Anonymous wrote:People can ask. If they ask, they shouldn't be surprised that many would say, no. I would say, no.

Anonymous wrote:+1

And when they say "no," it's the airline you should be mad at, not them. They didn't cause your problem -- the airline did.

Anonymous wrote:People can ask. If they ask, they shouldn't be surprised that many would say, no. I would say, no.

+1

Anonymous wrote:I recently gave up my seat (next to my teen son) so that a mom could sit with her 4 year old, and she then she was a jerk to my son about the fact that her daughter could see the movie that my son was streaming (it was one of the John Wick ones, so concededly somewhat violent, but still).

See, they jeopardized anyone moving for them or their cheap cohorts, ever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1
A lot of these issues can be resolved by the airlines themselves by offering upgrades to the passengers who have to move. If a dad wants to sit with his son in economy only ask the other passenger to move if you give him a better seat or offer them travel credit or something to compensate them.

Or they can just move people to other, similarly equivalent seats, with no compensation. AKA what would have happened if they had just been willing to move on their own, but since they aren’t, the airline will force them.

People can refuse to move. The recent stories are because people are tired and over it when so-called "parents" like you insist on cheaping out on their kids. If the trip you are taking is "so important" - you should be paying to be together, like everyone else has to do.

I recently gave up my seat (next to my teen son) so that a mom could sit with her 4 year old, and she then she was a jerk to my son about the fact that her daughter could see the movie that my son was streaming (it was one of the John Wick ones, so concededly somewhat violent, but still).

Anonymous wrote:Just because it gets the clicks. I am sure this kind of thing has happened all the time- you just didn't have people posting videos about it.

+1. And I will say that the seat issue has happened to my family at least three times - on international flights where one flight was a code share. We even paid for Premium Economy to be together one time on KLM, had our boarding passes and when we boarded in Amsterdam got the red buzz at the gate and were pulled aside and issued new boarding passes that had us scattered all over the plane. My kids were 7 and 3. We ended up in regular coach with each parent with a kid. Which was fine. But it's not always not planning ahead that's the problem.

Anonymous wrote:+1
A lot of these issues can be resolved by the airlines themselves by offering upgrades to the passengers who have to move. If a dad wants to sit with his son in economy only ask the other passenger to move if you give him a better seat or offer them travel credit or something to compensate them.

Or they can just move people to other, similarly equivalent seats, with no compensation. AKA what would have happened if they had just been willing to move on their own, but since they aren’t, the airline will force them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those that want to rearrange everyone are not paying extra to select the seats.

Yes, they need to pay extra.

Clearly some of you have been extremely blessed in your family travel experiences. We ALWAYS pay to select our seats in advance so that at least one adult is seated with the kids, and about 50% of the time when we actually check in, either at the airport or online, they have changed our damn seats! This has been true across multiple airlines. I would never ask for someone to take a middle seat for an aisle or window, but I will to switch like for like and so far we have never run into anyone petty enough to refuse just because it’s their right.

Yup. We have 3 kids. I’d be nuts not to pay for seat selection. If that meant I consistently got my selected seats? I would completely agree that parents need to pay up or shut up. But that’s just not how things work in practice.

As a PP said, then you need to get mad at the right people. Get mad at the airlines, not the people who are already sitting in their own seats. They didn't screw you up -- the airline did.

Well most recently the airline fixed it by moving people against their will, and they got mad about that too (showed up at my new seat/their old seat to complain).

+1
A lot of these issues can be resolved by the airlines themselves by offering upgrades to the passengers who have to move. If a dad wants to sit with his son in economy only ask the other passenger to move if you give him a better seat or offer them travel credit or something to compensate them.

People can ask. If they ask, they shouldn't be surprised that many would say, no. I would say, no.

Perhaps I am too cynical but:

You know how Amazon invented the term "porch pirate" to increase their profits/limit their losses by making people think there are all these shady people stealing their packages so people changed local laws and stepped up policing/legal enforcement of package theft? https://houstonlawreview.org/article/30086-the-porch-pirate-problem

All these airplane seat articles are just viral marketing for airlines to convince customers they need to pay for seat assignments. By driving conflict among passengers, the airlines distract consumers from the real problem which is greedy airlines charging people for seat assignments.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those that want to rearrange everyone are not paying extra to select the seats.

Yes, they need to pay extra.

Clearly some of you have been extremely blessed in your family travel experiences. We ALWAYS pay to select our seats in advance so that at least one adult is seated with the kids, and about 50% of the time when we actually check in, either at the airport or online, they have changed our damn seats! This has been true across multiple airlines. I would never ask for someone to take a middle seat for an aisle or window, but I will to switch like for like and so far we have never run into anyone petty enough to refuse just because it’s their right.

I empathize with you because the airlines changed aircraft and separated our seats for both our main long haul trip this year and last year. But I don't think it's "petty" for people to refuse to move. This is not their fault but the airline's fault. On a work trip just last month, my cousin who is really tall paid for a seat with extra leg room and logged on a few times to get something in an exit row but was asked to move so a child could sit with a parent. DH did move to a regular economy seat and ended up with back pain for the next week and on top of that the airline refused to credit him for extra leg room seat he paid for. I don't think it was petty of him not to want to move but completely reasonable.

We’ve paid for business class home from Hawaii and selected all seats together but the airline changed it about a week before our flight. Luckily, they kept a parent with a child but separated us even after we did pay, so I think there is a flaw to the theory that people aren’t paying, you never know. You probably couldn’t pay more than we did on that flight and we still didn’t get seats together.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those that want to rearrange everyone are not paying extra to select the seats.

Yes, they need to pay extra.

Clearly some of you have been extremely blessed in your family travel experiences. We ALWAYS pay to select our seats in advance so that at least one adult is seated with the kids, and about 50% of the time when we actually check in, either at the airport or online, they have changed our damn seats! This has been true across multiple airlines. I would never ask for someone to take a middle seat for an aisle or window, but I will to switch like for like and so far we have never run into anyone petty enough to refuse just because it’s their right.

Yup. We have 3 kids. I’d be nuts not to pay for seat selection. If that meant I consistently got my selected seats? I would completely agree that parents need to pay up or shut up. But that’s just not how things work in practice.

As a PP said, then you need to get mad at the right people. Get mad at the airlines, not the people who are already sitting in their own seats. They didn't screw you up -- the airline did.

Anonymous wrote:. The next day I came down with a cold, which I blame on the broken A/C vent.

Never again. Do a good deed and get rewarded with a cold!

Ha ha you catch a cold from being around someone who is infected (figured we might remember this from covid?), not from....being cold.

https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-myths-about-catching-a-cold/