Reply to NYTs Etiquette - "I Refused to Switch Seats on a Plane. Twice. Was I Wrong?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can't read the article but I have seen the issue come up on various boards.  In my opinion, being a family or traveling with kids doesn't entitle you to special treatment.  When I travel with my family I pay to pick seats, early check-in, extra space - whatever I think we might need.  If you're not willing to pay for that then you can't afford the trip.  Other travelers have also paid for those services and they don't owe you anything.[/quote]

I would like to live in a society that gives a little more grace and has a little more patience for society’s very young and very old (and their caretakers). Kindness is a value I love to see in companies and individuals alike. [/quote]

Why are families the only ones deserving of kindness? Look at it this way--you have your loving family. Someone flying alone may be single and desperately lonely and sad about it. Who deserves the grace and compassion? It's this kind of myopia that makes parents of young children so repugnant at times.

Disclaimer: there's nothing intrinsically wrong with being single and many single people are happy and content.[/quote]

Holy projection. Nowhere did I malign single people nor suggest they also aren’t deserving of grace and kindness.  We all are.  I believe American society suffers from a deep deficit of both.  The several nasty responses to my quite benevolent post is proof of that.

I wonder where we’re headed from here. [/quote]

The PP has a point. [b]Solo travelers (not necessarily single as in marital status) are often targets for the "would you consider moving" pitch.[/b] It has happened to me many times. I feel the airline staff single us out, make the request with the parent/child standing there looking at us and then we are expected to smile graciously and give up our seats.

I did it for awhile and usually wound up in some horrid situation where I got a seat that didn't recline or next to an annoying person. I reminded myself that No good deed goes unpunished. 
So I stopped.

Last time it was a very entitled, abrasive woman who wanted to shift around 3 people so she could get herself and her kids all seated together. She had gone up and down asking people (holding up boarding BTW) and had figured out a hopscotch pattern of moving other passengers simply to accommodate HER desires.

The kids were in their early teens! I just said "No. Sorry." and went back to reading my book.  [/quote]

To be more accurate, solo FEMALE travelers (especially over a certain age) are the first targets. Watch the next time it happens -- the flight attendants NEVER ask men to move.

My DW takes advantage of this on Southwest and eagerly volunteers to move -- last time she did that, she got $840 in vouchers.

[/quote]

I’ve taken vouchers to wait an hour.  [/quote]

I did this once and the hour delay turned into a few hours as the next plane had "mechanical issues". So, won't make that mistake again.[/quote]

Could have easily happened the opposite way, where your "later" flight left on time as the original flight sat around for 6 hours.  [/quote]

I'll take my chances because you will definitely wait an hour by switching, it's a sure thing. By the time you are volunteering to give up your seat you know if there will be a delay or not on the original flight. So, not "easily happened" much more of an unknown by switching. Not much of a gambler, eh?[/quote]

All I can say is if you're never boarded your flight just to be deplaned 3 minutes later for a mechanical problem that was found during pre flight checks, then consider yourself lucky.  You 10000% do not know if there will be a delay or not on your original flight just because the gate agent is asking people to switch.  That's laughable. [/quote]

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