Would you give up your plane seat?

[Tinkerblonde1]

https://www.heart.co.uk/lifestyle/man-refuses-swap-plane-seats-mum-baby/?fbclid=IwAR1sZIyQoCtwBcGd5iCtn7U6YLstt_H9sPDd9UkiSej-6Qwq2qWvvB0xqL4

It has been done before but with holidays happening again this seems to keep appearing over the last few weeks.

To me it depends but if its an airline where you pay for seats and you choose not to. Then surely its on you if you are seated away from husband/wife while you have the kids.

No I don't think he should have moved, the family with the baby should have planned better. However to pp saying why didn't the mother and baby move back a row - those front row seats are probably the bassinet seats which you'd want for a 10 hour flight with a baby!

Only if she'd paid me cash for the difference in the cost of tickets.

I wouldn't have swapped, I always want extra legroom and pay for it.

When I've tried to book legroom for myself and dc in the past I was never allowed those seats with a baby or child, have the airline rules changed now?

Because only a front row has a crib attachment so the baby can sleep separately.
I agree though that she should have paid extra for another front seat.
Amazing how these cf's never offer to pay the difference.

Took the words out of my mouth.

I’m with blanketpolicy

seems no mention of her asking someone in row 2 to swap so sitting next to her DH wasn’t that important.

I’ve travelled alone a lot and tend to offer to swap seats if it helps people to sit together with or without children. But in that situation I wouldn’t swap and I’d point out she could ask someone in row 2 to swap.

On a ten hour flight - nope. Maybe if it was a shorter flight. If they had wanted to sit together in seating with extra legroom they should have booked that not expected someone to give up a seat they paid more for.

This

No, not if I'd paid extra for it.

No, I book my seats for a reason. Near enough, but not too close the to the toilet and three seats together, one being a window to keep the kids happy.

I do this in advance and expense to myself because this is what I want.

No. I’d be travelling with my own family and would want to stay with them.

If I was travelling on my own it would most likely be an emergency trip to visit someone unwell and I would have chosen my own seat based on that. People shouldn’t assume that solo travellers should always be happy to make way for larger groups. People can be nervous fliers or have particular reasons for wanting seats

Certainly not. Especially on a 10 hour flight.

Nope
I always pay for allocated seats so we can all sit together.
If there are empty seats I don’t mind juggling a bit as long as we are still all sat together and the seats are as good or better that the ones I paid for
Other than that no chance

The front row seats have the bassinet so it was understandable why she didn't move to the 2nd row. She would just have swap with her husband during the flight.

Nope not a chance. Why didn't she ask someone in her husbands aisle to swap with her?

No.

I imagine she’d booked a bassinet seat for baby and those are usually at the front in the same place as the extra legroom’s but found there wasn’t a spot for the husband in the same row, and didn’t want to sacrifice the bassinet. I doubt it was a too cheap to pay scenario since seat selection is usually free at the time of booking with a lap a infant anyway. Totally fair enough up to that point. The part where she got unreasonable was when she asked the other passengers to move and worse still didn’t graciously accept that they understandably didn’t want to, I would have refused too. And it was a complete non issue anyway. Tag teaming the baby on planes is what we’ve always done on flights and it works great as each parent gets chance for an uninterrupted movie and wine!

In that situation, no way! The woman with the baby had a front row seat. She wanted a second for her husband. She was rude and entitled.

I'd consider swapping if I was a lone traveller and it meant a child could sit with a parent. But I'm short and don't have any access needs etc.

No, I wouldn't have moved in these circumstances and the woman with the baby was an entitled arse to a) expect him to do so without demur and b) get angry when he didn't. I get that the first flight you take with your new baby is stressful, particularly when it's a long haul flight, but for that very reason you need to be super well-organised, call the airline ahead of time, and ensure that you're happy with where and with whom you're sitting. If she wanted to sit next to her DH she should've offered the person in the middle seat next to him to swap.

Not if I had paid more specifically for more leg room

No. I need a window seat. It is my job to watch the wing and make sure it dosen't fall off.

If someone asked nicely I may swap with them (and have done in the past). However, so often people are very entitled, don't ask nicely and just expect you to give up the seat you have selected because they want it. Also, as another poster has pointed out, the entitled people never seem to offer to pay the difference.

It depends on the aircraft type/size. On Ryanair/east jet etc the extra legroom seats are also emergency exit rows so no kids allowed as the passengers need to be able/competent to open the emergency exit should they need to whereas on larger aircraft with multiple cabins the front row of the cabin isn’t necessarily an emergency exit row and as someone else said, this is where the bassinet seats are located.

The man who refused to swap was totally within his rights - he’d paid for that seat!

Surely the woman could just take it in turns with her husband to look after the baby? Also, where was his input into this conversation “don’t worry, darling, we’ll swap half way” would have done it. Then they could both have had a rest.

i was going to say she could have swapped to the row behind but I hadn’t thought about the bassinets.

It depends. If they were near the front and swapped with me so I was near the front - yes. Not the other way round (unless it was a plane where you get out at the back).

The airlines have got to stop this nonsense though - if you booked together you should be seated together.