out. It shouldn't be foisted upon another passenger.

YadiMolina

As mentioned by others in this thread, I can't understand that sitting next to a significant other is worth such a confrontation, especially for a 2 hour flight. I fly without my wife a lot. My wife flies without me. We have flown together seated to each other. We have flown together seated apart. We have flown to the same destination on different flights. Somehow, our marriage has survived. The only effort I dedicate to sitting together is some mouse clicks for seat selection at booking or checkin. Anything else, not worth the bother.

ExplorerWannabe

FWIW, I am so offended by poaching that I am much less likely to agree to a seat swap if the would-be swapper has assumed permission and poached my seat ahead of time than if they approach me reasonably and ask for a favor. I have even taken middle seats in the back to place parents with their kids but I just hate it when someone assumes it's okay just because it's more convenient or comfortable for them.

StuckinITH

I wish I would know how to recognize NRSAs but in the end it does not matter because my new modus operandi is to decline any requests for switching seats. I have been burned too many times with worse seats. And, as a previous poster said, when I travel with my wife to the same destination we may be on the same plane or on planes flown by different companies or with the same company on different days. In the same plane, we may be in the same class or in a different class. When in the same class, we may be on different sides of the plane. Some times, we can see each other when seated, other times we don't. It does not matter. We have been married 23 years and I'm lucky that my wife can join me on most of my business trips.

And it seems that, lately, other passengers can see that I would not be the good person to ask for a seat switch. The weirdest experience we had is when we were flying ORD to HKG last year on a 772. I was seated in 6J, my wife in 6H. My neighbor in 6K had her husband in 7K. From the beginning, my neighbor was giving us dirty looks but never said a word, not even "hello". About 10 hours into the flight when I was waiting near the galley to use the restroom, I heard the flight attendant telling my neighbor: "Sorry, I could not ask because they are traveling together". So, obviously, she had asked for help from the FA to switch seats.

jcamp028

Surprised this practice hasn't been viewed as a liability yet by the airlines. Think of a situation where a young child (3, 4, etc.) ends up not being able to sit with their parent and is a number of rows back. In any emergency landing situation, the parent would run back to retrieve the child before evacuating, potentially causing a bottleneck in the aisle (and there's no way the parent would evacuate without first trying to get the child).

MojaveFlyer

As someone who does attempt to swap seats some times, let me ask a question, please. Which do you think is a better seat, middle E+ or aisle toward the front of E-? I would not like to ask someone if they were willing to take an inferior seat, or if they did, at least offer to buy them a drink or two. (Assume an ordinary E+, not ps where there might be a hot meal involved).

ExplorerWannabe

@MojaveFlyer, I will take an aisle at the front of E- over a middle E+ but others may disagree.

bocastephen

I am suspecting this was a scam because the GA seemed to feel something wasn't right and ordered these two to the back of the plane. Had 10F and 10E which was my "extraseat". Two younger people come on, big mouthed girl stops at my row and says "I have 10F" - I replied "no you don't". I started suspecting maybe my upgrade cleared, so I hit the call button - FA appears and says F is full so it can't be that. Big mouth girl points to 10E and says "well, I'll just sit THERE!" - I said "no you won't, that's also my seat and I paid for it". FA runs to get GA who comes back, remembers me from boarding with my two boarding passes, announces both seats are mine and demands to see big mouth's boarding pass before promptly sending her and her companion to the back of the plane.

My guess is she tried this before, had some unprepared person stand up in the aisle to 'sort it out', then she grabbed the E+ seat and refused to move, while the UA crew did the usual "just take any open seat, we need to leave" routine to the hapless fool who got out of their seat.

gold23

I was in the bulkhead CHS-EWR a few weeks back on ERJ-175. Older couple boards and is sitting near the back of the plane. The FA comes up to us and asks both sides if two of us would be interested in switching. The older woman could use some extra space. One woman said "well, they should have thought of that earlier" and put her head phones on. The rest of us were fine with the idea. I ended up switching along with one of the men, and the older gentleman shook our hands and seemed genuinely appreciative. Anyway, the FA comes up to us mid-flight with a business card with a note scribbled on the back. He was the owner of a well known NYC restaurant, and we now each had a free meal. Basically, another passenger provided $200 or so compensation to downgrade E+ to E- for a 1.5 hr flight on a comfortable Y product!