Families booking middle seats and then expecting others to switch with them

[Anonymous]

To those posters who love to reiterate how you forgo cheaper tickets to assure you are assigned seats together... I assume you also forgo cheaper coach seats that recline so that you aren't entitled to bitch about people who have the audacity to recline their reclinable seats?

[Anonymous]

Didn't you say you were done with this thread?

You started off talking about business travelers and now you're talking about families displacing other families. What the fuck?

Are you on the wrong thread? The original post and follow up was about families with teens displacing other families. It had nothing to do with business travelers. I would suspect that business travelers experience this even more and have become less apt to give up their seats for families as a result.

I wonder how many people on this have upcoming vacations and have only booked middle seats. Good luck getting people to move for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I am not trolling and I'm pretty shocked that a few people think its actually OK to do this to others. I always thought that this only happened due to airlines re-assigning people. We recently had a flight canceled on us. We were offered another flight later that afternoon but there were only middle seats available so we reluctantly had to wait until the late night flight which was not pleasant with small kids but better than across the country in separate seats. When we were originally searching for tickets, we also were bummed that one of the best priced fares only had middle seats available so we didn't take it. I learned on this past trip that other people just do what is convenient for them and expect others to accomodate them. They take the earlier flight or book the cheap tickets and just expect others will give up their seats. There are several people on this thread that seem to be doing this with full entitlement too. This sucks for the people who do end up get separated for no fault of their own because fewer people will be willing to switch with them.

On our latest trip a man whose middle seat was next to my husband asked my husband (on the aisle) to switch with his teenage son who was two rows up and in a middle seat. His english wasn't very good and we assumed that it was a father and son traveling from abroad and may have been nervous in a strange country. Once my husband who was significantly taller than the adult man moved, his wife showed up and she had the window seat. I managed our two young kids alone, DH was crunched in a middle seat and this adult man enjoyed the aisle, his wife enjoyed the window and their son sat between them. In hindsight, we should have made them move back and they seemed so entitled that they should get comfortable seats together.

On the flight back it happened again. This time a woman asked my husband to switch his aisle seat with her 12 year old in a middle seat again only one row up from her and her middle seat. He said no (after getting burned the last time) and she seemed very annoyed. Her husband was one row back trying to switch people out of aisle and window seats so he could sit with their two other kids who were under five. One person gave up a seat but he was having trouble finding someone else to switch. I started to offer to have my husband sit with our kids and I would switch around but then the mother jumped in and wanted us to do that so she could sit with her 12 yr again and find someone else to switch for the smaller kids. We told her no to that again and sat down. The flight attendant finally came back and someone else did take a middle seat to let the dad sit with the little kids without the mother jumping in again. She then kept pushing the issue of switching around with people to be with her older son and the flight attendant had to tell her loudly that 12 was old enough to sit by himself and that she needed to sit down. This family ended up delaying the plane by 15-20 minutes. The pilot had to come on to the speakers and tell people that they needed to sit down in their assigned seats or the plane would be even more delayed. Finally someone gave up their aisle seat so the mother could sit next to her 12 year old son and the plane could take off. The flight staff seemed like they were going to throw her off the plane. We mentioned to the father who was behind us how shocked we were that airline would separate a family of five in all middle seats. He replied that they had booked/accepted the middle seats and didn't think it would be that hard to find 3-5 people to switch with them. Seriously??

If I were flying by myself, I'd have no problem giving up my seat so a family to could sit together. But why would your husband agree to give up his seat with his two young kids so that a dad could fly with a teenager? I would have said no in that situation, and I would have been pissed if my husband left me to deal with our two young kids by myself in that situation. In the second situation, the wife was clearly a PITA. A twelve year old can fly by himself with no problem. That was nice of you to try to help out.

