Plane seat drama

Also they didn’t want the spare seat which was the middle one between the parents - they wanted her Ds’s actual booked seat.

Could be true - the couple just sounds so horrible I’d want to be far away from them! But I take the point he had an aisle there, and I’d prefer that at any age to squashing between Mum and Dad.

Babe in arms is a pain, but what were they thinking they'd do - if the baby is small then it can't exactly just be plumped on the seat next to them safely!? If the baby's old enough to sit on their own, they'd be wise to just book a 3rd seat for the baby.

(this is what I did after getting of a 3 hour flight aching because my 1 year old was technically young enough to be on my lap, but in practise, too big to be comfortable for hours)

ANYWAY - I also have 2 sons - not as big as yours, and we're rapidly approaching uncomfortable to be sat crammed togther in a 3 row seat, so YANBU to keep the spare between you since you'd paid for it.

Boarding a flight is not the opening stage of a seating negotiation. I really do wish that every person asked to engage in this ludicrous game of shunting around like cattle to suit others' whim or demand, immediately and without explanation said a firm and non-negotiable 'No'.

Given the airlines clearly know it's a problem and don't care, a default response of 'FO, CF' is likely the only way the CFs will ever stop asking.

No!

This thread takes me back a few years to my first overseas holiday after my partner died, I went down to the beach and had to pay for two loungers and an umbrella, they wouldn't let me pay for one lounger. I put my stuff on the other one, clothes, bag etc., great, no sand in them. Someone later came over and demanded the lounger 'Yer not usin'' but when I declined his kind offer to relieve me of it he became quite nasty, he had a CHILD who couldn't have a lounger because of my selfishness. I didn't even bother asking him to split the cost.

Is it? I would have said I or me and thought either would do ,and it certainly didn't leap out as horrendous grammar.

At least it wasn't between DH and myself :-)

No no and no !! Good on you

@Soontobe60

A spare seat on a flight is fair game to anyone else on that flight.

I’d be a bit cautious about advising that without adding a couple of caveats…

Firstly there’s the issue that some airlines allow the purchase of seats to allow extra comfort, so a seat being empty may not mean it is spare.

Secondly aircraft load/balance can mean passengers should not move from their assigned seat(s) without at least discussing it with the crew.

Not

A

Chance

Nooooooo!

oh come on, don't be disingenuous - most people would like the extra elbow room on the low budget / charter flights if you could. It's a definite bonus. The difference would have meant the OP and her DH squashed up together doing the jenga like balancing of books, ipads, coffee etc that you get on these flights. Not impossible but far nicer to have a bit of latitude.

We had a flight recently where they'd really messed up bookings and had our group scattered all over the cabin. We rearranged it among ourselves to sit the littlest ones with adults, but DD1(12) was in a row in front of DH... couple sat next to DD1 offered to swap seats so she could be next to DH and she ever so politely refused as she "didn't want to sit next to her dad!"

DH's bruised ego took a few days to heal!

I would absolutely not give up the seat in these circumstances.

Even if you were not entitled to the seat neither were the rude passengers.

I don't really agree @Soontobe60, I travel constantly for work and it's generally etiquette that whoever is next to the spare seat gets the benefit unless the air stewards have need to move someone but in anycase I would have still refused to move DS who is sitting in HIS allocated seat and offered one of them to sit in the spare seat if they wanted it so badly.

This grammatical error is everywhere these days. 😐

Sorry - daft question.
How did you manage to keep a spare seat within your oldest son checking in ?

Anyway I agree they were rude and certainly very entitled.

A spare seat on a flight is fair game to anyone else on that flight.

When DS no showed you lost the seat and the airline could have reallocated it after check in deadline. You ticket was non refundable, maybe travel insurance covers it depending on circumstance. You were not entitled to the empty seat, any passenger could have been allocated it but sometimes if flights are empty no show seats stay unfilled. I can see why you think you " owned " DS seat but you didn't.

But neither were the other couple entitled to the spare seat, and as OP was next to it, it's her call.

No, this was the return flight so it no longer ‘belonged’ to the named passenger, the OPs son. It would have been taken off the check in page as he didnt show for the outbound flight.

I might have let them have the seat if they'd asked nicely but naaaah, not in that situation.

I’m very confused. When someone does not check in for a flight on the first leg of a return journey, the return leg is automatically cancelled. So although the OP had originally paid for the ticket, the return seat wasn’t hers to do anything with. The company (easyJet or whomever) could have sold that seat again and there would have been nothing the OP could have done.

And regardless of this @Soontobe60 if there was a spare seat for whatever reason, it's still none of the business of the people in the other seats. The spare seat was next to OP, not them.

But in order to book it for the return journey you would have had to pay extra to exchange the booking name. It isnt common. Which airline did you fly with?

rubbish. You don't have to give anyone something you have paid for.

It is rude, greedy and entitled to expect people to give you things they have paid for, and then to be insulting. Tough tits, then, OP gets a nice journey with space, and they get an uncomfortable journey and 2 hours to think about their attitude.

I’m very confused. When someone does not check in for a flight on the first leg of a return journey, the return leg is automatically cancelled. So although the OP had originally paid for the ticket, the return seat wasn’t hers to do anything with. The company (easyJet or whomever) could have sold that seat again and there would have been nothing the OP could have done.