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Home » emirates » “Middle Seat Hack” Fails After Man Wants To Sit Between Two Young Women On Emirates Flight
emirates

“Middle Seat Hack” Fails After Man Wants To Sit Between Two Young Women On Emirates Flight

Matthew Klint Posted onJune 7, 2024June 7, 2024 39 Comments

a collage of a woman with long hair

Two girls thought they were being clever by positioning themselves for an open middle seat on their Emirates flight to Germany but ended up with a man who actually wanted to sit between them and refused to move.

“Middle Seat Hack” Fails On Emirates Flight

The young women were flying from Dubai to Frankfurt on Emirates flight EK47 and tried the old “middle seat hack” trick to score some extra space onboard. Essentially, you reserve an aisle and window seat and hope that the middle seat stays open. If the middle seat stays open, you can enjoy extra space to spread out. If the middle seat is later assigned, typically it is an easy swap to offer the passengers either the aisle or window seat so you can still sit next to your companion.

But not here. Here, the man purportedly said “he’d rather stay in the middle seat between us.”

https://www.tiktok.com/@sarliunlimited/video/7376143752622066976

I think middle seats are inherently inferior. Aisle seats allow you to get up and down more easily and potentially spread your feet out a bit more into the aisle. Window seats give you a wall in which you can rest your head. But middle seats? What is this, a commercial for Apple?

I can think of two reasons why the man may have refused to move. First, he may have been single and wanted to sit between two pretty girls. Yeah, that’s creepy if he was my age but if he was younger I can hardly blame him. Or maybe he sat between them in hopes that they would not talk the whole flight, which is indeed a reasonable concern.

Bottom line: you do run the risk of a middle seat passenger actually wanting the middle seat and you cannot force someone to move, even to a better seat.

Interestingly, the women claimed when they complained to a flight attendant about what was going on they were moved to different seats. They were fortunate there were open seats…and if their original seats stayed empty the man really may have been the smart one…


image: sarliunlimited / TikTok + Instagram

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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39 Comments

  1. Alert Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 9:43 am

    The girls ought to have punched him out .

    • Gregg Reply
      June 7, 2024 at 12:04 pm

      Really? Why? He wanted the seat he paid for. In what world does a person’s gender give them the right to order someone else to accommodate their whims? This fellow was not a gentleman, but that’s his right. The women played seat roulette and lost. Suck it up.

      • Alert Reply
        June 7, 2024 at 7:47 pm

        He ought to be a gentleman . He ought to have offered to the FA to allow the middle seat vacant .

        As it was , they moved and he then had the entire row himself .

        • Is Reply
          June 8, 2024 at 4:29 pm

          Really??? If they wanted to sit next to each other, then they should have booked seats next to each other! The guy did nothing wrong.

    • Cynic Reply
      June 7, 2024 at 1:04 pm

      Imagine the audacity of this guy, booking a seat and then choosing to sit in it! Why just a punch? Throw him in jail, right?

      • Nick Reply
        June 7, 2024 at 11:59 pm

        lol!

    • Kamalj Reply
      June 7, 2024 at 4:15 pm

      Spoken like an idiot.

      • zara Reply
        June 7, 2024 at 10:06 pm

        Yes, Kamalj, you are an Idiot!

  2. tom Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 9:56 am

    well played, sir!

  3. Stuart Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 10:16 am

    Perhaps more to the point is that people need to start accepting that ANY seat going empty now on a flight is really rare so just reserve what you actually want to begin with. It’s a useless hack.

    • Nick Reply
      June 8, 2024 at 12:03 am

      @ Stuart- that would be too easy. It’s like people booking hotel rooms that are ADA or double beds, but they didn’t want ADA or double beds. Or they ask for a free upgrade.

      Oh, so you want this, but you didn’t reserve it. Classic and too frequent

  4. Jan Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 10:22 am

    I used to do this (with 2 of us, leaving the middle) with a 100% success rate until I came across this blog and reading about people who like the middle seats (true psychopaths)

    • The middle seat guy Reply
      June 7, 2024 at 12:56 pm

      Congrats on generalizing that people who chose to sit in the middle are all true psychopaths! Perhaps I suggest a little broader mind approach next time? Maybe you 2 people are true psychopaths by keeping the middle seat open. Who knows!
      It is their personal choice to take make about selecting the middle seat or maybe they didn’t have any other option but sit in the middle seat since no aisle or window seats were available. Why have preconceived notion that whoever chose to prefer the middle seat are psychopaths??
      Now, every time I will fly, I will think that Jan+1 in aisle and window seats are crazies and is best to avoid them!

      • Jan Reply
        June 7, 2024 at 1:32 pm

        If someone offers you the aisle or window and say “Nah, I would much rather seat between strangers who travel together”, you are a true, absolute psychopath, and a creep, no two ways around it! Yes, please avoid me and my companion, win-win-win for all of us!

        • Kamalj Reply
          June 7, 2024 at 4:17 pm

          May be he wanted to teach a lesson to these greedy pigs

    • Tony N Reply
      June 7, 2024 at 1:05 pm

      The ‘standbys’ usually get the last picks which is usually a middle seat.

      • Jan Reply
        June 7, 2024 at 1:28 pm

        I’ve never tried it on US domestic (since DL for example knows how to pack a plane 100%) but on intra-Europe or Asian KLM or KE flights, there’s a decent chance you can book next to an empty seat. In fact, I’ve had rows to myself flying solo on those airlines

        • Tony N Reply
          June 7, 2024 at 1:38 pm

          I wouldn’t bet on it in America.

