Why do so many idiots ask to switch seats on planes these days?

[Anonymous]

I had a boomer guy not want to switch seats with my spouse who was randomly assigned a different seatat the back of first class he claimed wanting to be off the plane first. I was like ok but it did make for an awkward rest of the flight. It's always the old people who are inflexible and think they are king.

[Anonymous]

I used to fly a lot, and used to be upgraded regularly.

This also happened a few times when I was traveling on vacation with my little kids (I was upgraded but they weren’t), which meant I had to ask the person who ended up in my original selected seat, to switch. Given that for them the switch was an upgrade, no one said no (even though one woman wanted me to carry her carry on up front to my new seat - at that point, I just told her to stay in her seat, at which she quickly carried her own bag). But things happen op, not everyone is a frequent flier, not everyone can afford to add 1000$ for seat assignments, not everyone knows to do that, and different airlines have different rules, so someone flying southwest would find it hard to figure the rules on a different airline. Some allow selection 48 hours before, some only at check -in. If you fly consistently same airline, you learn. But if you’re someone who flies once a year during holidays, it becomes a hard learning experience.

And people travel. If it doesn’t work to switch, just say no. Be gracious. Be kind. Be gentle on your own nerves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW Congress gave DOT explicit authority to propose a rule prohibiting airlines from charging parents extra to set next to their under 10 year olds. Hopefully this shouldn't be as much of a problem soon.

Not after the next executive order telling all agencies to repeal 20 rules for each they issue ….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a boomer guy not want to switch seats with my spouse who was randomly assigned a different seatat the back of first class he claimed wanting to be off the plane first. I was like ok but it did make for an awkward rest of the flight. It's always the old people who are inflexible and think they are king.

You sound entitled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a boomer guy not want to switch seats with my spouse who was randomly assigned a different seatat the back of first class he claimed wanting to be off the plane first. I was like ok but it did make for an awkward rest of the flight. It's always the old people who are inflexible and think they are king.

You sound entitled.

Right? Why didn't PP ask the person next to his wife to move? PP clearly wanted the better seat at the front for the same reasons this man wanted to keep his seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had a boomer guy not want to switch seats with my spouse who was randomly assigned a different seatat the back of first class he claimed wanting to be off the plane first. I was like ok but it did make for an awkward rest of the flight. It's always the old people who are inflexible and think they are king.

You sound entitled.

Right? Why didn't PP ask the person next to his wife to move? PP clearly wanted the better seat at the front for the same reasons this man wanted to keep his seat.

Exactly. That PP sounds like a totally entitled jerk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Flying back to DC a week ago we had our flight canceled because of the storm. They rebooked us through a different city, but put us in center seats all over the airplane. We had previously paid to all sit together but we had to take the rebooked flight or stay overseas until after the storm. There were no other seats or flights. I have two small kids, 5 and 8 yo. It was a a 5 hour long international flight. The gate agent said she had no way of seating us together so we'd have to ask on the plane.

What exactly should I have done differently?

Sounds like the gate agent just didn't want to deal with it. They absolutely can switch seats around and try to accommodate families or at least try to get you as close as possible - I see them do it all the time.

Because of the late timing of the cancellation and rebooking, I understand that all of the other passengers already had boarding passes. My understanding from the gate agent was that they couldn't make a change because all seats were already given out. It's possible the gate agent just didn't want to bother, but I asked and explained and they said they couldn't help me. There wasn't anything else I could do.

[Anonymous]

People who ask to switch seats to sit next to their partner/spouse/other adult?

Get the F out of here. Happened to me once on an international flight in first class. I carefully select my seat and yes, some of the seats in first class are a lot nosier. I need to sleep and I don't want to be near the galley. It's awesome you are so in love you want to sit together, but also not my problem. In my case, the guy asked and the woman looked embarrassed. And yes, I said no.

[Anonymous]

Why so angry? Just say 'no thanks' people can ask and you can decline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a boomer guy not want to switch seats with my spouse who was randomly assigned a different seatat the back of first class he claimed wanting to be off the plane first. I was like ok but it did make for an awkward rest of the flight. It's always the old people who are inflexible and think they are king.

Hardly. I bet most of the people here posting that they would not move are not boomers. I am a boomer and I changed seats with someone recently because they wanted to sit with a friend. The young guy on the other side of the friend refused. It was an aisle for an aisle but I had to move to the back of the plane. I'd had to put my bag back there anyway so it was no big deal. I would also change to an equivalent seat in the same section. I usually have an economy plus or first class seat so I'm not giving that up for a regular seat, but happy to change within economy plus or first class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who ask to switch seats to sit next to their partner/spouse/other adult?