But I can't for the life of me figure out why in your first story, you gave up seats on an earlier flight to take a late night flight just because they were all middle seats on the earlier flight. The airline bumped you from your first flight. That was their fault, not yours. So then you purposely inconvenienced yourselves and made your kids stay up for some late night flight just because you don't want to inconvenience anyone else? People are generally nice if you give them the chance to be. I'm sure you could have switched seats to sit together without an issue. It certainly wasn't your fault that you were bumped to a later flight without seats together. You should have taken the first flight in the first story and your husband should have said no in the second. Learn to (nicely) stick up for yourself. Goodness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To those posters who love to reiterate how you forgo cheaper tickets to assure you are assigned seats together... I assume you also forgo cheaper coach seats that recline so that you aren't entitled to bitch about people who have the audacity to recline their reclinable seats?

Reclinable seats are cheaper? And we'd buy them so we're not entitled? Try again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I am not trolling and I'm pretty shocked that a few people think its actually OK to do this to others. I always thought that this only happened due to airlines re-assigning people. We recently had a flight canceled on us. We were offered another flight later that afternoon but there were only middle seats available so we reluctantly had to wait until the late night flight which was not pleasant with small kids but better than across the country in separate seats. When we were originally searching for tickets, we also were bummed that one of the best priced fares only had middle seats available so we didn't take it. I learned on this past trip that other people just do what is convenient for them and expect others to accomodate them. They take the earlier flight or book the cheap tickets and just expect others will give up their seats. There are several people on this thread that seem to be doing this with full entitlement too. This sucks for the people who do end up get separated for no fault of their own because fewer people will be willing to switch with them.

On our latest trip a man whose middle seat was next to my husband asked my husband (on the aisle) to switch with his teenage son who was two rows up and in a middle seat. His english wasn't very good and we assumed that it was a father and son traveling from abroad and may have been nervous in a strange country. Once my husband who was significantly taller than the adult man moved, his wife showed up and she had the window seat. I managed our two young kids alone, DH was crunched in a middle seat and this adult man enjoyed the aisle, his wife enjoyed the window and their son sat between them. In hindsight, we should have made them move back and they seemed so entitled that they should get comfortable seats together.

On the flight back it happened again. This time a woman asked my husband to switch his aisle seat with her 12 year old in a middle seat again only one row up from her and her middle seat. He said no (after getting burned the last time) and she seemed very annoyed. Her husband was one row back trying to switch people out of aisle and window seats so he could sit with their two other kids who were under five. One person gave up a seat but he was having trouble finding someone else to switch. I started to offer to have my husband sit with our kids and I would switch around but then the mother jumped in and wanted us to do that so she could sit with her 12 yr again and find someone else to switch for the smaller kids. We told her no to that again and sat down. The flight attendant finally came back and someone else did take a middle seat to let the dad sit with the little kids without the mother jumping in again. She then kept pushing the issue of switching around with people to be with her older son and the flight attendant had to tell her loudly that 12 was old enough to sit by himself and that she needed to sit down. This family ended up delaying the plane by 15-20 minutes. The pilot had to come on to the speakers and tell people that they needed to sit down in their assigned seats or the plane would be even more delayed. Finally someone gave up their aisle seat so the mother could sit next to her 12 year old son and the plane could take off. The flight staff seemed like they were going to throw her off the plane. We mentioned to the father who was behind us how shocked we were that airline would separate a family of five in all middle seats. He replied that they had booked/accepted the middle seats and didn't think it would be that hard to find 3-5 people to switch with them. Seriously??

If I were flying by myself, I'd have no problem giving up my seat so a family to could sit together. But why would your husband agree to give up his seat with his two young kids so that a dad could fly with a teenager? I would have said no in that situation, and I would have been pissed if my husband left me to deal with our two young kids by myself in that situation. In the second situation, the wife was clearly a PITA. A twelve year old can fly by himself with no problem. That was nice of you to try to help out.

