mr8

You'd have to be very lucky to get away with it.
I was recently booked on a 3-cabin 772 ORD-NRT which was swapped to a Polaris retrofit at the last min, so I was in row 1 window.
Was chatting with some of the FAs pre-departure and overheard them say that the business cabin was fully booked even though several seats were empty very close to departure time. Some families came running up right before the door closed, but one of the middle seats in row 1 did remained open - app eventually updated to show that it was unoccupied.
I'm guessing that person misconnected, so some Y pax could have poached that seat, but you'd have to be very lucky and hope that the FAs don't double check.

TL;DR - Find the seat where a pax misconnected at the very last min on a full flight, AND hope they don't reassign someone to that seat AND hope that the FAs don't check their apps/manifest.

Aussienarelle

This happened around 7 years ago, I think, and I still remember it. I was in one of the dreaded middle seats with the 2-4-2 configuration. International flight. I am watching people board and this 20 something year old, stops at the seat across the aisle, looks at his BP, looks around and then sits down with his backpack. He was not well dressed, just a young kid getting on a flight, and I thought oh his parent must have got him the ticket as he seemed somewhat unsure of the seat. I go back to settling in and then look up when he is arguing with the FA. His view point was that there was no one in the seat and he does not like the seat he has been allocated and he is going to stay put. I still remember all that all these years later as I am not sure I would have the audacity at that age to have tried that approach. The FA then gets the Purser involved and the young man reluctantly agrees to leave. My initial thought was well if you do not ask you do not get. Once we were in the air he came back to the front cabin and when asked the by the FA what he was doing there he informed her he wanted to see what his dining options were! The FA quickly shooed him out of the cabin. The seat he tried to sit in never had an occupant. Bizarre.

The second incident was a couple of years ago, and was on a 787. I was in 8E and a young lady sat down next to me in 8D and started chatting to me. She was telling me how much nicer the seat was than the seat in row 10. I commented I thought seats 8D and 8E were some of the most desired seats on the aircraft. Then another pax came up and asked her if she was in the incorrect seat. She sad he was welcome to have 10G. He commented he wanted 8D since that was the seat on his BP. She looks at me and asks if I can help her out by getting the man (the other pax) to sit in 10G. Then the FA appears as the boarding process is now held up and asks Miss 10G to move to her assigned seat. She moves and then approaches me to ask me to help her - I have never met this person before. She suffers from claustrophobia and cannot sit in row 10. I told her she needed to go and speak to a FA. Someone in the front cabin swapped with her. Another bizarre situation.

brp1264

I've had this happen to me once, but the person didn't do it on purpose.

I was taking the Island Hopper from Guam to Kwajalein, and it had a few stops on the way. At every stop, they'd make an alternative side of economy deplane and then do a security check. First class did not have to deplane at all. I decided at Pohnpei that I'd deplane and stretch my legs a bit anyway, and when I came back onto the plane there was a woman and her toddler sat in my row. She didn't speak English and it seemed that it was the first time she was ever on a plane - she must have treated it like a bus and just sat down in the first empty seat she saw. I had to get the flight attendant to come over and ask her to move since she didn't understand me. Definitely one of the most interesting flights I've ever been on.

Annalisa12

say... there was no phone here

threeoh

That's a great risk/benefit analysis, for a passenger who can afford J to steal an iPhone when they could easily be identified by their seating record.

I frequently leave my phone or laptop on my seat when I go to the lav. Somehow, no one has ever stolen it. Even in slum Y!

Steve M

I think it's at least possible that this was not an attempt at seat poaching per se, but just a Y passenger whose iPhone, and intended source of entertainment/communication for the flight, was low on power. Perhaps it crossed is mind that he might get away with actually sitting in the seat for the duration of the flight, but that his primary intent was just to charge his phone until he got caught.

Different people value things differently. I've never owned a pair of sneakers that cost anywhere near $1500, but have paid 3x that for a flight, even though the sneakers might provide years of service as compared to the flight which lasted only 13 hours. Some people would call those of us that spend 4 figures for a half-day flight, as opposed to a durable good, crazy.

porciuscato

This is a thing. I've only had a seat poached twice and both times it was by someone who "didn't speak English." In one case, it later became clear that they actually did. It was just part of the ploy. In the other case, I'd bet they did speak English as well, but had no direct evidence.

catcher1

Shouldn't he have been charged for the beer?

brp1264

Haha, no, this woman looked like she didn't have two pennies to rub together and definitely didn't speak English. There were a lot of locals on this Island Hopper flight who never flew before and were able to travel on it via subsidized tickets by foreigners like myself (it cost me $2000 for a roundtrip economy Guam-Kwajalein).

zombietooth

This seems unlikely because all seats on the 77W have charging ports/power outlets. In addition, row 9 is at the front of the aft J-cabin. Row 18 is at the back of the aft J-cabin so, if he was just looking to charge, he should've picked a row closer to his coach seat. And he could've gotten away with it a lot longer in row 18 since it ended-up going out with 3 empty seats.

UA_Flyer

LIH

PDB in first.

narvik

The poacher might have not known this though and maybe just assumed it didn't.
Pretty audacious move nonetheless.

t5campbell

I had a flight from LAX to IAH a few months back. I am E+ aisle seat. A "guy" came up and asked if I would switch with him so he could sit with his wife who was in the middle seat next to me. He said his sit was just in front of me on the aisle. I switched with him no big deal. As boarding was finishing a gentlemen came up and stated that was his seat. I looked at his ticket and it actually was. The "guy" actually had a middle seat next to him. He looked at me like oops I made a mistake with an I got you grin on his face. His face turned south when I rang the bell for the attendant saying he was in my seat. Luckily everyone around minus his wife told the attendant what he tried to do.

narvik

Wicked stuff.
Best to double-check the boarding pass of the person requesting a seat change, to avoid such shenanigans.