Get the F out of here. Happened to me once on an international flight in first class. I carefully select my seat and yes, some of the seats in first class are a lot nosier. I need to sleep and I don't want to be near the galley. It's awesome you are so in love you want to sit together, but also not my problem. In my case, the guy asked and the woman looked embarrassed. And yes, I said no.

*noisier

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Flying back to DC a week ago we had our flight canceled because of the storm. They rebooked us through a different city, but put us in center seats all over the airplane. We had previously paid to all sit together but we had to take the rebooked flight or stay overseas until after the storm. There were no other seats or flights. I have two small kids, 5 and 8 yo. It was a a 5 hour long international flight. The gate agent said she had no way of seating us together so we'd have to ask on the plane.

What exactly should I have done differently?

Nothing, some times you can't get your way.

Absolutely nothing other than suck it up and let the flight depart on time. If you’re not capable of that, then you’ll need to rebook a different flight.
I was coming back from Paris w/ 3 of my kids. We were in business. Flight cancelled and we were put on a flight where all that was left were random middle coach seats. To make it worse, we were about 40 minutes into the flight and they announced they did not have catering (other than beverages) for coach. Was it fairly miserable? Yes. Did we survive? Yes. Unless you’re flying private, you need to roll w/ the punches. I never would have thought about guilt tripping someone to switch seats. If your child is old enough to be at school without you, they’re old enough to fly not seated next to you. I understand there are special circumstances, but then you just suck it up and rebook later. One of my children is special needs, so if we ever get bumped with her, we have to decline the rebooking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why so angry? Just say 'no thanks' people can ask and you can decline.

I have responded I say no. I'm not angry but it's at best an awkward moment when people handle the no gracefully and some people are dicks about it. I still say no but it would be amazing if you didn't ask.

People separated from small children are an exception (to me). Depending on circumstances, I'm going to seriously entertain the request.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Flying back to DC a week ago we had our flight canceled because of the storm. They rebooked us through a different city, but put us in center seats all over the airplane. We had previously paid to all sit together but we had to take the rebooked flight or stay overseas until after the storm. There were no other seats or flights. I have two small kids, 5 and 8 yo. It was a a 5 hour long international flight. The gate agent said she had no way of seating us together so we'd have to ask on the plane.

What exactly should I have done differently?

Nothing, some times you can't get your way.

Absolutely nothing other than suck it up and let the flight depart on time. If you’re not capable of that, then you’ll need to rebook a different flight.
I was coming back from Paris w/ 3 of my kids. We were in business. Flight cancelled and we were put on a flight where all that was left were random middle coach seats. To make it worse, we were about 40 minutes into the flight and they announced they did not have catering (other than beverages) for coach. Was it fairly miserable? Yes. Did we survive? Yes. Unless you’re flying private, you need to roll w/ the punches. I never would have thought about guilt tripping someone to switch seats. If your child is old enough to be at school without you, they’re old enough to fly not seated next to you. I understand there are special circumstances, but then you just suck it up and rebook later. One of my children is special needs, so if we ever get bumped with her, we have to decline the rebooking.

It is crazy to me that you think that the right approach in that situation is for families to decline rebooking rather then just ask someone if they are willing to switch. No guarantee that the next available flight will have seats together. And if you are asked to switch and you don’t want to, just say no,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was a guy on my last flight who was in the emergency row with a very religious couple who had a lap baby. He claimed he didn't want to sit next to a baby, but the vibe was really that he didn't want to be near Jewish people either. It started getting loud so I told the flight attendant I love babies and would be happy to switch with the man from my aisle seat if that would help.

He agreed and I whispered to the couple that I was jewish too, and spent a three hour flight with extra leg room, a window seat and playing patty cake with a cute baby.

Lap babies (and young children) aren't allowed to sit in the exit row, so this makes no sense.

I agree that doesn’t make sense. I don’t think young children were allowed to sit in the exit row either.

Babies are allowed in bulkheads - the rows that have walls in front of them instead of seats. When I was little, airlines would give moms a cardboard box bassinet so they could put the babies down on the floor to sleep during the flights. The bulkhead rows look just like the exit rows except no door with handle.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/should-you-select-a-bulkhead-seat-when-traveling-with-a-baby/

If you can see "very religious" just from looking at somebody what people are sometimes thinking is "unvaccinated" which is definitely a prejudice but in our area there have been covid and measles outbreaks in such visibly "very religious" communities. So there's a shred of statistical rationality to it. Still rude to make other people aware of your internal fears. We all can do better. Confined spaces make anxious people and germophobes spiral.