Passenger’s Brutal Response Shuts Down Seat Stealers: ‘At Least They Can Identify Us in a Crash’ [Roundup]

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About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. If one’s seat is stolen , one can simply drag the offender out of one’s seat , no ?

    If an animal pig has occupied one’s seat , chase him out with a firecracker , no ?

    Simple solution .

  2. I hate these links where they drag out one simple story into this long page just to feed a bunch of ads. Please dont link those.

  3. That story about the charred remains can’t possibly be fictional. No bloggers make up fake stories for clicks.

  4. I’ve boarded as early as possible in my group and found someone sitting in my seat quite a few times. I have always got them to move, sometimes with the help of a flight attendant. I have been seated after getting on with my group and had someone with a duplicate seat assignment try to get me to give up my seat using a flight attendant. I have argued successfully that since that was my seat assignment and I got there first, I retained the right to the seat. I also had that seat assignment since the time I booked and chose it months before. I’m not sure why the airline chose to cause a conflict but it wasn’t really my problem.

  5. @jns … Depends on who wants your seat . If it is a fiercely angry Mike Tyson , you will say “sure thing sir” .

  6. For seating, authority rests: 1) with the airline, then, 2) with the passenger ticketed to the seat. If the passenger requesting the seat change is unsuccessful with either the airline, and also unsuccessful with the passenger ticketed to that seat, then the requesting passenger is out of luck. The airline could force the passenger with the assigned seat to move, but that is rare; in that case, the ticketed passenger, unfortunately, is out of luck. Perhaps, they can complain to the airline after-the-fact and get some ‘free’ miles for the inconvenience; I get it, that isn’t great.

    It’s really not about what happens; it’s about how we react. People can literally lose their privilege to fly following disputes onboard, often resulting from seating disputes. Why is this so hard? Probably because people are cheap (they don’t pay for seat selection), they’re bad with following rules (lack of accountability, bad parenting), think they are special (also bad parenting), and some have anxiety over flying and claustrophobia (understandable, but not a reason for special treatment). Good luck out there everybody.

  7. @Alert, if Iron Mike was sitting in my assigned seat, I would try to get him to move to his assigned seat but I would not let it escalate into a physical altercation. You’ve got to know when to hold ’em,
    know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away and know when to run. Maybe I would get his seat assignment so I could go and sit over there. The fact is though, I have never had Iron Mike sitting in my seat.

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