How do people feel about even-trading plane seats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last week I flew cross country and had a middle seat. A couple came and they had the aisle and window seats on either side of me. They said they book that way in hopes the middle seat is not taken. They offered to trade me the middle for the aisle and I sure as hell took them up on the offer! But otherwise, I wouldn’t trade aisle for window, not with my bladder.

I refuse to switch with the absolute A-holes who do this. They make so much harder for people who actually want to sit together to find seats together.

F—k them. I keep my middle seat every time.

Please explain? Because the math is not mathing.

Whenever i try to book a flight lately with my family, i encounter planes for which literally the only empty seats are middle seats. Therefore it is impossible for me to find even two seats together despite a willingness to pay and what (to me) is a perfectly reasonable timeline for booking flights.

Now, i understand first-come, first served and i am not complaining. It the flight happens to have been filled by a bunch of singletons or people who otherwise don’t want to sit next to someone, fine, I’ll deal.

But it makes my blood boil when people do it deliberately in effort to game the system. I repeat, F—k them. I carefully selected my middle seat out of the dozens of middle seats and I’m keeping it.

Stop planning so last minute. Early bird gets the worm.

Sorry i didn’t plan ahead for the family funeral. I’m SUCH an idiot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last week I flew cross country and had a middle seat. A couple came and they had the aisle and window seats on either side of me. They said they book that way in hopes the middle seat is not taken. They offered to trade me the middle for the aisle and I sure as hell took them up on the offer! But otherwise, I wouldn’t trade aisle for window, not with my bladder.

I refuse to switch with the absolute A-holes who do this. They make so much harder for people who actually want to sit together to find seats together.

F—k them. I keep my middle seat every time.

Please explain? Because the math is not mathing.

Whenever i try to book a flight lately with my family, i encounter planes for which literally the only empty seats are middle seats. Therefore it is impossible for me to find even two seats together despite a willingness to pay and what (to me) is a perfectly reasonable timeline for booking flights.

Now, i understand first-come, first served and i am not complaining. It the flight happens to have been filled by a bunch of singletons or people who otherwise don’t want to sit next to someone, fine, I’ll deal.

But it makes my blood boil when people do it deliberately in effort to game the system. I repeat, F—k them. I carefully selected my middle seat out of the dozens of middle seats and I’m keeping it.

Stop planning so last minute. Early bird gets the worm.

Early bird here. The worm sometimes taken away. No matter how early you booked it. Life is better when you offer grace.

[Anonymous]

Second mouse gets the cheese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last week I flew cross country and had a middle seat. A couple came and they had the aisle and window seats on either side of me. They said they book that way in hopes the middle seat is not taken. They offered to trade me the middle for the aisle and I sure as hell took them up on the offer! But otherwise, I wouldn’t trade aisle for window, not with my bladder.

I refuse to switch with the absolute A-holes who do this. They make so much harder for people who actually want to sit together to find seats together.

F—k them. I keep my middle seat every time.

Please explain? Because the math is not mathing.

Whenever i try to book a flight lately with my family, i encounter planes for which literally the only empty seats are middle seats. Therefore it is impossible for me to find even two seats together despite a willingness to pay and what (to me) is a perfectly reasonable timeline for booking flights.

Now, i understand first-come, first served and i am not complaining. It the flight happens to have been filled by a bunch of singletons or people who otherwise don’t want to sit next to someone, fine, I’ll deal.

But it makes my blood boil when people do it deliberately in effort to game the system. I repeat, F—k them. I carefully selected my middle seat out of the dozens of middle seats and I’m keeping it.

DP

Suppose the couple books an aisle and middle. This leaves the window. You still aren't getting "two seats together" under this arrangement either. The only possibility is passengers booking middle and windows, leaving two aisle adjacent seats in the same row.

So F—k anyone who books aisle seats. Except PP.

There is the possibility of aisle-aisle adjacent seats, dimwit.

I mentioned this arrangement in the post you quoted: "leaving two aisle adjacent seats in the same row".