But I can't for the life of me figure out why in your first story, you gave up seats on an earlier flight to take a late night flight just because they were all middle seats on the earlier flight. The airline bumped you from your first flight. That was their fault, not yours. So then you purposely inconvenienced yourselves and made your kids stay up for some late night flight just because you don't want to inconvenience anyone else? People are generally nice if you give them the chance to be. I'm sure you could have switched seats to sit together without an issue. It certainly wasn't your fault that you were bumped to a later flight without seats together. You should have taken the first flight in the first story and your husband should have said no in the second. Learn to (nicely) stick up for yourself. Goodness.

No I agree with OP here. If I see a flight has only scattered middle seats, I say that flight is sold out as far as my family of 5 goes. I don't expect the entire flight to rearrange because I ran into a rainstorm or other delay (that wasn't even my fault!).

[Anonymous]

No I agree with OP here. If I see a flight has only scattered middle seats, I say that flight is sold out as far as my family of 5 goes. I don't expect the entire flight to rearrange because I ran into a rainstorm or other delay (that wasn't even my fault!).

I disagree. It would absolutely be wrong to purchase the middle seats in advance, knowing that you would be expecting people to switch, but if you get bumped and your other choice is languishing in a random airport for hours, it is a situation beyond your control. You are not asking the "entire flight to rearrange." You are asking for a one or two people to be willing to switch. If you have very young children, it is the just right thing for people to do, and they should be expected to act like decent human beings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I am not trolling and I'm pretty shocked that a few people think its actually OK to do this to others. I always thought that this only happened due to airlines re-assigning people. We recently had a flight canceled on us. We were offered another flight later that afternoon but there were only middle seats available so we reluctantly had to wait until the late night flight which was not pleasant with small kids but better than across the country in separate seats. When we were originally searching for tickets, we also were bummed that one of the best priced fares only had middle seats available so we didn't take it. I learned on this past trip that other people just do what is convenient for them and expect others to accomodate them. They take the earlier flight or book the cheap tickets and just expect others will give up their seats. There are several people on this thread that seem to be doing this with full entitlement too. This sucks for the people who do end up get separated for no fault of their own because fewer people will be willing to switch with them.

On our latest trip a man whose middle seat was next to my husband asked my husband (on the aisle) to switch with his teenage son who was two rows up and in a middle seat. His english wasn't very good and we assumed that it was a father and son traveling from abroad and may have been nervous in a strange country. Once my husband who was significantly taller than the adult man moved, his wife showed up and she had the window seat. I managed our two young kids alone, DH was crunched in a middle seat and this adult man enjoyed the aisle, his wife enjoyed the window and their son sat between them. In hindsight, we should have made them move back and they seemed so entitled that they should get comfortable seats together.

On the flight back it happened again. This time a woman asked my husband to switch his aisle seat with her 12 year old in a middle seat again only one row up from her and her middle seat. He said no (after getting burned the last time) and she seemed very annoyed. Her husband was one row back trying to switch people out of aisle and window seats so he could sit with their two other kids who were under five. One person gave up a seat but he was having trouble finding someone else to switch. I started to offer to have my husband sit with our kids and I would switch around but then the mother jumped in and wanted us to do that so she could sit with her 12 yr again and find someone else to switch for the smaller kids. We told her no to that again and sat down. The flight attendant finally came back and someone else did take a middle seat to let the dad sit with the little kids without the mother jumping in again. She then kept pushing the issue of switching around with people to be with her older son and the flight attendant had to tell her loudly that 12 was old enough to sit by himself and that she needed to sit down. This family ended up delaying the plane by 15-20 minutes. The pilot had to come on to the speakers and tell people that they needed to sit down in their assigned seats or the plane would be even more delayed. Finally someone gave up their aisle seat so the mother could sit next to her 12 year old son and the plane could take off. The flight staff seemed like they were going to throw her off the plane. We mentioned to the father who was behind us how shocked we were that airline would separate a family of five in all middle seats. He replied that they had booked/accepted the middle seats and didn't think it would be that hard to find 3-5 people to switch with them. Seriously??

