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

[Anonymous]

Seems bizarre some posters keep repeating that sitting next to your child is free baby sitting. It in no way requires me to help out with their needs. Ridiculous argument. It is your problem. Call it what it is - your child is a handful. Maybe you will be removed from the flight.

[Anonymous]

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?

I have to call melodrama and lying here. I have two young kids and we were stranded in an airport for hours. The kids absolutely loved it. They got to watch planes take off, play games, and eat fast food. They ask to go back to the airport. It was hell for us. The inconvenience here is to the parents not "the family". Your need to get on a earlier flight at the expense of taking someone's else seat is all about the adult's comfort not the kids.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I am serious. I don't know their circumstances, and since I am neither majician or mind reader, i will not switch my seat and sit in the middle. I find that parents who feel they are entitled to my pre-planned seat gross. BTW--I also have a child under the age of seven. As a family we travel extensively. The kid has travelled internationally and domestically. I have yet to ask someone to switch their seats. Perhaps the reason why is because I pre-planned and did not feel entitled to another's seat.

+100 Same here. We travel extensively too, see people trying to switch all the time, and its never happened to us once. We were talking with family members who travel with kids as much as we do on the same airlines and they also never experienced this. We preplan, only choose flights where we can get the seats we want, and if a flight gets cancelled we wait for one where one of can sit with the kids. I really believe that the majority of these switchers are the entitled parents who take the earlier flight, go for the better fare, airport, or time, don't bother to check seat availability and overall just feel entitled that someone else will accomodate them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I have to call melodrama and lying here. I have two young kids and we were stranded in an airport for hours. The kids absolutely loved it. They got to watch planes take off, play games, and eat fast food. They ask to go back to the airport. It was hell for us. The inconvenience here is to the parents not "the family". Your need to get on a earlier flight at the expense of taking someone's else seat is all about the adult's comfort not the kids.

Um, unless your kid is tired and wants to be home. Or is delayed getting to grandmas or Disneyland. The plural of your anecdote is not data. Not every family is not inconvenienced by waiting.

[Anonymous]

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?

I have to call melodrama and lying here. I have two young kids and we were stranded in an airport for hours. The kids absolutely loved it. They got to watch planes take off, play games, and eat fast food. They ask to go back to the airport. It was hell for us. The inconvenience here is to the parents not "the family". Your need to get on a earlier flight at the expense of taking someone's else seat is all about the adult's comfort not the kids.

Um, unless your kid is tired and wants to be home. Or is delayed getting to grandmas or Disneyland. The plural of your anecdote is not data. Not every family is not inconvenienced by waiting.

Ha! Small world, we were stuck in an airport going to Disneyland (CA) and visiting grandma was at the end of the trip too! Kids had fun in the airport, we did not. Kids were tired and fell asleep on the plane, we had to struggle to carry them and push the luggage carts to the rental car. PITA for us, not the kids. Look, you're inclined to put your own comfort over someone else's comfort. It isn't for your kids sake, its for yours, just own it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, I am serious. I don't know their circumstances, and since I am neither majician or mind reader, i will not switch my seat and sit in the middle. I find that parents who feel they are entitled to my pre-planned seat gross. BTW--I also have a child under the age of seven. As a family we travel extensively. The kid has travelled internationally and domestically. I have yet to ask someone to switch their seats. Perhaps the reason why is because I pre-planned and did not feel entitled to another's seat.

+100 Same here. We travel extensively too, see people trying to switch all the time, and its never happened to us once. We were talking with family members who travel with kids as much as we do on the same airlines and they also never experienced this. We preplan, only choose flights where we can get the seats we want, and if a flight gets cancelled we wait for one where one of can sit with the kids. I really believe that the majority of these switchers are the entitled parents who take the earlier flight, go for the better fare, airport, or time, don't bother to check seat availability and overall just feel entitled that someone else will accomodate them.

