AIBU to offer cash to other passengers for their seats on flight

[Blewitagain]

I am going on holiday and have discovered I haven't pre booked seats on our flights. I'm traveling with two children. This was an oversight. I can get two seats which would leave eldest sat alone.

Would it be weird to take cash to compensate anyone willing to move seat? No one might be willing to move but I'm hoping.

I once travelled last minute in an emergency and no one was willing to move seats.

And lets say, I am happy to be seated away from my kids (aged 3&6) would you be happy to seated next to them? I wouldn't be happy seated next to other peoples kids.

And you can say "oh I'd just ignore them" and I would, but I also wouldn't want them touching me, or playing loudly on their tablets/ with their toys or spilling food on me. But if the fasten seatbelt sigh is on, this isn't something the parents could manage.

And there are times, like in the OP where it isn't possible to pay for seats together, like if the OP had only just booked. Using the system I described above, single passengers who have not paid to select their seat would automatically be moved, no disturbance to those who had paid.

I mean "you" more generally.

Yes I was planning on targeting passengers based on vulnerability. Or I was going to ask those in neighbouring seats?!

No one said that being a considerate person is compulsory, or that anyone has a 'right' to anything just because they have children.

People obviously have the right to focus on themselves and their own wants/needs. It's just not how I was raised. I don't only offer seats on buses and trains to disabled and elderly people, I also offer my seat to pregnant women and people with young children. It's completely irrelevant that they chose to have the children.

As I go about my life I always try to be considerate of others, irrespective of whether they have 'the right'. Low paid waiters and waitresses don't have a 'right' to a tip, but I always tip them anyway because I remember what it was like to be a low paid waitress.

And before anyone mentions anything about female socialisation, I learned this from watching my Dad, who is a complete gentleman.

If I am flying with my family I will always pay to stay together, but most of the flights I take these days are on my own. I usually opt for an aisle seat, but it really wouldn't be much skin off my nose to swap seats for a nervous 12 year old, even to a rubbish middle one.

The arseholery I referred to is from posters on this thread and the general attitude towards a nervous 12 year old.

I'd also like to add that flying frequently as an unaccompanied minor does not necessarily translate into being a good flyer when you get older. I flew on my own from the age of 10, and by 16 was taking a return shorthaul flight every weekend. I still hate flying.

In the event of an emergency like the plane crashing people won’t all be seated nicely in seats, they prob won’t even be in one piece and will have zero chance of identifying everyone from seat records

This is completely untrue. You're obviously not a fan of Admiral Cloudberg's 'plane crash series'. They have frequently identified people based on their seats after crashes.

www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a1918/4219452/

time.com/3934663/safest-seat-airplane/

www.reddit.com/r/MorbidReality/comments/1e2qlo/a_seat_map_showing_fatalities_and_injuries_on/

My husband has anxiety when he flies. He books the right seat for him. He definitely would not nice and nor should he. If you want seats together you need to book them I would feel uncomfortable vwirh someone asking me to move

If someone offered me cash to change seats, to be honest I would feel quite awkward and embarrassed about the whole situation. If I didn't mind changing then I would - and would refuse cash. If I did mind changing, I would feel put on the spot.

I can't think of a way of offering this cash without it being massively cringe.

I mean what do you say - 'excuse me would you mind changing seats so my family can sit together'

'Sure' - great, no embarrassing/vulgar offers of cash needed.

' No I am sorry, I deliberately chose this aisle/window/whatever seat and prefer not to move. 'OK how about if I offer cash'. Just NO - so cringeworthy.

You can hardly announce this offer in the aisle as the logistics are too confusing whilst everyone is trying to get on, sitting down etc..

@Thebeastofsleep I'm not convinced the idea is workable - what would happen if there weren't enough free seats for every group wanting to travel and there weren't enough single passengers to accommodate this? (I'm thinking in particular of charter flights to Florida in summer - very few single people on those flights). They'd have to sit apart. Only difference is they'd be arguing with people who hadn't paid to reserve their seats, but who'd booked early enough to benefit from there being free seats available together - and I still don't think many people would move, in that scenario. That's kind of emphasised by this thread, really.

And no, I don't particularly want to sit next to a stranger's young child but I'd expect their parent to do the necessary to avoid that happening by ensuring that parent and child were sitting together (where possible - clearly the OP is in a different scenario). If parent is "happy" for a stranger to be ignoring their child and having no responsibility whatsoever to them, then that's on them, but I'd feel sorry for the child in that scenario having such a person as a caregiver.

OP have you managed to speak to the airline yet?

The "at no cost" bit is a red herring. They need to get a level of revenue to make flights profitable or, as things currently are, make the least loss they can.

If they need to average £110 per ticket to do that, and some people are happy with a random seat at £100 and others prefer a selected seat at £120 then that works for everyone. If no one ever paid, they'd have to increase the base ticket cost.

