Not to have given up my seat on plane

[Rainbowgoldover]

Just wondering ....

I flew home last night from holiday with a friend.

BA flights , flight out was dreadful, cramped seats , allocated at check in so we had last row next to the toilets ...

On the way back we learnt our lesson so paid to book seats, I booked an aisle seat, friend booked a window seat, flight about 70 per cent full.

The person in the middle seat , asked me if I would move so she could have the aisle seat.

I refused and said no I booked aisle and don't want to sit in middle seat. She said but I want to be near my family in the row opposite. I still politely refued to move.

Cue lots of aggro, she finally got the flight attendants to move her accusing me and my friend of talking over her , we absolutely were not, both had headphones on watching netflix.

If you really want to sit somewhere why can't you pay 23.99 and pre reserve a seat, don't make others feel bad for not giving up theirs ?

My (adult) DS was made to move this week on a 10 hour flight. He had booked a window seat so he could sleep undisturbed, and also because he currently has a broken collar bone. He was told at checkin that he was being moved for a mother with 2 children. Explaining his reason made no difference they withheld his boarding pass until he agreed and he ended up in an aisle seat and was repeatedly woken up by the next passengers wanting to go to the loo. He's furious.

How is the OP (now) rude and inconsiderate?

Or anyone who chooses and pays for any seat, so they are all rude and inconsiderate if they prefer 'X' seat and how are they entitled as well?, they have paid for a service, as seat in this case.

Or put it this way, if you paid for a say isle seat and the person in the middle wanted that seat that you have paid for and asked you to move seats, what would you say?

This ^
I think you should have booked together and for this you were equally unreasonable one.

So what? What if every pair of travellers chooses to do that? On a first come/first serve basis, there will only be middle seats left; later bookers who actually want to sit together will be prevented from doing so. It’s thoroughly selfish behaviour. If they really didn’t want to sit next to each other and wanted specific seats, they could have at least chosen separate rows, seeing as there was no real point of them sitting in same one.

Paying for seats? They actually paid for 2 in the hope of getting the 3rd one free!

What @CecilyP said!

Just why be that difficult?

The thing is that it used to be free, or at least included in the price, when tickets were more expensive. What they’ve done is change the headline price to allow people who don’t care about seating allocation to save money.

X air return ticket is £100, free seat allocation and cabin bags
Y air return ticket is £50 but you can pay an extra £25 for your seat allocation and £25 for a cabin bag.

I’m not swapping an aisle for a middle. I would only ever swap like for like or for a better seat. More fool you if you do.

Why not?

Yes, that’s life. If you’re a late booker those are the risks 🤷🏻‍♀️

Like so many have said: Absolutely you are not BU! Fine for her to ask, but more than fine for you to refuse. When I’ve had to sit by [YOUNG!] DCs, I’ve paid for the privilege. She should’ve paid too if it meant so much to her. Grrrr.

Clear you do judging my the post of yours I quoted. If it had not been bothering you, you would not had said that, fact!!!😂

Shocked that it upsets people so much that a pair travelling would book and aisle and window seat, I’ve always done this. My husband prefers window I prefer aisle and 90% of the time we’ve been lucky to have the middle aisle free which is a just a bonus in my eyes.

Because in the OP's scenario, there wasn't one seat, there were two. They booked the aisle and the window on the same row knowing that someone would be stuck between them.

YAnBU to refuse to change seats.

But YABU to assume the only reason people end up in a middle seat split off from family is by failing to prebook a seat.
Several times I had prebooked and paid for a seat on a flight that gets cancelled. When I am re-booked by the airline on a later flight it’s like that never happened and I am stuck with whatever they give me.
This happened last month and even though my daughter and I had booked a two seat row of a window & aisle seat, because our flight was cancelled we ended up on the next flight in two middle seats, her the row behind me.
I didn’t dare ask anyone to swap seats because the attitude is always- you should have prebooked and paid.

When I did….

I always book an aisle seat because I have IBS and often have to make a hasty dash to the loo. I also intensely dislike crawling out over people when I do so because it's embarrassing.

I'd have said no.

Quite right I pre book and pay for seats for myself and my family and will not be moving for someone else who hasn't bothered to. It staggers me the amount of people that expect others to move to accommodate them. If you want certain seats pay for them end of

Let me put it another way - I don't care if I'm in the aisle, window or middle, or whether I'm at the front or back of the plane. Why would I pay money to choose a seat?

Is it OK to expect someone else to pay money for you to be selfish and inconsiderate?

I was on a flight from Melbourne to Heathrow via Singapore and there was a family of 5. The mother and 3 kids were in the middle row of 4 and the husband was across the aisle, I( was next to him in the middle and DS1 aged 2 was in his own seat on the window.

The husband kicked off big time saying that his wife was terrified of flying and the airline had promised they would be all seated together. No amount of the cabin staff saying they were same row, but separated by the aisle made a difference- and no amount of the cabin staff (and other passengers) pointing out that there no such thing as 5 seats together because that did not actually exist made any difference. Finally the husband said they would be getting OFF the plane and would catch another one. Cheering when they left- but of course we had to wait for their luggage to leave as well and missed connecting flights etc.

I did wonder though- for a start they were English, so how had they come to Australia in the first place and clearly flown okay- and secondly- how was it apparently impossible to understand that the plane did not have 5 seats in a row. very very bizarre.

It did mean that DS1 and I could spread out for the entire flight.

YANBU. As you learned on your outbound flight, if you don't book, you end up sitting where you don't want to sit. Hopefully this person will now have learned that lesson, too.

Let me put it this way. On this thread re a person sat in the middle seat between two friends was a tad upset for them talking across her. You, also stated you had experience that. Why would you post about it if not bothers

As about would you pay to reserve as seat, I don't know only you can decide

"Lesson ," indeed

If you’re a BA exec club member (blue/basic) you get to reserve your seats FOC 24 hours ahead of check in, so 48hrs before the flight. I think you need to book checked bag rate, but that’s then in effect you paying to reserve a seat.

of course it doesn’t mean you and your mate can sit together but it does mean you can choose your seat for free.

so if you book a BA flight, join the club, it’s worth it for that alone.

Next level up (bronze) you can reserve your seat a week before.

Absolutely you shouldn't have changed seats. Unless she was offering to give you £23 there and then, but even then you would have been well within your rights to refuse. People think they can make someone feel awkward enough to give them what they want. You have to stand your ground. You're never going to see her again.

Don't really understand your point - what should I have done in that scenario? Is it Ok for two friends to book seats either side of me and talk over my head for 9 hours, just because they paid for it? I don't think so. And I didn't actually ask anyone to swap seats with me, just quietly seethed 😂