If I were flying by myself, I'd have no problem giving up my seat so a family to could sit together. But why would your husband agree to give up his seat with his two young kids so that a dad could fly with a teenager? I would have said no in that situation, and I would have been pissed if my husband left me to deal with our two young kids by myself in that situation. In the second situation, the wife was clearly a PITA. A twelve year old can fly by himself with no problem. That was nice of you to try to help out.

But I can't for the life of me figure out why in your first story, you gave up seats on an earlier flight to take a late night flight just because they were all middle seats on the earlier flight. The airline bumped you from your first flight. That was their fault, not yours. So then you purposely inconvenienced yourselves and made your kids stay up for some late night flight just because you don't want to inconvenience anyone else? People are generally nice if you give them the chance to be. I'm sure you could have switched seats to sit together without an issue. It certainly wasn't your fault that you were bumped to a later flight without seats together. You should have taken the first flight in the first story and your husband should have said no in the second. Learn to (nicely) stick up for yourself. Goodness.

I am a new poster on this thread. I avoid middle seats. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Imagine being stuck between two obnoxious people, one sweaty and the other dipping into my tiny airplane seat. Nope. I will not do it. I will take another flight. There's always another plane. When travelling alone, I book aisle. When travelling with hubby and child, I will take the window as I don't have a problem climbing over husband and son to get to the toilet closet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I am not trolling and I'm pretty shocked that a few people think its actually OK to do this to others. I always thought that this only happened due to airlines re-assigning people. We recently had a flight canceled on us. We were offered another flight later that afternoon but there were only middle seats available so we reluctantly had to wait until the late night flight which was not pleasant with small kids but better than across the country in separate seats. When we were originally searching for tickets, we also were bummed that one of the best priced fares only had middle seats available so we didn't take it. I learned on this past trip that other people just do what is convenient for them and expect others to accomodate them. They take the earlier flight or book the cheap tickets and just expect others will give up their seats. There are several people on this thread that seem to be doing this with full entitlement too. This sucks for the people who do end up get separated for no fault of their own because fewer people will be willing to switch with them.

On our latest trip a man whose middle seat was next to my husband asked my husband (on the aisle) to switch with his teenage son who was two rows up and in a middle seat. His english wasn't very good and we assumed that it was a father and son traveling from abroad and may have been nervous in a strange country. Once my husband who was significantly taller than the adult man moved, his wife showed up and she had the window seat. I managed our two young kids alone, DH was crunched in a middle seat and this adult man enjoyed the aisle, his wife enjoyed the window and their son sat between them. In hindsight, we should have made them move back and they seemed so entitled that they should get comfortable seats together.

On the flight back it happened again. This time a woman asked my husband to switch his aisle seat with her 12 year old in a middle seat again only one row up from her and her middle seat. He said no (after getting burned the last time) and she seemed very annoyed. Her husband was one row back trying to switch people out of aisle and window seats so he could sit with their two other kids who were under five. One person gave up a seat but he was having trouble finding someone else to switch. I started to offer to have my husband sit with our kids and I would switch around but then the mother jumped in and wanted us to do that so she could sit with her 12 yr again and find someone else to switch for the smaller kids. We told her no to that again and sat down. The flight attendant finally came back and someone else did take a middle seat to let the dad sit with the little kids without the mother jumping in again. She then kept pushing the issue of switching around with people to be with her older son and the flight attendant had to tell her loudly that 12 was old enough to sit by himself and that she needed to sit down. This family ended up delaying the plane by 15-20 minutes. The pilot had to come on to the speakers and tell people that they needed to sit down in their assigned seats or the plane would be even more delayed. Finally someone gave up their aisle seat so the mother could sit next to her 12 year old son and the plane could take off. The flight staff seemed like they were going to throw her off the plane. We mentioned to the father who was behind us how shocked we were that airline would separate a family of five in all middle seats. He replied that they had booked/accepted the middle seats and didn't think it would be that hard to find 3-5 people to switch with them. Seriously??