Pre planning is no guarantee that you will all sit together. For my last trip, I booked our flights seven months in advance, had assigned seats, and checked on our reservations every few weeks or so. Day before our trip, the airline moved our seats so that we were all over the plane. All of my kids, age 2 to 7, were several rows away from me. Fortunately there were many nice people on the plane because we had to do lots of rearranging to get our seats close together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, I am serious. I don't know their circumstances, and since I am neither majician or mind reader, i will not switch my seat and sit in the middle. I find that parents who feel they are entitled to my pre-planned seat gross. BTW--I also have a child under the age of seven. As a family we travel extensively. The kid has travelled internationally and domestically. I have yet to ask someone to switch their seats. Perhaps the reason why is because I pre-planned and did not feel entitled to another's seat.

+100 Same here. We travel extensively too, see people trying to switch all the time, and its never happened to us once. We were talking with family members who travel with kids as much as we do on the same airlines and they also never experienced this. We preplan, only choose flights where we can get the seats we want, and if a flight gets cancelled we wait for one where one of can sit with the kids. I really believe that the majority of these switchers are the entitled parents who take the earlier flight, go for the better fare, airport, or time, don't bother to check seat availability and overall just feel entitled that someone else will accomodate them.

Pre planning is no guarantee that you will all sit together. For my last trip, I booked our flights seven months in advance, had assigned seats, and checked on our reservations every few weeks or so. Day before our trip, the airline moved our seats so that we were all over the plane. All of my kids, age 2 to 7, were several rows away from me. Fortunately there were many nice people on the plane because we had to do lots of rearranging to get our seats close together.

NP. Look, I have traveled EXTENSIVELY and this sort of thing (airlines switching planes, etc) happens all of the time. Since I mostly travel alone, I couldn't care less. but to say that this sort of thing has 'never' affected families is just plain ignorant. Also makes me think you haven't traveled much in the last 2 years when they started cramming people like sardines onto planes. It's downright unpleasant to fly. Anyway, off my soapbox. Be kind to others because someday (when you are old, fat, or pregnant) you would like the same in return.

[Anonymous]

NP. Look, I have traveled EXTENSIVELY and this sort of thing (airlines switching planes, etc) happens all of the time.

DH travels extensively for work. I travel moderately for work, more lately. We take our kids on trips involving 4-6 hour flights 3-4 times a year. We fly internationally about every other year. This never happens to us. Even when a plane is switched, we have NEVER been re-assigned to all middle seats. At least one adult was next to the children. When we fly solo and planes change, we have been switched from one aisle to another aisle but never to a middle seat.

I've wondered about this because we do see families trying to switch on planes all the time. I think you just WANT people to think it was an airline screw up not your own choice with an assumption that you'll just switch around with other people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I have to call melodrama and lying here. I have two young kids and we were stranded in an airport for hours. The kids absolutely loved it. They got to watch planes take off, play games, and eat fast food. They ask to go back to the airport. It was hell for us. The inconvenience here is to the parents not "the family". Your need to get on a earlier flight at the expense of taking someone's else seat is all about the adult's comfort not the kids.

Um, unless your kid is tired and wants to be home. Or is delayed getting to grandmas or Disneyland. The plural of your anecdote is not data. Not every family is not inconvenienced by waiting.

Ha! Small world, we were stuck in an airport going to Disneyland (CA) and visiting grandma was at the end of the trip too! Kids had fun in the airport, we did not. Kids were tired and fell asleep on the plane, we had to struggle to carry them and push the luggage carts to the rental car. PITA for us, not the kids. Look, you're inclined to put your own comfort over someone else's comfort. It isn't for your kids sake, its for yours, just own it.

Coincidences still do not make your story apply to every other family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NP. Look, I have traveled EXTENSIVELY and this sort of thing (airlines switching planes, etc) happens all of the time.

DH travels extensively for work. I travel moderately for work, more lately. We take our kids on trips involving 4-6 hour flights 3-4 times a year. We fly internationally about every other year. This never happens to us. Even when a plane is switched, we have NEVER been re-assigned to all middle seats. At least one adult was next to the children. When we fly solo and planes change, we have been switched from one aisle to another aisle but never to a middle seat.

