Not to have given up my seat on plane

Well you aren’t most people are you? No one has no one pays to book seats.

DH, to the people saying passengers only book seats for extra legroom, definitely not.

I much prefer the window and book that wherever possible.

If I have a checked bag, I will take a back of the plane seat, as I am not in a rush. But I prefer to be close to the wings. If it is a late evening flight (quite common) I will go further back in the hopes of peace and quiet and a snooze. But for safety reasons, I prefer to be close to the wings rather than the very back.

If I am hand luggage only, and especially if I am in a rush to a meeting, I will book as close to the front as possible. And depending on the tightness of time, the aisle seat.

The other thing about booking a seat, on the airlines I fly, you get onboard in the first group so have a better chance of your bag being overhead near your seat.

I don’t understand.

When I travel EasyJet and WizzAir and am autoallocated an aisle or window (which is usually the case) seat - ditto RyanAir (though it happens less frequently) - I would not move. Luck of the draw.

Why should the fact I haven't paid an extra premium for choice of seat mean I have to give up to someone else who also hasn't paid for their sat?

I also really don’t think most people do book seats other than for extra leg room. It’s a sun/ mumsnet phenomenon.

Surely in this situation even if the family were willing to pay it wouldn’t help?

The only thing that winds me up is the bollocks that parents with young children should have to book seats, that’s massively unfair and even at 12.50 a seat adds 100 onto the price both ways. When they are already paying more and subsidising everyone else by going in the school holidays.

What if by the time the parents have bought their tickets, enough other passengers have already paid to book seats that there isn’t enough space left to fit them together? Would the airline have to refund people who paid?

I’m not sure school holiday travellers actually subsidise the rest of us though. I read that hotels and airlines charge more because they can.

If you look at the recent annual reports of the likes Ryanair, Easyjet BA etc you'll see averaged across the year they probably make less than £10 per passenger.

The higher fares charged during school holidays/weekends/for last minute bookings definitely offset the cheaper fares you see for off peak travel or for travel booked well ahead of the flight date....the airlines make zero profit and often a loss on many off peak travellers...

I agree. I think if a booking includes children, then the family should be sitting together and there shouldn’t be a fee.
I’m not sure school holiday travellers actually subsidise the rest of us though. I read that hotels and airlines charge more because they can. They blame the need for more staff, more expensive airport landing/takeoff slots. Everyone is charged more because this is when all the players can make more money.
We try not to travel during school holidays but recently, my family went to on holiday in half term because of our grandchildren. The week before - £72.00 to Geneva. Half term week it cost us £570 per person!! That is outrageous. No wonder parents feel aggrieved.

I don’t understand the obsession with ‘rude’ on mumsnet generally. You are allowed to do it and that’s it. Other people can book the seats they want too, or just check in earlier so they don’t get what’s left.

Ultimately if I check in late and end up sitting between the two of you then meh, it’s up to me 🤷🏻‍♀️. I won’t be ripped off by paying it, you choose to be.

The only thing that winds me up is the bollocks that parents with young children should have to book seats, that’s massively unfair and even at 12.50 a seat adds 100 onto the price both ways. When they are already paying more and subsidising everyone else by going in the school holidays.

Believe me, when my husband and I try this, we never speak with each other. It’s not rude in my opinion. I hate the window and the middle and my husband hates the middle and aisle. If we’re lucky enough to get the three seats, that’s great but it doesn’t always work. Everyone may know what we’re trying, a lot may think it’s off but while it’s permitted, we will try to achieve.
We have occasionally booked separate rows too but once when we did this, I had a man ask me to move from the aisle because he wanted 5 across for his wife and children. I said no, I’m happy where I am and repeated this over and over again until the crew found a row for them. I’d paid and they hadn’t.

