Tag Archives for seats.
A Frontier Airlines passenger stunned a gate agent by turning down an exit row seat with extra legroom, saying she wouldn’t help in an emergency. Instead of stretching out, she was sent to the cramped middle seat in back. Here’s why.
Changing to an open seat nobody else is using can’t be stealing because the airline hasn’t given up anything, and claiming it harms other passengers isn’t right either because other passengers still got exactly what they paid for.
It wasn’t just United, Delta is being sued also for selling seats next to the fuselage, marketed as window seats, but with no cutout to see outside.
I always take an aisle seat. I like to look out the window, but I really prefer to control my own destiny. I don’t want to have to wake a neighbor to get up, or climb over them. I want immediate access to the aisle.
Along with that comes the obligation to get out of the way when someone in the middle or window seat needs to go to the lavatory. And I’m always happy to get up!
The best flyers prefer aisle seats, and airlines even value the business more of those who do. Aisle seats are just better than window seats, and we don’t even need to talk about the dreaded middle.
If you’re in the aisle seat you don’t get those window seat views, but those are better in theory than practice outside of the first and final minutes of a flight. And you do have to get up to let other passengers into the aisle if they need to use the restroom. So there are tradeoffs, but they’re minor compared to the 6 reasons that aisle seats are best.
A passenger on a flight from Mexico to Manchester in the U.K. on TUI spent the entire 8 hour journey locked in a battle with the flyer in front of them. He decided that the person in the row ahead would not recline into his space under any circumstance. And he enforced that edict with his hands.
FBI agents complain that Southwest Airlines is frustrating to deal with in unruly passenger situations on aircraft because passengers can’t easily be identified by their seat assignment.
Of course there are two other huge advantages seat assignments will bring,
Middle seat passengers get both armrests. They are closer to the window and to the aisle. Some airlines give prizes or bonus miles to middle seat passengers. But there’s another, hidden benefit to airline middle seats that I had never considered before.
The elegant solution isn’t to book a window and aisle seat instead what you want is two aisle seats across from each other. Why don’t more people do this?
One simple way to solve conflicts in the sky and get what you want is just to find a Coasian solution: you each have an initial set of rights (like your seat assignment). Those rights can stand in the way of another passenger’s preferences. So find a (cash) bargain that makes everyone whole. It seems like this is catching on and becoming a trend.
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 »
