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.

Aside from SN or disabilities, it doesn't take two people to look after a baby on a flight.

You just take the baby back and forth between you when the seatbelt signs are off to ease the tedium.

Whoever doesn't have the baby can then have a proper rest, rather than having two half-rested parents. Bliss!

The mother was definitely being unreasonable.

I could understand wanting to be near small mobile children in the case of evacuation. But this was a baby so on their knees anyway. Can people not manage a whole 10-hour flight sitting next to a stranger?

If it were me I'd like to say I'd happily say to the parents, no, not moving, I've paid and pre-booked and no I don't have to give you any reason apart from the fact I need extra legroom (if I did need this).

But when you're with someone disabled, like I was, and his wife was asked to move (as there was a better seat for the husband next to his wife and the baby rather than behind) it places people in an awkward position and it's harder to speak up. Luckily disabled person's wife spoke up and so did her son in law and daughter but they were all given 'oh we should be sat together because we have a baby (baby looked about 8 months old)' looks and the mum even said 'I need my husband next to me' (for what exactly?!). The husband eventually gave up and just moved. Cabin crew didn't get involved and did actually say, the guy's in a wheelchair, and needs his wife (they didn't have to point out they have enough to do without doing extra).

I dont have any sympathy for her btw. I hate people who think its acceptable to even ask because if you say no you have to sit next to them throwing you daggers for the WHOLE flight!

@Franklin12 - I give up - why on god's sweet earth do people think doing that is ok?

There are tons of people who dont seem to function without their partner being there

@Franklin12 - I agree with you - for a shorter or longer flight. Let them shoot daggers at you if it makes them happy.

Very similar thing happened to DH and I coming back from Brazil. We had specifically booked two seats on the left of the plane for the space, in the row of three to our right was a mum, dad and baby. She called the stewardess over to ask her to ask us to swap and this stewardess basically did a spin on the spot to ask us. She tried to keep her voice down but as the couple were literally a foot to our right it was pointless. We paid extra for the seats and explained as such so wouldn't be moving, cue stewardess spinning back to explain what we said, even though the couple already heard as we're right next to each other.

The rest of the flight all we heard was "I don't understand why they wouldn't just swap?!" In various phrasing.

Gonna - because they thought I would be gone longer than I was and I would be non the wiser!

My days of travelling with a baby/toddler are long gone, but DH and I used to sit apart so that we could take in turns to look after our little bundle of joy for longhaul. We've only been using small planes recently, but we tend to prefer somewhere mid plane as we figure that babies and toddlers have been accommodated up front or back by the loos.

Not a fucking chance!

The cheeky cow!

Entitled parents again, there have been so many of these threads recently from both sides.
If they were so desperate to sit together they should either have paid for 2 leg room seats necr to each other or offered someone from the husbands row behind an upgrade to the mothers extra leg room seat and she should have gone into the cramped seat behind .

If I had paid for the seat, I'd only swap if the new seat was equal or better, but from extra leg room to a second row seat - no, not a chance.

On long haul flights we always book front row seats to get more leg room, for comfort and circulatory health reasons.

I certainly wouldn't give them up to someone who hadn't bothered to book (and pay for) adjacent seats for his family . What a CF!

Exactly this!

Precisely

May the problem have been that it was a bassinet seat but the bassinet sits in front of 2 seats, not just one, so can't be used unless the parents are occupying both of the seats in question?
My husband, adult daughter and I risk being asked to move out of bassinet seats on an 8 hour flight we are taking in September. That flight will be the last of 3 we are taking that day and I have booked the bassinet seats so that we get extra leg room (it will be an exhausting journey and we are all quite tall). For unrelated reasons, I have paid for the flights months earlier than we had to and had my choice of virtually all the seats in economy - but choosing those seats added £180 to the cost. I won't want to move for anyone, even someone with a small baby, but wonder whether I have been selfish in booking 3 of only 9 seats on that flight which can accommodate a bassinet...

You book your seats when you book the plane its utter stupidity not to and others cheapskate stupidity is not my problem.

Really it shouldnt even be an option to not book a seat, the airlines need to fix that.

I have 3 children and damn sure I always book all our seats so I know we are safely together.

This would make more sense!

A few years ago, we went abroad with our year old baby and didn't book seats: just took a chance

My partner was adamant that airlines don't separate families and that we wouldn't need to pay for our seats

We were wrong and separated on the return flight. It was awkward as she was wriggly and wouldn't settle: we had to pass her back and forth across the aisle. Finally she fell asleep in my lap but wouldn't let me hold her during the descent / landing as the couple next to us also had a baby

Had to pass her back to my husband which meant she woke up crying again

Never again. I just pay the additional charge now

Nope. DH is tall so we pay for extra legroom seats where possible and they're not cheap so I wouldn't swap just because someone else failed to plan.

I've also posted this story before but I did refuse to move when asked. We were on an 8 hour flight and had paid for seats at the back of the plane - a pair rather than a row of three, so nobody else would be next to us. A woman and her adult daughter appeared and asked to swap because her daughter is autistic and they wanted to be together, just the two of them. Unfortunately for her, I'm also autistic and that's exactly why I had paid through the nose for those specific seats.

I appreciate that these little extra costs quickly add up but if you desperately care about where you're sitting on the plane, you need to put your hand in your pocket.

Really it shouldnt even be an option to not book a seat, the airlines need to fix that

If they did that they wouldn’t be able to charge for seat booking. We don’t pay because we don’t care where we sit, not because we’re fuckwits.

Nope, not a snowball's unless I'm getting a better seat. On long haul I will have already chosen the seat I want (window seat, specific place on the aircraft) so unless I'm being offered a window seat or a bed in a better class then the answer is "no".

If the woman is capable of booking an airline ticket then she's also capable of booking allocated seats.

And trying to get the stewards involved is just a dick move. Airlines should have a "CHEEKY FUCKER HERE" sign that goes over the seat of people who do this.

I wouldn't change my seat if I'd booked and paid for the one with the extra leg room. Why would the passenger pay extra and then not get what he had paid for?

I'd sit on the lap of that man in the photo on that link. He's hot!

No! He'd paid for the extra legroom! If it was so the woman and her baby could have the bassinet then maybe, but not just so the husband could pony up and stretch out.