Another plane one!

[Imale]

Just wondering what the opinion is here. Not a biggie but thought I'd throw it out here as I'm curious...hopefully won't be as controversial as a reclining thread 😅

We're flying as family (me, dh, 2 teen dc). 3 hour flight. Seats selected, check in online day before, digital boarding passes sent, all good. Booked 3 in a row and one aisle seat across the aisle in same row.

Get to airport (and we are there in good time - 3 hours before), go to desk to check in luggage and the agent hands us printed boarding passes. No mention of any seat change. My fault here that I didn't check the seats on new bps, but I didn't think of it as we'd already checked in online and had preselected seats ages ago.

So go to board plane and I look at seats on boarding passes and I realise they're not the seats we booked. We now have window and middle one behind the other. I'm pretty pissed off as I always book aisle due to a knee issue and needing to stretch my leg out. But cabin crew tell me its a full flight and nothing they can do.

So people come and sit in the 2 aisle seats and we realise they are a couple! We explain what happened and ask if they'd like to swap and sit together and they say no, they intentionally booked 2 aisle seats. So admittedly at this point we're not exactly delighted with our neighbours but their perogative.

Anyway, I have window, dh middle and teen dc both in front. The husband who is a big guy sits next to dh. He starts manspreading and also not giving dh the armrest. I always understood plane etiquette was that whoever gets screwed over with the middle seat at least gets the armrests.

So dh tells the guy to close his legs and let him use the armrest. The guy says that dh can't have it all. At which point dh told him that the rule is that the middle seat gets to use the armrest and is this the first time he has flown? Guy does grumpily concede inner armrest to DH for rest of flight.

Was Dh being unreasonable demanding the use of armrests as middle seat person? Especially given that they knew we had somehow been moved and they had intentionally kept both aisle seats?
Isn't that the plane rule? I know i always give the middle seater first dibs on armrest.

There is no arm rest rule and it's not their fault you were moved.

Never heard of the middle armrest rule but I like it.

You're angry with the wrong people. They're not obliged to swap seats with you.

I must admit I did laugh when dh called it a rule. I always thought it was common plane courtesy but maybe a rule is going too far!

‘Rule’? 🤣
And why would they give up their aisle seats, that they intentionally booked? Hardly their fault your seats got moved and you didn’t notice at check in.

Not obliged, I literally said that in my op that its their perogative.

I still think they were selfish though.

Why selfish?

I thought the middle seat got the armrests as well, but wouldn’t have called anyone else out on it. (Your DH was completely right to call out the manspreading, however.)

It’s pretty crap of the airline not to tell you they’d changed your seats - if you paid for specific ones I’d be complaining and expecting a refund of the seat reservation fees.

They didnt have to. I said that in my op.
Problem was manspreading and armrest hogging.

Sorry YABU. You should have checked and queried the printed passes at the check.in desk. I and dp also book aisle seats and wouldn't have moved (I would for a real need like allowing a young child to sit with its parent or similar). No idea on the arm rest thing. You can't really use the one on the aisle cos of trolleys so actually I think aisle seat gets the inner one there, middle seat gets the one adjacent to window. But there's no rule.

Why are they more selfish than you if you want them to.move?

Your dh took his annoyance out on the wrong person

Other than the man spreading, the bloke did nothing wrong. Its not their fault your seating got messed up by the airline and yeah, dh and the man should have shared the armrest

Why do you think they were selfish?

Your sense of entitlement is frankly astonishing. You were screwed over by the airline, not these other passengers - why should they give up the seats they booked? You certainly wouldn’t in their position!

I've never heard of the armrest rule and I've flown a lot.
I understand why you were annoyed but you showed your anger was shown to the wrong people

Of course you can use the outer one. There was one meal service.
Aisle seat gets the benefit of space and being able to get up, window obviously the window to lean.against.

Poor boxed in middle seat gets the inner armrest. Its all they have going for them

No, your DH wasn’t being unreasonable. While the couple weren’t obligated to swap seats, there’s a widely accepted bit of plane etiquette that the middle seat passenger gets the armrests since it’s the least comfortable spot. The aisle seat gets easier movement and the window gets the wall to lean on, so giving the middle person the armrests is just basic courtesy. Asking for the armrest and a bit of space wasn’t out of line at all.

I don't understand why you think they were more selfish that you?

I wasn't angry with them neither was Dh. Not impressed but not angry.

But the manspreading and armrest hogging were insult to injury.

Where's the sympathy for poor old boxed in middle seat?

Sounds like your husband was unnecessarily confrontational because he was pissed off with your seats being changed. There’s no rule on armrests. There’s an etiquette, maybe, but to actually complain to your seat neighbour is too much.

Still not explained why you think they were selfish OP.

And drinks and duty free and people up and down to the loo. I always choose an aisle seat if at all possible and despite being a very small person, will get knocked if I stick my arm on the arm rest.

Not unreasonable to ask but OPs DH didn't ask he demanded.

There is no armrest rule. It bet that other couple have been pissin themselves about you and your husband since the flight

Selfish than us? Why were we selfish?

Dh and I never man spread and always give up armrests to the poor oppressed middle seater.