It doesn't piss me off in the slightest by the way, much to your disappointment I'm sure.

I can't remember the last time I flew in economy so seat selection charges isn't something I come across very often at all.

I doubt anyone here is half as indignant at your entitled attitude as you'd like to think.

Personally I think in a Florida holiday type scenario seats should just be preallocated like in the old days! Find out your seat when you arrive at the airport. Stops random single seats being left.

I’m not reading 13 pages so sorry if this has been said but are you sure the airline staff will take kindly to you wandering around flapping cash at people?

To be honest I wouldn't change my seat last minute. I know it's a small risk but my name would be allocated to that seat and in the event of an accident it helps trace who some people are very quickly if they're in the correct seat

If it was that important the canine staff woulnr allow anyone to change seats once they've said " boarding complete"
Go on any Ryan flight from from Liverpool where there's a hen party or stag do going to Benidorm and it's a wonder anyone sits on their original allocated seat! 🤣🤣

My kids loved sitting away from their parents on planes when they were that age!

Since I had my son I've been on a few flights with my partner and don't pay for seats together (I don't want to pay extra to Ryanair etc who often have the only direct flights at reasonable times. They do at least always allocate one of us with the child).

Most'y people have offered to move when they have seen the situation so my partner can sit with us. (I haven't ever asked- they offer to swap) or the plane hasn't been that full to begin with so we have managed to sit together.

A couple of times on very busy flights we have ended up apart and lived with it.

I wouldn't offer money to anyone, but I would hope someone will offer or there will be space- especially if its a similar deal - e.g. you are on your own and moving from an aisle seat to another aisle seat I don't see the big deal. I would offer to swap in similar circumstances. I thought that's what most people would do?

These threads come up with such regularity that I have considered how I would respond if asked to give up a seat that I had paid to reserve.

If I had chosen and paid for that seat, I wouldn't move out of it just because somebody asked for it, when they had the same opportunity to book and pay for a seat just as I had. In the same way, I wouldn't give up my food in a restaurant just because somebody fancied it for themselves.

If I was prepared to move, I would probably tell the person asking that I was happy to sell them my seat at a reasonably uplifted sum compared with what I had paid for the reservation. I would make it very clear to anyone who cared to be listening, that I would give the proceeds to a suitable charity - say, Save the Children. That would test how much they really wanted it, I would not be criticised for being selfish, and the charity would benefit.

If you asked me, I’d be kind and let you have my seat without paying even if I had paid for mine. It’s just a nice thing to do for someone. Some people aren’t so kind so money may be a good idea!!

It doesn't piss me off in the slightest by the way, much to your disappointment I'm sure. I can't remember the last time I flew in economy so seat selection charges isn't something I come across very often at all

Of course it doesn’t piss you off if it doesn’t affect you. Nice (not so stealthy) wealth boast, by the way.

Nothing at all to do with wealth, we don't fly to holiday abroad so my only flying is for business trips.

So it still doesn’t affect you. 🤷‍♀️

It's not completely untrue...I'm not really interested in who on earth "Admiral Cloudberg" is but I do know a little bit about plane crashes, commercial flying etc. I've also seen what's left of a couple of (military) aircraft that have hit the ground and what's left was not pretty and not very organised...

So without going into the grim details any further whilst in some accidents (low speed, maybe on the runway) perhaps seat numbers might be as an aid to identification it would be rare to say the least if they were used as an absolute arbiter of ID, - one reason being the very fact it's known people move around the aircraft.

FWIW here I worked/flew commercially for several decades (UK based airline) there was no general prohibition on passengers moving seats within certain limits once doors were closed (as long as it was Ok with the crew and also didn't cause aircraft trim problems) and there was absolutely no requirement for the crew to change any manifests or Passenger Lists to reflect new seating arrangements.

HTH

People who booked a seat chose it for a reason; next to friend, aisle, window, near the toilet. Because you didn't bother your eldest will have to sit alone.

Correct. Not sure why you're shrugging though; it was you who said:

It must piss people like you off no end to hear that this “entitled fucker” has never paid to select a seat, yet always gets a pair of seats together - usually seat and window. You’re paying for that and I’m not.

I was pointing out that it doesn't piss me off and that, no, I'm not paying for it.

🤷🏻‍♀️

@notimagain you clearly have a great deal of real-world experience in this (which I respect).

I wasn't saying that seat numbers would be used as an ultimate arbiter of ID - just disputing the idea that no one would ever still be attached (one way or another) to a specific seat after a crash (regardless of whether or not it was their allocated seat)

With your real-life experience I think you would really love the Admiral Cloudberg stuff though. He analyses crashes in great detail to examine what went wrong (whether it's mechanical failure, communication breakdown, poor management, or more often a combination of several factors) and how regulations etc. have been changed in response to different incidents

admiralcloudberg.medium.com/