I was flying business once and I always book a window seat. When I got to my seat there was a guy in it who acted all innocent when I pointed out it was my seat. Lots of mumbling that he was sure it was his and why don't I "just sit in the aisle seat opposite him" that was free. I explained again I had booked that seat and showed him my ticket. He then made a drama of looking for his ticket. Couldn't find it. He was "sure the window seat was his" etc etc. Anyway he eventually moved when he "found" his ticket.
Weird thing was his mate was a few rows back and between them they were both up and down the ENTIRE flight talking to each other. So if I'd have sat in his seat he'd either have been climbing over me to go to his mate or his mate would have been leaning over me chatting the whole time. So why on earth he wanted the window seat I don't know.

😂

And the chances are that they paid for a cheaper seat; and are trying to get a free upgrade. I remember a story where a man asked someone in business class if they'd swap with his wife, who turned out to be sitting in a middle seat in economy!

Apologies if this has been said already, but DH has pointed out that the person asking to swap has no way of knowing whether the person they are asking has actually paid for the seats they are sitting in. Therefore, there is no reason why they shouldn’t ask to swap (even if the answer is no).

omg, people who think like this are just WEIRD! who the hell thinks of a plane going down when booking their seat? I'm just wanting to get out before the faffers with their faffing offspring.

You could still be in each other's eye line if the aisle person sat in the aisle seat on the row across the aisle. It's only about 4ft difference in distance.
But by sitting on the same row you're stopping others from potentially being in eye line of their friends during the possible crash.

Maybe you both have different seating preferences (many people prefer a window or aisle seat, I've yet to meet anyone in real life who enjoys the middle) but still want to be within each other's eye line if the plane goes down.

It obstructs couples who want to sit together doesn’t it, if there are no pairs of seats free because people who want a window and aisle have booked the same row. If you don’t actually want to sit together there is no need to book seats in the same row.

I mean recognising that the other person likely also paid for a seat and deserves the courtesy of the person they ask not treating them like a cheapskate cheeky fucker or blank staring them/ignoring them. That’s it. I don’t think anyone has to give up a seat, but I do think they deserve to be treated with humanity and empathy.

Hmmmm re cancelled flights. Why is it the other passengers' problem? Take it up with the airline.

If someone with small kids on a cancelled flights is transferred to a different flight, then you can’t blame them or the staff for bumping someone out of their seat to seat the kids with their adults.

The airlines has a duty to those people and they have the right to boot you out.

The annoying ones are the people who don’t book seats and expect everyone else to accommodate them.

Well, I suppose you could have always said, 'Sure - just give me £23.99 and it's all yours'! I bet she would have shut up immediately.

@YourPithyLilacSheep
They boarded in London so of course the train was quite a bit busier at that point. I was getting settled myself so wasn’t observing them minutely, but they just looked relieved to have found two seats close to the door, while juggling a young baby. To be honest, I am not sure that they were even aware of the whole system of seat reservations as they didn’t seem to pay much attention to the little screens above the seats. English also seemed to be a second language for them, as I think they were talking in another language to each other, although I couldn’t swear to that absolutely.

So yes, they were technically in the wrong but I think it was more of an honest mistake than ‘bad behaviour’. They were pretty stunned and dismayed when the young woman asked them to move, nearly four hours into their journey.

I still think it would have been utterly unreasonable for her to have forced them to move with their baby, bags, toys, food and other paraphernalia when she could have just as easily sat down in the empty pair of seats immediately in front of them, or the pair of seats in front of that, or the empty seat diagonally opposite…you get the picture - by that point in the journey there were a lot available!

No one has to be a pushover but sometimes it can be the right thing to give way a little.

I did post another message just below that one. Did you not read down that far?

I didn't know it was common practice to book seats like that in the hope nobody would book the middle one, but planes are usually very full, so it's a bit of a silly thing to do.

Yes it is weird behaviour, isn't it @Possinass I don't travel 1st class much (my work won't let me expense it), but maybe people just don't care. It's rude behaviour, though, whatever the reason.

I think a lot of people just don't look/ notice or possibly even care.
I once treated myself to a (discounted) first class train ticket. I booked my seat. When I got on the train there was only 2 people on the whole carriage. And they were in my seat. As far as I could see there was NO OTHER reserved seats in the entire carriage. 🙄
I just sat elsewhere as it didn't matter. But it was just weird that they managed to pick the only reserved seat/ table to sit at.