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?

Sometimes these seats can be booked online. Easyjet as an example gave me the code to type in for an extra seat. This is due to an injury and I needed more space for my leg.
Other airlines do this over the phone. BA as an example have done this for me. It costs the same as another ordinary seat plus because it is a disability they assign seats together.
Both need to be checked in.

How many posters are going to repeat the same thing?

Planet Earth.

Back in the day, there was a ‘black market’ in airline seat sales as it was just about impossible to buy a one way or a return ( unless extortionate), for a stay longer than 14 days.

We would regularly buy/sell our airline tickets via the local supermarket ads board, meeting the buyer/seller at the airport and checking the flier in!

I often flew ‘home’ from Spain, for £20, where someone was happy to recoup a part of their spend

It’s unique to flying (unless anyone has other examples?)

Concerts and theatre gigs, and lots of televised events. The performers/director don't want to see empty seats, so if there are unused seats near the front, people will be put into them. Regardless of someone claiming to have the right to use an empty one.

If you wanted two seats then you should have checked in both.

You will be able to reclaim any airport tax paid FYI.

So if I were grossly obese, and decided to buy tickets for 2 adjacent seats for both my comfort and my fellow passenger's, could the airline then put someone in that seat?

(I am not, but it got me wondering!)

Depending on the route/airline checking in an absent passenger might not be allowable, certainly not at a desk if e.g. passport validity or ID needs to be verified.

Unseasoned traveller here.
If I book a single seat on an overbooked flight and all ticket holders do turn up; my seat might be unavailable. I assume I would be offered an alternative flight?
No wonder I’ve never flown. Airports and checking in times sounded a pain before I heard about this.

Quite a few years ago I was advised through the airline to book a seat for my wedding dress- we were getting married abroad and I didn’t want it folded in a suitcase. When we got on the plane the flight attendant took it and hung it up (it wasn’t even particularly bulky) and then a man sat on the seat I’d paid £300 for. I think I got ripped of lol

Yes, you get another flight plus compensation plus reimbursement of expenses. They generally ask for volunteers first, and normally get them. When I was younger I was quite happy to take a free night in a hotel and a bit of compensation.

Those seats would be booked in your name, not in someone else's. And when you check in all "3" of your seats would be assigned to you.

It's never happened to me. I have bought 2 seats on one booking, put a code in the 2nd seat (or the airlines does it for me). Check both seats in.

If the flight is overbooked the airline tends to ask for volunteers. Never been asked by the airline. Maybe I have just been lucky.

It's been because of a disability though.

(It's been more common though for able bodied passengers to try to move to my 2nd seat for their own comfort or to ask me to move my leg or ask me to swap but that's another story)

Why are you assuming the pilot was in standby? From what the cabin crew said I would assume that he was deadheading, which counts as off duty but he would not have been standby because it would be work travel.

It's possible that the cabin crew choose to disclose another passengers job occupation randomly when they were on person travel, but much more likely it was deadheading. If not deadheading the status of the other passenger isn't really relevant!

Well all I can say by way of response is it all sounds very like how the standby process operated where I worked and nothing like how deadheading (for those going ? That's a crewmember Positioning prior to or post a duty) was handled.

I guess it may depend the airline but I wouldn't have expected a deadheading crewmember to be assigned a seat so late in the process that it comes from a "no show"..a bit of a risky way of doing things, especially if a crewmember is deadheading prior to duty.

yes, of course you would want both seat in the train when you paid for them?

Obviously airlines have different rules.
it's annoying, but that's what it is. It's actually a nightmare when you try to book 2 seats - one for your dress, or musical instrument or something important. Some airlines are helpful, but often it's very difficult to enforce.

At the very least, you must make them aware from the booking and be very clear you will use the 2 seats.

So, yes, perfectly normal for a standby passenger to get the empty seat.

I take that point, but that assumes that the crew movement wasn't last minute, or that the pilot wouldn't have been assigned that seat anyway

I just don't think the crew's comment makes sense otherwise - why would she disclose the other passenger was a pilot, and in fact why would she even know? Maybe some airlines do, but on the ones I/DH have worked for the fact you're staff is on the manifest, but not your job title. She may have happened to have known him of course, or he might have mentioned it.

Unless of course she said he was staff, and OP just assumed that means pilot

Either way, doesn't make a difference to the OP I suppose - but if he was travelling for leisure not great of the cabin crew to share his personal information with OP, and it hardly helped the situation!

Agree with that pretty much..

I wonder if the job title slipped out because it sounds like the OP was overtly upset by the arrival of somebody in what she felt was her extra seat.

Maybe the cabin crew member felt the need to point out they hadn't just dumped some random passenger in the seat (even though the airline was entitled to so)...dunno, just a thought...

FWIW where I was if you were crew the job title was on the manifest (which could be handy 😉).

So if there were no other seats available on the train you'd tell a passenger that they couldn't sit in the empty seat next to you because it was 'yours'?

if for some unknown reason, I chose to pay for 2 seats, yes of course I would want to use my 2 seats, what a strange question. Why should I give it away exactly?

But you dont but seats on trains, you pay fir the right to travel on the train.
The seat booking is free.

then why asking the question about train seats in the first place 😂

I don’t understand this at all, why are people acting like the OP is mad to query this?! If I paid for two seats, I would expect two seats? Some larger people pay for two seats to be more comfortable, would it be ok if I just sat in one because i decided they didn’t need it? My husband and I have often paid for three seats in a row so we have more space and I’ve never had someone, off duty pilot or not, sit in one and shrug?! Op PAID for two seats, why shouldn’t she expect to have two seats?!

They’d have two seats in their own name, and would check in for both.

This was a seat which wasn’t in her name so didn’t belong to her. The named passenger didn’t show. That means the seat is released for someone else. All airlines work like this and always have. If you’ve never flown before then maybe I can understand not knowing but it really is a bit of a stupid question.

I don’t understand this at all, why are people acting like the OP is mad to query this?! If I paid for two seats, I would expect two seats? Some larger people pay for two seats to be more comfortable, would it be ok if I just sat in one because i decided they didn’t need it? My husband and I have often paid for three seats in a row so we have more space and I’ve never had someone, off duty pilot or not, sit in one and shrug?! Op PAID for two seats, why shouldn’t she expect to have two seats?!

Because none of this is what OP has described. Everything you describe is under your/DH name and you would CHECK IN for those seats. This is a completely different scenario where a seperate passenger named on the ticket did not check in, hence their seat is reallocated. If OP purchased two seats in his/her name and checked in for those two seats and then someone took one, you would have a point. But that didn’t occur, so you don’t.