jp12687

luck of the draw-- i didnt complain when a passenger with the worst BO i ever smelled sat next to me last week. I have sent next to plenty of COS in the past. I think UA needs to better define and enforce their rules-- but thats not on me to decide. if the passenger booked one seat and agrees to move i have no recourse. If the passenger should have 2 seats-- thats on UA to make sure he has booked 2 seats and would then not be able to move into a single seat.

I asked the GA the other day on my HNL-EWR flight if they could see if the person next to my wife wanted to swap (after UA kicked a bunch of people out of seat assignments)-- they called the person up and ended up being able to switch 3 people so 2 couples could sit together. Everyone was happy-- everyone got similar seats. People go tot sit with who they wanted to sit with.

I see nothing wrong with this-- if anyone said no then its a no-- but i can atleast ask.

drewguy

Bizarre - if I have this right, why didn't she ask the person in 10B to switch aisle for aisle? Seems like she and husband had 8D and 10A between them - so you (8E) and 10B were the possible switchers. Aisle for aisle is always the more reasonable swap, even if many people might do window/aisle, especially in biz.

drewguy

I think it's fair to assume that no one wants to sit next to a COS if possible, but I don't see how it's relevant if I'm sitting next to one because (a) COS initially selected the seat next to me; (b) COS was assigned that seat because the flight was relatively full and was without seat assignment; (c) COS ended up in the seat because of a swap with someone else. In other words, I don't acquire "rights" to have a customer of normal size next to me at T-24, or even T-10 minutes.

BTW, same thing for an empty seat, although I'd b!tch if someone poached it. (And I was happy to accept the good luck that a pax seemingly took the row 24 middle instead of the row 25 middle by mistake when I was in row 25 aisle on a recent 14-hour TPAC.)

spin88

When the switch was to a less desirable seat, I have at times said, something like "hey, I'm happy to switch, but I really like the aisle (etc), what seat are you trying to get next to?" If the person is huffy in response, well I don't feel I did anything wrong, and if they want to work with me, I can usually figure out a swap that works for everyone.

dilanesp

Sure there is! You were assigned seperate seats. What is the issue with just doing what you are told? That way you insure you are never the cause of some unintended consequence.

dilanesp

I would be very much in favor of airlines selling a block of three reserved seats to parents for an additional charge. That would be perfect for people who require this.

But as long as ONE parent is with the child, I don't see why people have to move around to get the second parent into the row.

Baze

This is a wild guess but are you married and/or have children? I travel most of the year and sometimes my wife joins me. Thus we are almost always on different tickets. We see little enough of each other due to my travel and I like being with her. So asking is no harm no foul. If they say no, so be it. If they say yes, yay. So just saying, what's wrong with being apart for a flight. And yes, it has happened, even on a 5-6 hour flight to Hawaii it happened. Wasn't the end of the world. But it would have been nice if we could have sat togther so I see no problem is asking politely.

dilanesp

I would actually prefer a world where you were prohibited from asking unless the child is completely isolated.

Allowing people to do these things create a sense of entitlement. And if you want to spend more time with your spouse, that is not the responsibility of strangers.

Life generally works better when people just follow the rules

jp12687

Unintended consequences? I ask-- they agreed.

In my case we had assigned seats next to each other-- but then due to IT glitch at united a bunch of seats were blocked for crew rest and when they became available my wife was no longer next to me. we asked-- everyone agreed and was happy with it.

Say no if you want to-- but 3rd parties have no right to say no.

AugustusM

Is there a rule in the CoC about asking to change seats?

hughw

Do you always really do "what you are told?"
- You never said no to your parents?
- You've never asked for a favor?
- You've never asked for a different table in a restaurant than the one the hostess escorted you to?
- You've never said no to your spouse?
- You accept unequivocally what a UA phone agent tells you, even if you suspect it's wrong, or that sometimes they'll interpret something differently if asked nicely?
- You take a cup of poured soda on the plane and don't ask for the can, if it isn't offered?
Personally, I have zero problem with asking for a seat switch if mine is equal or better, and have no problem if someone asks me, although I certainly reserve the right to say no. In your interpretation of doing what you're told, my wife would breaking the rules to offer to switch to a middle seat and to give someone her aisle seat when we've booked window-aisle hoping the middle would stay open.

Ocn Vw 1K

The thread has not only gone off-topic of anything related to United and to meta discussions as well as undue personalizations of members. Those have been deleted per FT Rules. Let's please keep the discussion related to what's happening with United flights as to seat change requests and avoid characterizing other members in a personal way. Thanks, Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

nomad420

I also occasionally travel with my wife even when we are working. We often have to book are tickets individually for business reasons, often at different times. When this happens it can be difficult to get seats together. We will occasionally ask to trade SIMILAR seats (ie. aisle for aisle) of course in the same cabin class. To be honest I would say we only are successful about half the time for a variety of reasons. I don't get all huffy or angry about it. To your point, we were assigned seats so live with them. I just flew with her SFO-BOS and we could get seated together despite trying. She booked the ticket months ago I did a couple of weeks ago. It happens, but I see no harm in politely asking.

narvik

You are right. I never even considered this. I guess there's two possibilities: 1) they either asked 10B and 10B also declined (although that would be odd, since 8D has to be better than 10B, or 2) they desperately wanted the middle two seats "or nothing else".
In any event, I think their haphazard approach to their request was their ultimate doom!

ExplorerWannabe

I understand why parents might want to flank a small child and not inflict him/her on another passenger when the three of them could just occupy a single row.
In addition, I think there's a big difference in the scenarios you're painting. Sitting next to someone of unusual size is a risk we all take no matter what we pick. In this case, the couple (window/middle) who objected to the swapper taking the aisle seat could have had him end up in that seat anyway. In my opinion, this is far different from having to go sit in a middle seat because someone else poached the aisle/window seat you selected.