I've flown 6+ times a year for 20+ years. I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard an announcement asking for a seat switch volunteer. It occurs less frequently than the "this flight is oversold" announcement which is also rare. I have never personally been asked. Maybe I have a mean face? I think this problem is totally overblown by things like Reddit and is not a real problem. |
Yes. It's the airlines screwing things up. If they have to change aircraft for some reason,the seats chosen should stay together. |
Sure when there are same # of seats. What happens when the replacement plane is smaller? |
Or more often when a flight is cancelled there is no "replacement plane." They simply have to redistribute the passengers on a bunch of different random flights, with whatever leftover seats those flights have. |
You should really rethink what’s going on in your head and heart to be posting these kinds of thoughts. Look real hard within you. Something is broken. |
I was just on a flight where they put my 5 year old across the aisle from me. I booked the tickets together in one transaction and included his age so this was baffling. I talked to the check in people and gate agent and they couldn't do anything because the flight was fully booked. Fortunately I was offering to trade an aisle seat for a middle seat and one of the middle seats next to us was a solo traveler who was happy to take the switch. |
To add on, the only seat selection the airline offered for pay was into the exit row, which my kid couldn't sit in. |
Focus on the airline. Not the people. Somehow, KLM, AF, Lufthansa, Turkish, and so on, manage to seat families together with no associated seat switching drama or passing the buck to the customers to figure it out among themselves. |
Netjets for the win. |
Some of my best travel memories as a little kid were the entertaining strangers I sat next to on airplanes. My grandparents were overseas, and 40 years ago my mom would often get separated from us on the shorter legs. |
Two aisle seats in the same row IS considered sitting "next to." |
Realistically though you can't manage a small kid's drink or let them sleep on you or control them physically across an aisle. Airlines should know this. |
You cannot put on your child’s oxygen mask from across the aisle. Failing to sit families together would be a huge problem for an orderly evacuation. There’s zero way I would not be climbing over people to get to my kid. |
I will switch to help a family. |
I haven't flown the others but my experience is KLM is partly nice when flying with a kid. Last time they invited my kid to see the cockpit, gave him crayons and were super kind. |