You also have the currency of an aisle seat which can hopefully trade for a middle.

[Anonymous]

Please don’t ask. As the answer is no.

[Anonymous]

Didn’t read the whole thread, but not really a fan of changing seats. I might do it for a young child, but I will want the flight attendant to take care of the seat change. On United, which I mostly fly, your seat is tied to your Mileage Plus account, which has your credit card. I don’t want somebody ordering cocktails and snacks on my dime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We fly a lot and have never had this happen (family of 5). People are making me worry about our upcoming trip lol.

I have had to separate from my kids because we had to change flights last minute, or were on Southwest. Only one time did I ask for someone to move because my youngest was 7, and there weren’t any seats near each other. A young adult went to sit in an exit row, so we could sit together and I hope it was win-win.

I do think this is mostly the airlines’ fault, but entitled people definitely make it worse.

It seems less likely to happen if you book everyone under the same reservation. Our worst experiences are when, for instance, my 16-year-old and I were booked together and my wife and the other children were booked together. In this scenario, that's two reservations but we executed them within minutes of each other and selected all seats together.

Well the airline in their infinite wisdom:
-moved my 16-year-old
-"upgraded" me to a different location
-kept my wife and 4 other children together

So that's 3 locations on one airplane. This is 7 people with the same last name who all booked to sit together.

Unclear how 7 people can sit together on any narrow body aircraft given 3 seats each side of the aisle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last week I flew cross country and had a middle seat. A couple came and they had the aisle and window seats on either side of me. They said they book that way in hopes the middle seat is not taken. They offered to trade me the middle for the aisle and I sure as hell took them up on the offer! But otherwise, I wouldn’t trade aisle for window, not with my bladder.

I refuse to switch with the absolute A-holes who do this. They make so much harder for people who actually want to sit together to find seats together.

F—k them. I keep my middle seat every time.

I fly Southwest, and before they started assigning seats, couples ALWAYS did this -- and almost always they stayed in their aisle/window seats. As long as they didn't try to talk over me, fine. But the first time one of them did, I would say "Would you like to switch seats so you can converse?" Either they did, or they stopped talking over me. Problem solved.

When my wife and I fly together, we almost never sit together. She likes to be as close as possible to the front of the plane and she doesn't care about middle seats. I'm usually a few rows back in the window.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Once I am seated down and settled in I generally will not want to relocate, better seat or not.

"Settled in"? What, did you have to build a nest? You freaking sat down, with one item in your hands.

Oh look. The a-hole who is too cheap to pay for seat assignments and expects everyone else to move for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We fly a lot and have never had this happen (family of 5). People are making me worry about our upcoming trip lol.

I have had to separate from my kids because we had to change flights last minute, or were on Southwest. Only one time did I ask for someone to move because my youngest was 7, and there weren’t any seats near each other. A young adult went to sit in an exit row, so we could sit together and I hope it was win-win.

I do think this is mostly the airlines’ fault, but entitled people definitely make it worse.

It seems less likely to happen if you book everyone under the same reservation. Our worst experiences are when, for instance, my 16-year-old and I were booked together and my wife and the other children were booked together. In this scenario, that's two reservations but we executed them within minutes of each other and selected all seats together.

Well the airline in their infinite wisdom:
-moved my 16-year-old
-"upgraded" me to a different location
-kept my wife and 4 other children together

So that's 3 locations on one airplane. This is 7 people with the same last name who all booked to sit together.

But they kept all the young children with they adult that they booked with? That doesn't seem unreasonable, or like a problem that needs to be solved, other than I'd probably at least offer to switch with my spouse.

[Anonymous]

I think that parents who need to sit with their children due to their age, should pay to choose seats, and choose seats together. But if they get separated, I think that asking people if they are willing to switch is fine, as long as they do so politely and accept no for an answer.

I think saying no to a switch for any reason is also fine.

