Passenger Demands Student Give Up Her $7,000 Business Seat for Daughter in Coach—Calls Her ‘Ungrateful’ As Flight Attendant Steps In

A 21-year-old Cincinnati college student says she bought herself a $7,000 business-class ticket to Dubai. It was her first time buying business class with her own money – a graduation gift to herself. Must be nice – when I was in college I had three part time jobs. My first job out of college paid me $21,000.

Shortly after she sat down, the woman seated next to her asked her to switch seats with her daughter.. who was seated in coach.

Naturally, the woman declined. When you’re asking someone to switch seats you need to offer them something equivalent or better than what they already have! But the mother argued!

• she’d been upgraded
  
• she’d never flown business class before
  
• and she wanted her daughter to experience it, too
  
• besides, it’s surely the case that the college student hadn’t spent her own money on the seat

The student says the mother complained loudly (including on a phone call, saying she was “ungrateful”), and a flight attendant had to explain they wouldn’t eject a business class passenger down to coach to bring up that woman’s daughter. It wasn’t that important for her to sit with her daughter though – she could have offered her business class seat to whomever was beside her daughter in back!

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A post shared by Ishika Yadavalli | College lifestyle (@theishilist)

Here’s the basic approach to take for switching seats.

• Avoid needing a swap in the first place Select seats when booking your ticket. Choose flights that have the seats available you want. Treat seat fees as part of the fare.

  Also, garden your reservation to make sure there aren’t any changes – this lets you know as soon as possible that you need to fix seat assignments, when there’s likely more available seats left.

  That doesn’t help (1) when flights cancel and you need a new itinerary, or (2) when you’re upgraded [although many people decline upgrades to avoid being separated from each other].

• Select tradeable seats if you’re going to need to swap, try to make sure you have decent trade bait. Aisle seats are better than middles! Extra legroom is better than last row! Don’t ask someone to trade down.

• Ask nicely. Smile, be pleasant and make it easy for someone to help you. Accept the answer you’re given. Passengers don’t owe you a favor.

• Pay. if you’re asking someone to accept something worse (especially) offer to make them whole. Give them $20 or at least buy them a drink. Make the offer up front, rather than only if they decline. You don’t want them to lock into a no.

  Hi, would you be willing to swap seats? I’d love to thank you with $20 for it. Totally fine to say no.

The gall of some passengers is amazing. It’s one thing to ask, it’s another thing to be incredulous when the request gets declined. Here’s a woman who refused to swap seats with a child in business class, and endured the scorn of a flight attendant. Another woman demanded a passenger give up their business class seat in order to upgrade her husband from coach. The rest of the cabin, though, always knows what’s up – this Air France business class passenger was actually cheered for refusing to switch seats for a family.