Bought airline seat to Celt, could t use it but it was taken anyway …

[agieselbow]

Genuinely, was I being unreasonable…

Flew home from abroad last night. Had bought my daughter a ticket but she needed to leave early. I decided to keep the ticket rather than sell on so I could have two seats: sleep etc. it was a late night flight and I had a three hour car commute thereafter.

just as plane was about to disembark , a man sat down beside me. I explained that he had the wrong seat . He simply said it was his in a rude tone.

The flight attendant saw this and hurried over to tell me that this man was’ actually a pilot’ and needed the seat. She further explained that he was off duty but a pilot nonetheless and again she was taking the seat.

she saw from my face that I was not happy and apologised as I explained , again, to both, that I intentionally held onto the seat knowing my daughter would t be travelling.
The man sighed/ tutted and was generally rude through the flight if I needed to go to the bathroom and in the end, he just got up and walked off the flight when we landed without even a thank you .
Am I being unreasonable to be very pissed off here???
I feel like emailing the airline and asking for a ticket refund.
I think that if he had been mannerly and pleasant, I wouldnt be so cross but the entitlement and obnoxious manner got my back up .
AIBU?

It’s absolutely bog-standard practice for airlines if the person named on the seat doesn’t check in 🤷‍♀️

You would have needed to pay the £100 name change and check-in for both seats. I travel for business frequently and am often a no-show for flights because of connection difficulties or meetings overrunning. Airlines are rarely the good guys in customer disputes, but I can see exactly why they overbook!

Overbooking and standby is a common practice selling a seat in isnt

you were unlucky it doesn’t always happen but one assumes the airline had a pilot who needed to get from A to B and there was a seat he could use so they used it

It's intentionally expensive - it stops touts buying up low cost tickets and then selling them on for a profit later.

You sound a bit mad, OP. It's completely standard practice for no-show passenger seats to be reallocated, and you were completely in the wrong to think you deserved gratitude from the pilot sitting in your daughter's reallocated seat, as though you'd done him some kind of favour by letting him occupy it. You have no grounds for a ticket refund.

so regardless of how many seats a person buys, even if not in their name, the airline is entitled to take them?

As I understand it, yes, if the person holding the ticket has not checked in. If not checked in, they will reallocate the seat. If checked in, they won’t as by the time they discover the person’s bums not on the seat (which would be on boarding), it’s usually too late to reallocate. That’s my understanding anyway, but could be wrong.

Yes, the seats of no shows who don't check in are reallocated as standard.

The passenger is allocated to the seat. If that passenger doesn't check in then that seat is given away as stand by. In this case to a pilot.

It doesn't matter who paid for the tickets. It's like if I bought a seat on a flight and didn't turn up. I wouldn't be able to dictate that that seat remained empty for the flight I wasn't on. Even though it's under my name and I paid for it. Because I'm not there.

If you personally wanted to sit in two seats you should've transferred the second seat to your name or booked two to start with.

And whilst I know people get up in arms about overbooking, if airlines didn't overbook tickets would be more expensive because they have fewer to sell. Most of the time the overbooking algorithms get it right. Contrary to popular belief, airlines do not usually make massive profits!

You also didn't do the pilot any favors at all - it sounds like it was a dead leg flight or something similar where the pilot was travelling for work not for a holiday (otherwise I don't see why the flight attendant would have mentioned he was a pilot as it wouldn't make a difference). If the seat next to you hadn't been available, he almost certainly would have just been given another one. They would have told another passenger they couldn't fly if necessary.

The person at check-in should have pointed out that you wouldn't get to keep the seat though - that was a miss on their part.

This. Often these seats are used for staff flights. Staff will be on a wait list and if a seat comes up available on the flight - for whatever reason - they'll take it.

Common exception is business and first. There if they have checked in but don't show at the gate the seat will often be allocated as an upgrade. It depends on how busy the flight is and various other factors.

My husband has also been on standby at the gate before - so in that case even if an economy person had checked in, if they didn't turn up before the gate closed they lost their seat.

Bought an airline seat to Celt?? Where is Celt? And is the thread a wind-up??

I wondered this too.

WTF is "Celt"?

Why didn't you check in dd online if you wanted her seat? You would have had more of a chance of keeping her seat that way.

I can't believe you thought the seat was still yours if you didn't bother checking dd in.

On a train is different. If I bought 2 tickets and reserved 2 seats then I will be having two seats. Unless the train was really full then I’d offer it to anyone who had to stand

"... Had bought my daughter a ticket but she needed to leave early. I decided to keep the ticket rather than sell on so I could have two seats: sleep etc... "

This ^ was your first mistake...

"... I explained that he had the wrong seat ..."

This ^ was your second...

"... I explained , again, to both, that I intentionally held onto the seat knowing my daughter would t be travelling..."

Now ^ you were being wholly unreasonable and looking more than a bit silly...

Can they do this if you intentionally buy two seats for yourself? Say if you were too big to fit comfortably into one and didn't want to squash (sorry I can't think of a nicer word here) the person in the seat next to you?

Thanks again for the answers. Clearly I don’t know the first thing about airlines and how they work ! Won’t be making that mistake again!

The alternative is a seat sits empty next to you and someone can’t fly. It’s not rocket science to imagine why that’s a problem, especially for airline staff and operations, not does it take a massive amount of emotional intelligence to imagine being that person being left behind on standby so you can sit next to an empty seat. He was probably arsey with you because you were being absolutely ridiculous.

I really don't think that falsely checking in someone who you know won't be on the plane is a good idea...

Terrorism...?

I'd expect a bit of civility. Not too much to ask although it appears that basic good manners are a novelty these days.

I'm guessing OP isn't a terrorist.

It’s certainly not unheard of for someone to have their second booked seat taken off them, though in the case I’m thinking of they did eventually get it refunded. It’s a plane not a democracy - captain said a member of airline staff was sitting in that second seat, that’s what happened. Arguing is futile.

I really don't think that falsely checking in someone who you know won't be on the plane is a good idea...

Well then airlines should stop chasing people to check in weeks/days before their flight. Lots of things can change in that time. (I've not been on 2 flights I checked in for, because both times one of my cats got ill and I couldn't travel).

Usually it's viewed as a low terrorism risk unless you have also checked in a bag at the airport on that ticket.

Yes, agreed. Certainly seems that the OP was lacking in civility.