I think people with disabilities should contact the airlines and make sure that they get the seating accommodations they need, including seating with a companion. If those accommodations aren't granted than I think that is the fight attendant's job to solve that problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last week I flew cross country and had a middle seat. A couple came and they had the aisle and window seats on either side of me. They said they book that way in hopes the middle seat is not taken. They offered to trade me the middle for the aisle and I sure as hell took them up on the offer! But otherwise, I wouldn’t trade aisle for window, not with my bladder.

I refuse to switch with the absolute A-holes who do this. They make so much harder for people who actually want to sit together to find seats together.

F—k them. I keep my middle seat every time.

Please explain? Because the math is not mathing.

Whenever i try to book a flight lately with my family, i encounter planes for which literally the only empty seats are middle seats. Therefore it is impossible for me to find even two seats together despite a willingness to pay and what (to me) is a perfectly reasonable timeline for booking flights.

Now, i understand first-come, first served and i am not complaining. It the flight happens to have been filled by a bunch of singletons or people who otherwise don’t want to sit next to someone, fine, I’ll deal.

But it makes my blood boil when people do it deliberately in effort to game the system. I repeat, F—k them. I carefully selected my middle seat out of the dozens of middle seats and I’m keeping it.

First, "reasonable to you" means nothing, if the majority of the seats are already booked. But that's beside the point.

In the scenario you are describing, it doesn't matter *which* two seats the earlier bookers took - there still won't be any seats together for your family. Let's say that no couple traveling together did what you are complaining about, and all took either the middle and window or middle and aisle seats. It's no easier for you to find seats together, because there's still only one seats available in the row.

How is this not obvious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last week I flew cross country and had a middle seat. A couple came and they had the aisle and window seats on either side of me. They said they book that way in hopes the middle seat is not taken. They offered to trade me the middle for the aisle and I sure as hell took them up on the offer! But otherwise, I wouldn’t trade aisle for window, not with my bladder.

I refuse to switch with the absolute A-holes who do this. They make so much harder for people who actually want to sit together to find seats together.

F—k them. I keep my middle seat every time.

Please explain? Because the math is not mathing.

Whenever i try to book a flight lately with my family, i encounter planes for which literally the only empty seats are middle seats. Therefore it is impossible for me to find even two seats together despite a willingness to pay and what (to me) is a perfectly reasonable timeline for booking flights.

Now, i understand first-come, first served and i am not complaining. It the flight happens to have been filled by a bunch of singletons or people who otherwise don’t want to sit next to someone, fine, I’ll deal.

But it makes my blood boil when people do it deliberately in effort to game the system. I repeat, F—k them. I carefully selected my middle seat out of the dozens of middle seats and I’m keeping it.

DP

Suppose the couple books an aisle and middle. This leaves the window. You still aren't getting "two seats together" under this arrangement either. The only possibility is passengers booking middle and windows, leaving two aisle adjacent seats in the same row.

So F—k anyone who books aisle seats. Except PP.

There is the possibility of aisle-aisle adjacent seats, dimwit.

So what you are saying is that people who book early shouldn't book aisle seats, so that people who book later have the possibility of sitting across the aisle from their traveling companions, rather than sittign in middle seats scattered around the plane? Sorry, no. I prefer the aisle seats for a whole host of reasons, and I often pay more for it. I'm staying put.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last week I flew cross country and had a middle seat. A couple came and they had the aisle and window seats on either side of me. They said they book that way in hopes the middle seat is not taken. They offered to trade me the middle for the aisle and I sure as hell took them up on the offer! But otherwise, I wouldn’t trade aisle for window, not with my bladder.

I refuse to switch with the absolute A-holes who do this. They make so much harder for people who actually want to sit together to find seats together.

F—k them. I keep my middle seat every time.

My husband and I do this sometimes. If the middle person doesn't want to move, that's fine with me, we'll stick with our better seats. We book the seats we like-- I like window seats, my husband likes aisle seats. We offer to switch with the middle seat person if they want to, bit if they don't, no problem.

[Anonymous]

I think most of you just suck. I generally won't move to a worse seat except for little kids to sit by their parent. But if I'm by myself and someone asks me to switch to an equivalent seat, I'll do it because I just prefer to be a nice person.