If I were flying by myself, I'd have no problem giving up my seat so a family to could sit together. But why would your husband agree to give up his seat with his two young kids so that a dad could fly with a teenager? I would have said no in that situation, and I would have been pissed if my husband left me to deal with our two young kids by myself in that situation. In the second situation, the wife was clearly a PITA. A twelve year old can fly by himself with no problem. That was nice of you to try to help out.

But I can't for the life of me figure out why in your first story, you gave up seats on an earlier flight to take a late night flight just because they were all middle seats on the earlier flight. The airline bumped you from your first flight. That was their fault, not yours. So then you purposely inconvenienced yourselves and made your kids stay up for some late night flight just because you don't want to inconvenience anyone else? People are generally nice if you give them the chance to be. I'm sure you could have switched seats to sit together without an issue. It certainly wasn't your fault that you were bumped to a later flight without seats together. You should have taken the first flight in the first story and your husband should have said no in the second. Learn to (nicely) stick up for yourself. Goodness.

No I agree with OP here. If I see a flight has only scattered middle seats, I say that flight is sold out as far as my family of 5 goes. I don't expect the entire flight to rearrange because I ran into a rainstorm or other delay (that wasn't even my fault!).

If the airline cancels my 10 am flight (also not my fault!) and the next flight with seats together isn't until 9pm, but there's a 2pm flight with only middle seats, you'd better believe I'm jumping on that 2pm flight and asking quite nicely to switch seats (and am happy to buy whoever does a drink). I'm not going to keep my 2 young kids up until midnight because an earlier flight with available seats doesn't have them all together. I agree that some people can be entitled and clueless about the convenience of others, but I'm also going to act in my family's best interest. With apologies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

No I agree with OP here. If I see a flight has only scattered middle seats, I say that flight is sold out as far as my family of 5 goes. I don't expect the entire flight to rearrange because I ran into a rainstorm or other delay (that wasn't even my fault!).

I disagree. It would absolutely be wrong to purchase the middle seats in advance, knowing that you would be expecting people to switch, but if you get bumped and your other choice is languishing in a random airport for hours, it is a situation beyond your control. You are not asking the "entire flight to rearrange." You are asking for a one or two people to be willing to switch. If you have very young children, it is the just right thing for people to do, and they should be expected to act like decent human beings.

It is chance that many are willing to take, but what happens if your request is denied. After reading this thread, how is one to know if you purposely purchased the tix with the intent to switch seats with another, or you were bumped unwillingly and reassigned scattered middle seats.

I will switch for aisle to aisle seat, or reluctantly aisle to window. But, I am not switching my aisle seat for a middle seat.

[Anonymous]

If the airline cancels my 10 am flight (also not my fault!) and the next flight with seats together isn't until 9pm, but there's a 2pm flight with only middle seats, you'd better believe I'm jumping on that 2pm flight and asking quite nicely to switch seats (and am happy to buy whoever does a drink). I'm not going to keep my 2 young kids up until midnight because an earlier flight with available seats doesn't have them all together. I agree that some people can be entitled and clueless about the convenience of others, but I'm also going to act in my family's best interest. With apologies.

Isn't this the very definition of entitlement? Its pretty simple. If you see a full flight with only middle seats then you had better be prepared to actually sit in the middle seats.

[Anonymous]

If the airline cancels my 10 am flight (also not my fault!) and the next flight with seats together isn't until 9pm, but there's a 2pm flight with only middle seats, you'd better believe I'm jumping on that 2pm flight and asking quite nicely to switch seats (and am happy to buy whoever does a drink). I'm not going to keep my 2 young kids up until midnight because an earlier flight with available seats doesn't have them all together. I agree that some people can be entitled and clueless about the convenience of others, but I'm also going to act in my family's best interest. With apologies.

