I don’t fault anyone for pre-reserving an aisle and window seat in hopes that the middle seat will stay empty, but I do wonder whether it is appropriate to keep that arrangement when a stranger is later assigned to the middle seat.
Dad Refuses To Trade Seats, Leaving Man Stuck Between Mom, Dad, And Baby On Airplane
Sam Neve was traveling from London and found, upon arriving at his seat, that a mother and her baby were seated in the window and the father was in the aisle seat. He asked the dad if he wanted to sit next to his wife and child.
Nope.
Just boarded a flight and I’m sat with a couple and their baby, but the husband refused to give up his aisle seat so I’m now just… in the middle of them?
— Sam Neve (@SJNeve) November 10, 2022
When I am traveling with my wife and we are in economy class, I do the same thing in terms of pre-reserving a window and aisle seat, but if the flight fills up, I will trade my aisle seat for a middle seat (as I did on an 11-hour flight from San Francisco to Zurich last summer).
I’m not calling anyone a jerk here (though I do question what was going on in dad’s head), but this arrangement only works if the baby is not being passed from one parent to the other. It seems on this flight the father just tuned out during the flight (and binged on candy…):
He stuck his headphones in, ate an entire pack of Haribo and didn’t talk to her for the entire two hour flight 🤷🏼♂️😅
— Sam Neve (@SJNeve) November 10, 2022
That’s far better than trying to care for the baby together with a poor stranger between you.
Thus, my rule is that if you need to communicate during the flight, you should sit next to each other. Otherwise, a stranger in the middle seat may be less burdensome than a middle seat itself…
Interestingly, airline technology is cracking down on this practice. United Airlines has a system in place that will now re-assign one passenger to the middle seat if a party of two tries this. Again, I do not see the harm in trying to maximize your chance of an open middle seat nor do I necessarily see the harm in couples being separated during a flight, especially if one or both are pre-occupied. But if you are speaking to your partner, it’s pretty rude to the middle seat passenger.
CONCLUSION
These seat assignments stories are humorous to a degree, but anyone who flies somewhat regularly has experienced these sorts of dilemmas. As for me, I’ll certainly try to keep the middle seat between us open, but if if the flight ends up being full I’m going to take the middle seat and sit next to my wife.
Would you be comfortable with a stranger sitting between you and your spouse and baby?
image: Ryanair
Does UA really do this? I have booked dozens of trips with a +1 where we take Aisle and Window and UA has never re-assigned our seats. Sometimes we’ll trade with the stranger to sit next to each other, sometimes we’re fine just doing our own thing on the flight.
It does not always happen (it did happen to me once, but not every time I have tried), but there are numerous reports of it on FlyerTalk.
UA has a new algorithm by DT for automatically swapping seats for parties and notifying single passengers in middle seats when an aisle or window becomes available. The algorithm only reassigns parties and alerts single travelers when the flight is about 80% or more full (I may be off on the exact percentage, but it was somewhere around there) and there is single reservation passengers seated in a middle seat.
husband aisle wife widow me middle and they talked around me for hours…they would not switch as he like aisle she window …nuts
Sounds like this dad pulled a James Corden. He knew what he was doing.
Dad needed those 2 hours for himself. As long as they didn’t communicate or passed the baby during the flight that is OK to me.
How interesting that United automatically moves passengers in such a situation. I tend to have the opposite issue when flying Ethiopian with my wife – they automatically apply a block on the adjacent seat for Star Alliance Gold passengers, and since we are both Gold it never allows us to select seats next to each other. We always have to find an empty 3-section and then choose window/aisle, while the algorithm blocks the middle seat between us. The only workaround is to not input our FF numbers until after we make our seat selections.
Just ask the kid “Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?” Loud enough for the dad to hear. Dad will probably switch seats without delay.
If you don’t get it just google it.
We like Airplane humor here.
Hilarious, also username checks out.
How about finding the dirtiest movie on the IFE? ….I don’t think I am degen enough to pull off that move.
Woman gets called a jerk because she wants to sit in the seat for which she had a boarding pass
Man doesn’t get called a jerk for not sitting in thr seat next to his family.
Hmmmm. Double standards or just bait for the clicks?
Bait for the clicks, duh.
In this case it looks like dad checked out by the aisle and left mommy at the window to do all the work in-flight.
Women are born entitled and narcissistic.
So you’re a woman?
My wife and I usually book 2 aisle seats across from each other if possible since neither of us want a middle seat. On a UA flight last week, as we were boarding the plane my wife was informed that her aisle seat had been moved to another row. Once on the plane we found the gate agent on board and were informed that they had moved my wife to accomodate a family and “the system’ did not indicate that we were together. This was despite the fact that we were on the same reservation and have the same last name.
I imagine at this point you are expecting a story of how police were summoned and we were kicked off the plane, but it turns out there was an empty block of seats in the exit row and we were reassigned there with an empty middle seat 🙂
Years ago, I had a flight from Phoenix to Pittsburgh. When I boarded, the mother and one of the couple’s twins was in her lap. The father had the aisle seat with the other twin in his lap. Fortunately, the flight attendants were able to move me to another seat. I had not booked a middle seat, but somehow I ened up in a situation that could have been very unpleasant as neither the mother or the father wanted the middle seat.
You have to remember that you are in a public space up there in an airplane cabin and there are no guarantees for comfort or privacy. Try to enjoy your flight and hopefully it’s a short one.
this is a double standard- no-one ever wants to switch with the family and people always say if you want a particular seat- pay for it. The family decided on the seats and payed for them Why are they expected to move to a worse seat? to accommodate a stranger? most of the strangers would refuse to accommodate them.
If United ever reassigns us like that, I will stop flying them- we payed for the seats and chose not to seat in the middle; they should not reassign us. its BS
this is a double standard- no-one ever wants to switch with the family and people always say if you want a particular seat- pay for it. The family decided on the seats and payed for them Why are they expected to move to a worse seat? to accommodate a stranger? most of the strangers would refuse to accommodate them.
If United ever reassigns us like that, I will stop flying them- we payed for the seats and chose not to seat in the middle; they should not reassign us. its BS