I’m not sure what to call this behavior but I’ve seen more of this the last year or so than the last 35 I’ve been flying. So—I’m booked on a 777-200 with the funky seat chart ORD-EWR on a leg to DUB. I book an aft starboard window seat a month ago when there’s a nearly completely empty cabin.

Yesterday, with the cabin still wide open, MSRH drops in next to me with an open aisle seat. I show this to my younger daughter who says “what-the....” and then she says “wait Dad—don’t let them force you to move....stand your ground!” I explained to her that the MSRH wants the whole row to him or herself. I’ve seen couples even split up taking two middle seats one in front of another hoping they too will get at very minimum, their own empty seat next to them—or if they have any politeness, they’ll slide over and leave the empty middle to share with their “row mates”.

I did move to an open PE window seat a few hours later and I look to see that the row formerly occupied by MSRH has filled completely along with all rows in Y+. Small victory while I’m hoping to clear into many open Polaris seats.

This begs the question...what kind of person is a MSRH?

i guess a smart risk taker would choose an empty row instead of parking next to someone already in the window seat. Why pick a middle next to someone else in an empty plane?

THIS could be a factor. Why on earth with 20-30 empty rows would someone plop themselves down in a middle seat next to me towards the rear of the Y+ cabin.

Not sure about UA, but on AA this sort of thing is extremely common because often aisle or window seats are not free for and people don’t want to pay. Even middle near front can cost $$.

I never thought about the middle seat booking conundrum for google flight or Expedia or even UA for BE purchases. This makes a lot more sense than whomever booked this middle seat actually choosing it for some tactical reason.