I’m assuming that the father & daughter actually reserved the window & aisle seat. If there are 2 people flying together, that’s a reasonable thing to do - the middle seat will be one of the last to go, so if the flight isn’t full, you wind up with an empty seat between you & room to spread a bit. If the middle seat does get bought, you offer the occupant the more desirable aisle seat. Anyone who insists on taking a middle seat between 2 strangers who will probably talk over you throughout the flight instead of the aisle seat where they won’t is being a bit unreasonable. It sounds like this person wanted a middle seat, and a middle seat only, for some odd reason.
Yes, that’s the sum of it. I guess it just seems unreasonable to me. I’ve got a better example. On the flight from Delhi to NYC, a sikh man refused to take his assigned seat as a woman was seated next to him. He held up the flight walking up and down the aisles until they rearranged a couple passengers so he wouldn’t have to sit next to a woman.
People want to board with the people they are riding with.
You think a family of four is going to sent the kid in alone?
Or a married couple is going to just split up during the boarding process?
If you think that you have never had a job dealing with people who stand in lines.
How about having more than one way into plane?
What’s unreasonable is to “offer” someone a more desirable seat by sitting in their seat and arguing with them when they show up. It’s not an offer if I’m not allowed to say no.
As a youngster, I’ve had my plane seat usurped, and wound up doing the “let’s look around the cabin for a place to sit” so I’m a bit sensitive to the topic. You want to switch with me, the first thing you are going to do is recognize my right to sit in my assigned seat, and we can then discuss me giving you my seat.
See, this is what I love about SWA. I often ask for the middle seat, because inevitably the following happens:
- Two people board together - a couple, friends, whatever.
- They take the window and aisle seat on a row near the front and drop something in the middle seat like a purse, a book, something. They’re implying it’s reserved, get it? Which probably works on underbooked flights.
- I pause at their row and say “can I have that middle seat?” [I’m a big guy]
- The person in the aisle seat frowns at me, and then moves into the middle seat.
- I get an aisle seat near the front.
I don’t do this on lightly-booked flights, but on cattle calls I will always do it.
Meanwhile…airlines know there are bastards carrying on bags that are too large, but those are often frequent fliers, so they wilfully ignore it.
Amen. I’m a dedicated one-bag traveler when I travel, and what I carry is usually this. It’s hard to tell from those pictures, but the dimensions are listed on the sidebar. It will, in a pinch, fit under the seat in front of me. I’ve had to do that on fights where a bunch of jackasses decided to bring along carry-ons that, to put it mildly, did not fit in that metal cage tester.
If you’re deciding to travel with only a carry-on, you really should be accepting a light travel philosophy. You shouldn’t be trying to save twenty bucks by trying to sneak a bag that should be checked into the carry-on bin. Airlines need to stop allowing this bullshit.
As for the individuals who try to claim a seat that isn’t theirs. . .I think that the way that airlines have turned flying into a cattle call has made it tempting to try and grasp for any bit of comfort you can finangle–and if that means trying to claim someone else’s seat, well, so it goes. I don’t agree with it, and I’ve been the victim of it–let me tell you, there’s nothing so fun as when, in a three-row with an empty middle seat, the lady in the aisle seat decides to take both seats. And put her back on the armrest between the middle seat and the window seat, thus ensuring that you get not one micron of additional space. I do, however, understand the impulse.
Someone sitting in my assigned seat is why I generally board with my group instead of waiting. Further, I will–if given the chance and not requiring any rudeness on my part–get as close to the front of that group as possible.
Reason? If I’m sitting in the seat that’s assigned to me, no one else will. Someone being in the wrong seat by choice or by accident aside, I have had two occasions where someone else and I had boarding passes with the same seat number. One was on a full flight and I wasn’t inclined to go the next day. Being in the seat meant I had the best claim to it. Granted those were both a couple years ago. Maye the computer programs are better now and I don’t have to worry about it. Still, if I can take simple steps to get into my seat and have luggage space (for my ATA-approved carry-on) then I do so.
In this situation you just offer to raise the armrest between your seat and the window seat and tell her that you didn’t realize she wanted to snuggle. She’ll stay on the far side of the aisle seat for the rest of the flight.
So that I can walk on, get seated, a warm towel for my face & hands, a snack, and be served a Crown & Coke before settling back to watch the Parade of Poverty.
I’m nice & relaxed, and can then fall asleep at wheels up.