This is wrong and the airline should not allow you to book onto the 2pm flight with kids under five. Your kids will survive being up late. I've had young kids on later flights. Does it suck for the parents? Yes. Did the kids get their normal uninterrupted good night sleep in a comfy bed? No. They were just fine in the end. You act as if its the end of the world if your kids stay up late and make your travel experience uncomfortable.

It is a big inconvenience to ask two other people to give up their window and aisle seats so you can avoid inconvenience. You're trying to make it sound like nothing but a middle seat on a long flight scrunched between adults is just as painful as keeping your kids up late. The two people adjacent to your middle seat are not going to hop right up for you and say cheers. You will end up begging for volunteers across the plan and several people have to re-arrange. They end up being separated from where they stowed their carry on and can't get off the plane until the line is out and they can back track. I doubt they want your drink.

[Anonymous]

I have to say that those of you who book later flights because of middle seats are also hurting the airline industry. The airline industry is struggling to make ends meet right now. One of the best ways for them to make more money is to fly full planes. Every empty seat is lost income to them. By not filling up the plane, you are making each flight more expensive, losing some of the profitability and making them have to make more decisions like charging for checked bags, etc. And while you think you're still spending the money, or even more money, when you book the later flight, those seats are less available to other later flyers and may make other passengers switch airlines to another carrier to get a flight that costs less or otherwise fits their needs. If you only need one extra person to move, then booking two seats together and a third elsewhere and trying to get one person to move actually helps the airline. I agree that a family of 5 is a different case, unless you can get 3 seats together and 2 seats together, but booking so as to ask one person to switch shouldn't be the problem that many of you are making it out to be.

And no, I've never had to do this because I have flown Southwest for many years, but before, I did give up my seat, yes, even for a middle seat, when I was single traveler.

[Anonymous]

I will switch for aisle to aisle seat, or reluctantly aisle to window. But, I am not switching my aisle seat for a middle seat.

Seriously? You wouldn't switch to help a family with young kids that would otherwise be stranded for hours due to their flight being cancelled through no fault of their own? Do what you want, but I find that really gross. Of course parents should not take advantage of other passengers by intentionally scheduling flights where they can't sit with their kids, but circumstances come up beyond people's control, and for me, helping a family with young kids out is more important than the comfort of an aisle or window seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I will switch for aisle to aisle seat, or reluctantly aisle to window. But, I am not switching my aisle seat for a middle seat.

Seriously? You wouldn't switch to help a family with young kids that would otherwise be stranded for hours due to their flight being cancelled through no fault of their own? Do what you want, but I find that really gross. Of course parents should not take advantage of other passengers by intentionally scheduling flights where they can't sit with their kids, but circumstances come up beyond people's control, and for me, helping a family with young kids out is more important than the comfort of an aisle or window seat.

You know why I don't support this seat-changing crap? Because if the kids are separated form their parents and each other, they're quiet for the entire flight. If they all sit together, they forget they're not in their own living room.

Last time I flew, the woman on the aisle behind us traded her seat so a mother could sit beside her 6ish DD, instead of in the seat immediately behind the girl. Mom proceeded to ask inane questions about the iPad game DD was playing for the next 4.5 hours. "Who is THAT? What do you do NOW? What's HIS name?"

I am positive that if that woman had not moved, the kid would have happily played her game in silence and the mom would have shut the frick up.

[Anonymous]

Another thing to consider--we have a baby and buy a seat for him. By federal law he must be in the window seat but it is not uncommon for there to be no window seats open when I book. I book the middle and aisle seat plus the nearest middle in that case (and have had at least one airline tell me to do this). At least once we were booking last minute for a family emergency and there were only middle seats, so I took the three closest to each other. That means some window rider gets bumped, and that sucks. But it's also the law and there's not much I can do about that (short of not flying, which is ridiculous).