dangerhsun

I always have a hard time. I've given up better seats to keep families together. I suck at saying no.

NoDestinations

I tried to poach a seat once... well... sort of... I was flying TLV-SFO on the new 777-300ER. I got on the plane and sat down in my seat, 9A. Then another passenger came and told me I was in their seat. Certain that I was in the right seat, I asked to see their boarding pass. They pulled out their phone and it said 1A. I looked back and realized that for some reason I thought I had boarded through 2L and that my seat was right there, next to the door I had walked through, when in reality I had gone through 1L. For those that are unaware, rows 1-18 on that aircraft are all Polaris business and therefore the same type of seat. It could be easy to get confused.

It wasn't a huge scene obviously, but some other passengers in the cabin (who didn't see or hear the exchange) thought that I was a *true* seat poacher as they saw me walking back toward economy and made some remarks to each other.

chebert999

Once I was in 1A and this older lady comes on the flight (LAX-NRT I think) and says I am in her seat. I ask to see the BP and she starts whining but eventually shows the BP. She had 1A. So I'm like: what the heck. I'm not moving.
I call the FA and she looks at the lady BP: she boarded the wrong flight...out she goes.

n198ua

How is that even possible when you have to scan your boarding pass to get on the plane ?

StuckinITH

Same thing happened to the lady who tried to sit in my wife's 8D seat on a pmCO 772. But at least she did not have to do any walk of shame as her seat was 1D. We had boarded through Door 2. However, as soon as she got to her seat, I bet you she wished she had 8D as 1D is right next to the toilet in that plane.

stumblebum

TPAC - really empty up front. Two young men boarded late, seat across from us and immediately buried themselves in their phones.
Flight attendant approached and asked to see their boarding passes. One of them said that the gate agent told them they could sit
upfront. The flight attendant leaned down and got right in their faces and she said "I've been doing this for 30 years. That didn't happen.
Go find your seats."

steveo

I recently had a gate agent write me a new ticket number on my boarding pass on a surprise J upgrade. No new boarding pass. Luckily my name was on their list.
I also had this happen on a LH flight. The flight attendant was just like "WHO ARE YOU?". But once they realized I was legit they were super friendly and even hooked me up with some to go wine.

docbert

Human error probably. Machine beeped when the passenger boarded, but they didn't notice (or confused it with the exit row beep). Or the boarding pass wouldn't scan, so they manually entered the sequence number into the computer (which would have caused problems later when the person with that sequence number tried to board).

fracmeister

About a year ago on UA 46 headed to FRA there were a couple of empty Biz class seats including the one next to me. After takeoff a young man moves up from economy and sits there. It only takes a minute before the FAs ask for his BP and he starts waving his arms and hands in a kind of fake sign language. My ASL isn't too good but good enough to know that he wasn't making any sense so I asked him in ASL "how are you? What is your name?" (practically depleting my ASL vocabulary) and he looks very disappointed. I tell the FA I think he is faking it and she doesn't even have to say anything--he heads back to economy. Now in theory he could have been speaking a sign language other than ASL but I am guessing not.

narvik

He was indeed likely using another sign language other than ASL, called ASP. Quite common amongst attempted seat poachers!

MKE-MR

Just the other day, flying on an AirAsiaX 330, got to my assigned seat in the middle aisle section to find two adults each with a lap child taking up the whole row (D7 330s are 3-3-3 which is miserable anyway).
I calmly reached up and rang the FA call button even without verifying the seat poach attempt--there are only 4 oxygen masks, at most, in the center section, and 4 people sitting there already, so 2 lap children in the same row wasn't going to work anyway (wasn't sure whether Air Asia's PSS was smart enough to have figured that out).

FA saw the problem instantly and said she'd find me another seat--and promptly looked for an empty ROW for me
Only after that happened did the mother quietly offer me the chance to switch to her original seat which was indeed somewhere else.

Of course, the FA hadn't waited until the boarding was completed before blocking "my" new row, so at T-1, another family came rocking up and got very upset at MY "seat poaching" attempt!

I'd say 60+% of flights I see in Asia (higher on low cost carriers) feature attempted self-upgrades. And that's just the ones that fail obviously enough to be noticed...

zitsky

Uh. Don't planes have numbers that tell you what row you're in? How is that confusing?

kilo

zombietooth

This!
I always get the starboard seat in the center pair of the front bulkhead row in the aft J-cabin. I don't have to look at no stinkin' numbers.

narvik

Aye. As an inexperienced flyer one might make such a faux pas through lack of knowledge. As an experienced flyer one might make such a mistake through some small, unexpected change in one's common routine.