RTAHGP

I was on a flight today from phl to fll. A woman seated in coach noticed that two FC seats were empty. I heard her conferring with a friend and said "just watch how we get those seats". She proceeded to complain about being sick and afraid that the back of the plane would increase her motion sickness and that she needed to sit in the front. The flight attendant initially looked like she might move her, when she seemed to recall an army officer getting on the plane. He was actually sitting middle seat close to the front. So she offered the woman his seat and promptly moved him into FC. I later told her that she had done a great thing.

cwe84

Karma! Gotta love it!

tommyleo

+1 ^

MisterTanaka

Love it!

jlesterx2

As a retired Soldier, I can't even begin to explain to you how good it makes me feel to see or hear of someone taking care of our troops. One of our local Soldiers came back to the USA last week to Walter Reed without his legs and with only 1 finger left on one of his hands. A local group held a car wash benefit for him. I took my clean car there and went through the line just to make a donation to support his family with the costs of going to Walter Reed to be with him. Thanks for supporting our troops. Those of us who serve and those of us who have now retired are proud to have served you. May God Bless the USA!

ProudDad4A

Walk to coach section.....pick out uniformed military. Approach Seat 21C.

"Excuse me military person. I know this sounds crazy put you are sitting in my favorite seat. Is there any chance for my benefit you would be willing to swap seats with me"

Wink wink "Thanks so much military person"

Taking your seat in 21C, direct military person to Seat 2B.

Works every time.....

lksf

I think that they are not supposed to say yes to you. But if you would ask the FA to take care of it...

gkbiiii

I think what you have done is a great thing!! Our troops are something special and should be treated as such. I don't understand that with such a large defense budget, why our uniformed personnel are not given First Class tickets by the government. These people deserve it, much more than other government bureaucrats.

RIC Hokie

I've never had the chance to switch seats, but if I ran into a soldier coming home from being overseas, I would definitely do it. I've had two brother-in-laws and a cousin all stationed over there, so I would do what I could to thank them if the situation came up.

I know a lot of these soldiers have been away from their families for a long time. Here is a video that has been making the rounds on Facebook. I think it's pretty powerful.

http://video.ak.fbcdn.net/cfs-ak-snc...14ad96f&r=2015

cmcc

I'm not able to get the link to work - could you double check it?

RIC Hokie

If the first link doesn't work, try this one: http://tinyurl.com/39ygcvz

(I'm doing this from my phone, so I'm sorry if I keep botching it)

757lover

^

Had a Chairman the other day do this. He wanted to be completely discreet, didn't want to make a scene, didn't want any recognition or thanks. He just wanted me to give the soldier his seat. The soldier ended up going back to thank him but I don't think that's why he did it. We ended up having an open seat up front after we were done boarding but the Chairman decided he was fine in the back.

bunnyt

Trading seats with soldiers is something I very much enjoy doing. The latest one was a colonel with a chest full of ribbons on a redeye from Orange County to ATL. He said no one had ever done that for him before - unbelievable! He gave me his card and said if I'm ever in D.C. he will take me to lunch :-)

orfflyer

Really? You're a cold MF (and if you throw me in the cornfield or suspend permanently I'm fine with that). we all get to say what we want but maybe, just maybe we can live without the completely unwarranted negativity.
Apologies for tread highjack but this really hits home.
Have a great day...

squatch

this happened a few years ago, so the details are a little fuzzy, but here's something i witnessed...

i was in DCA heading home to LGA after a normal work week, and i was crammed into the Gordon Biersch near the shuttle gates, sharing a table with a total stranger as is normally done there due to lack of space. sitting next to me was a uniformed soldier on leave from iraq and his wife. they were newlyweds and he had just come home to get married. they had a few days for a honeymoon and had somehow booked a last-minute crazy, many stop itinerary to hawaii. they had a stack of us airways boarding passes and said that they had a couple of tight connections and it looked like they may not have been able to actually make the hawaii flight. they were happy and in good spirits anyway and had booked the crazy itinerary because it was fairly cheap and, being in the military, money was tight.

as we were having a couple of drinks and joking around the guy sitting next to them told them he worked for us airways and he'd like to look at their flights and see if he could help. after a couple of minutes, he told them that he might be able to do something and he and the woman left the bar.

she came back about 10 minutes later with a HUGE grin. he had found a way to rebook them with fewer stops and (if i remember correctly) up front seats either to of from hawaii.

anyway, this was a few years ago, but that's roughly how i remember it going down.