Tag Archives for seats.
One of the most controversial etiquette questions is whether it’s alright for spouses to split up when they fly, with one person in a premium cabin and the other one flying coach?
I finally had the opportunity to experience the choice for myself. My wife, daughter, and I flew from Austin to Las Vegas – and we split up into different cabins.
A comedian named Cindy Arena was traveling with her four and six year old kids and they weren’t seated together. She asked another woman to switch seats so she could sit with her kids. The woman said no. Her right, but…
That meant the mom wasn’t with the kids, and this woman who wouldn’t change was seated next to them instead. One of the kids was four! Hijinks are going to ensue!
Three million people have viewed a video of a woman who refused to give up her window seat for a mother traveling with her two kids. The mother offered the passenger a middle seat in exchange for her window. Not happening! And the kids looked 11 and 15 – not four and six.
Buying seats that you do not intend to fly, to keep other people from buying them, creates actual harm to the airline (it prevents them from earning revenue). They won’t sit idly by. Consequences could be even greater.
A 19 year old woman flying from Las Vegas to New York was assigned a middle seat, and reports she was between two larger passengers who didn’t “fit comfortably into their seats.” She reports their shoulders and thighs were “on top of” hers. And after an hour and a half of this she got up and discretely asked a flight attendant if she could change to an open seat in another row?
She felt awkward moving her bag from underneath the seat in front of her, but thought the ordeal was over when she moved a few rows back. However at the end of the flight when she deplaned, she found the woman who had been sitting next to her waiting for her at the gate.
What makes the biggest difference in comfort on any flight, regardless of airline, is having an empty seat next to you. And if your flight is full, that’s something which is largely within your control when flying on Southwest Airlines. If you fly Delta you hope they didn’t assign the seat next to you. If you fly Southwest, seats aren’t pre-assigned, so you hope no one decides to sit next to you.
There’s a whole subculture of people who have their own strategies for making sure sitting beside them is… undesirable.
There are a lot of things that are unpleasant as an airline passenger. One is how little legroom your ticket buys, though there are options to pay more money to get more space. There is a right way and a wrong way to take matters into your own hands if you’re frustrated by a reclining passenger.
Southwest Airlines has open seating. You take any seat that’s available. There’s no rule against saving seats, but also nothing that says you can do it either. Basically it’s everyone for themselves. Yet there are basic, unspoken rules. Violate one of those, get the captain involved, and you’re going to be removed from the aircraft for a conversation with law enforcement.
A change.org petition from plus-sized activist and influencer Jaelynn Chaney demanding that the FAA require airlines to offer multiple seats for free to passengers who don’t fit into a standard seat is gaining thousands of signatures.
She reports that on a United Express regional jet flight from Pasco, Washington to Denver she was “subjected to hateful comments” which is sad, and she had just a single seat with immovable armrests on another flight which was very uncomfortable. And so she wants FAA action.
One flight attendant is telling the world that she’s sick and tired of being asked to switch seats to accommodate families.
She hates family travelers regardless of their seating needs, because they have other needs too.
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 »