I've wondered about this because we do see families trying to switch on planes all the time. I think you just WANT people to think it was an airline screw up not your own choice with an assumption that you'll just switch around with other people.

I'll add another family of 5 traveling 4 times a year together for more than ten years and we've NEVER been split apart to all middle seats after we've purchased our seats.

[Anonymous]

We're headed to London in September with our three year old and four year old. I've got assigned seats altogether and keep checking to make sure they don't change. I've also mentioned to the kids that we'll all be on the same plane, but I'm not sure if we'll sit together. When I bought the tx, the agent on the phone told me the seats weren't guaranteed until we were actually sitting in them! My take from this thread is that I'll keep checking to make sure the planes and our seats don't change, if they do change, try to get them back together, and show up at the airport in time to make a last minute switch if necessary/possible. If we still wind up separate, we'll make it an adventure and not be the PITAs who hold up the whole plane trying to switch seats. That said, this will be my kids' fifth international flight and they're generally pretty easy going and seem to typically rise to the occasion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NP. Look, I have traveled EXTENSIVELY and this sort of thing (airlines switching planes, etc) happens all of the time.

DH travels extensively for work. I travel moderately for work, more lately. We take our kids on trips involving 4-6 hour flights 3-4 times a year. We fly internationally about every other year. This never happens to us. Even when a plane is switched, we have NEVER been re-assigned to all middle seats. At least one adult was next to the children. When we fly solo and planes change, we have been switched from one aisle to another aisle but never to a middle seat.

I've wondered about this because we do see families trying to switch on planes all the time. I think you just WANT people to think it was an airline screw up not your own choice with an assumption that you'll just switch around with other people.

I'll add another family of 5 traveling 4 times a year together for more than ten years and we've NEVER been split apart to all middle seats after we've purchased our seats.

Well, that makes three or possibly four different families that travel and have not been all split up with preplanning. I was the original poster who said this has never happened to her family. I just dont think the airlines would separate small children from both parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're headed to London in September with our three year old and four year old. I've got assigned seats altogether and keep checking to make sure they don't change. I've also mentioned to the kids that we'll all be on the same plane, but I'm not sure if we'll sit together. When I bought the tx, the agent on the phone told me the seats weren't guaranteed until we were actually sitting in them! My take from this thread is that I'll keep checking to make sure the planes and our seats don't change, if they do change, try to get them back together, and show up at the airport in time to make a last minute switch if necessary/possible. If we still wind up separate, we'll make it an adventure and not be the PITAs who hold up the whole plane trying to switch seats. That said, this will be my kids' fifth international flight and they're generally pretty easy going and seem to typically rise to the occasion.

We're going to London in September too! (Without kids, hooray)

If we're on the same flight, DH and I will gladly switch with you if you need to. We'll be relishing our redeye sans kids and could care less where we are sitting. I would never 'punish' a family who can't afford the more expensive flight with the (non-guaranteed) attached seats, or the additional $40/seat for the 'upgraded' seats, or who most likely gets screwed by the airline by rearranging seat assignments or dealing with cancelled flights or missed connections.

For all you who hate kids, I have heard there are some airlines that will be offering 'kid-free' flights. See, problem solved, grumpy-pants!

[Anonymous]

Maybe it's cause I ride Metro every day and am used to being squished in with hundreds of my not-closest friends, but I would gladly switch seats, even to a middle seat, to help a family sit together, regardless of the circumstances. I'm pretty small, and I'm just going to be sitting in a seat reading during the flight anyway.

[Anonymous]

It would depend on how obnoxious the family was. I actually did offer to give up my aisle seat for a middle for a couple that was traveling with a very small baby so the couple could sit together. They seemed totally overwhelmed and stressed out, so I thought it was my mitzvah for the day. (Fortunately, the flight had been so delayed that they decided to just get off the plane and fly out the next day.)

I have asked people to switch seats on planes but either DH or I have had aisle seats closer to the front, so I'm actually offering a better seat.

But if someone was hounding me? Forget it. I'd put on my noise canceling headphones and ignore her.