  5. derek Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 11:55 am

    In the early days of the pandemic, which is ongoing and not resolved, I used similar hacks to get more space between me and other passengers. If the window seat was booked, I might book an aisle. If the window and middle seats were booked, I would not choose that aisle unless I had no choice.

    • Tony N Reply
      June 7, 2024 at 1:39 pm

      There’s always that LAST MINUTE booking that you don’t see on the seating.

  6. Joe United Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 12:04 pm

    So that is an article about a man who wanted to stay in his assigned seat and two entitled women were upset about it. To many assumptions were made about the man wanting to stay in his seat. Pretty women are a dime a dozen; not that special.

  7. Maryland Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 12:47 pm

    Not exactly seeing what the women had to complain about. They booked the aisle and window and that’s what they got. Life is tough sometimes even when you receive what you request. Boohoo.

  8. Tony N Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 1:02 pm

    A variation of this is when someone books the middle seat hoping nobody will book the aisle or window. But I ruined it for someone.

  9. Christian Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 1:10 pm

    Two things:

    If two young reasonably attractive women in their 20’s didn’t consider this possibility it speaks poorly of their planning skills.

    I have studiously avoided going into appearances in your comments but frankly I don’t think that you would be age inappropriate for either. I don’t know your age but you look fairly young so that’s a surface judgement, which is why I try to steer clear on those most of the time.

  10. Jerry Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 1:51 pm

    This definitely didn’t happen, but it certainly makes for a fun story!

    • Harris Reply
      June 7, 2024 at 2:55 pm

      I dunno, I’d love to sit between those two.

      • NedsKid Reply
        June 7, 2024 at 3:23 pm

        Just saying… once traveling to a meeting at HDQ at my airline I somehow forgot/neglected to assign myself a seat and just so happened my gate agent had to put me in a middle between two attractive deadheading flight attendants. It was an exit row after all. Sometimes it happens.

  11. Andrew Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 2:20 pm

    His reverse uno card worked fantastically!!! He got the aisle to himself.

    I think this will be my new ‘hack’!!!!!!!!!!!!

  12. GUWonder Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 3:23 pm

    There have been men and women selecting middle seats to increase their odds of socializing with the opposite sex for nearly as long as there has been a possibility to book a middle seat.

    Years ago when a friend asked me what the point was of frequent flyer status I had mentioned that the airlines would often block the seat next to me. The friend told me something like this: “You’ve reduced your chances to meet a future spouse on a flight, so it doesn’t sound like a perk”.

  13. Paper Boarding Pass Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 4:32 pm

    Had this happen on a recent SW flight to Florida. On the 1st row, one woman sat next to the window and the second on the aisle. I inquired in my John Candy voice (Planes, Train & Automobiles) “Is that seat taken.” Before responding, I sat my butt in the middle.
    As the flight progressed, come to find out they were sisters passing very good snacks between them. Best food I’ve ever gotten on a SW flight!!!

  14. JoeMart Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 5:22 pm

    Once I had a Dolphins player sit in the middle seat. He didn’t complain,ask for special treatment or avoid conversation. I never realized how muscular football players are,much bigger seen in person than TV. Every woman in the plane was trying to get his contact information. He politely reminded them he was engaged in conversation with me.

  15. Scott Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 9:07 pm

    Not sure what kind of person wants to tick off their seats mates and then sit between them. If he were wanting the attention of a couple of young women then his best bet would have been to accommodate their request, not make them angry. So I would consider any thought of him trying to enjoy their company one way or another to be inaccurate. More likely he either likes middle seats or resents people gaming a system.

  16. emercycrite Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 10:01 pm

    Stupid girls. The flight attendant should’ve made them sit in their selected seats.

    • Maryland Reply
      June 7, 2024 at 10:40 pm

      Bingo.

  17. gavnac Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 10:06 pm

    She says she offered the aisle seat to the guy buy doesn’t say that they also offered him the window. Maybe he wanted the window seat and was trying to negotiate for that. Or maybe he really dislikes the aisle, because your elbow gets bumped, passengers walking by with luggage and unloading luggage can hit you with it, you have to get up for two people to use the bathroom, etc.

    Also, some novice flyers are just more comfortable in their assigned seats, they may think it’s required to stay there

  18. Ducky Reply
    June 7, 2024 at 11:36 pm

    Entitlement to the rescue! We demand special treatment because this guy doesn’t!

  19. James Harper Reply
    June 8, 2024 at 10:06 am

    Of course there’s a third reason which is the man preferred a middle seat, I know a few people who do. No banging with people passing in the aisle and some people hate window seats. I flew once where I was aisle, middle was occupied and window was empty. The woman in the middle refused to move to the window because she hated it, I offered the aisle and said I would sit at the window but she again refused because she preferred the middle.

    There aren’t always ulterior motives for behaviour.

  20. JBM Reply
    June 8, 2024 at 10:56 am

    There is another reason to keep a middle seat. Let’s say the plane is not very full. Sure, the man could probably move to another row, but if he stays where he is, then the two ladies are likely to move instead and he gets a whole row to himself. It puts the onus of finding another seat on them instead. Perhaps they’ll take a cluster in the center to prioritize sitting together.

    Also, when forced into the center cluster, I prefer middle seats. It is less likely someone will crawl over you or ask you to get up to get to the aisle.

  21. 9volt Reply
    June 11, 2024 at 11:48 am

    Or a third reason is that he is well aware of the middle seat hack, and just wanted to spite the girls for thinking he would just be a willing participant in their hack.

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