In this situation would you offer to switch seats on a flight?

[Flightquandry]

Me and my husband took a flight today that was 10 hours long.

The cabin formation was
2 seats together / aisle / 3 seats together / aisle / 2 seats together.

Unfortunately, by the time we booked we couldn’t sit together. My DH was in a set of 2 seats with another woman and I was on the end of a row of three.

As soon as we took our seats the woman next to my DH went into full on chatty mode. When they were talking he mentioned he was travelling with his wife and she questioned why we weren’t seated together. He explained that we’d only been able to book what was available. She shrugged this off and then chatted to him incessantly for about 2 hours. I was seated across and behind so could see this and it stung (my problem entirely!)

I fully appreciate that she was in the seat that she booked! But in all honesty in her shoes I would have offered to swap seats with me. All seats were of the same value monetary wise. She even waved at me and then poured herself more drinks and chatted to my husband.

what would you do in her shoes? I would have offered to swap? Weirdly as well as we left the plane she followed by husband off and didn’t let me get in behind him to exit.

I love MN threads like this for proving I am not insane. The “i was stung” in parenthesis in the OP had me in stitches. How very dare the chatty woman engage a married man in polite chit chat whilst his poor centrally seated spouse could only gaze on in horror at the effrontery of it all. Batshit!

I fly alone sometimes. I always have earphones and music ready to stop someone invading my space. The thought of someone chatting to me incessantly for the entire flight fills me with dread!

But who are the 6% who think she’s not being unreasonable! I can’t believe there are any!

No I wouldn't have swapped with you. He's was a better seat.
I was asked to swap at a concert last week and given the choice of two. I jumped at it as I moved a seat over and away from big hair lady infront!

Next time just hit the Valium and gin. Much better than sitting with your husband

No I wouldn't necessarily give up my seat unless the other option was a better seat.

Sounds like you wanted everyone to reply with 'can't believe she had the nerve to talk to your husband, the brazen hussy. She definitely only wanted that seat because she wanted a bit of him' 🙄

Me and my daughter went on a flight last year where I'd left it too late to book seats together. No way would I have asked someone to swap. It's not their problem, it's mine so I deal with it. There's also no chance on earth I'd offer to swap my window seat for a middle row seat (even if I hadn't paid for the window seat!)

I think you have too much time on your hands. This is a very weird thing to give so much head space to and then actually take the time to make a post about.

Of course there is nothing wrong with having seats in separate rows, and sometimes that happens to us when there aren't any in the same row. But given a choice I'd still rather be in a row with my husband, because then there's a chance that we would have an empty middle seat between us, which is the dream!

If your system was implemented we'd just book our tickets separately and still be able to choose seats in the same row if available, so it wouldn't change anything.

Why, do you know him?

Haha no. But valium and gin trumps all husbands

She was the woman forced to sit next to him, she can confirm the gin and Valium would’ve been a good option! If she had sat next to OP, she would’ve opted for an injector seat and parachute!

If this happens again, just ask your husband to swap with you. Then you can chat to the nice lady, and not have the insecurity of the hubby doing it.

It’s not hard to explain
youre being foolish. If he wanted to walk with you he could have let her go first and waited for you.

Are you always this jealous?

No, I wouldn’t have offered to swap with you.

In your husbands position, I would have put headphones in and ignored the chatty woman, although I was on a long flight alone once and the woman next to me still tried to chat to me when I did that. Some people are just annoying, but if your husband wasn’t happy to chat to her, he should have said so. If he didn’t mind, I don’t see the issue,

Your husband could have waited for you to exit the plane together so you can’t blame her for that. You do sound jealous.

It’s a you problem.

Yeah that does sound weird OP, fancy talking at him for 2 hours 🤣🤣. I would have offered to swap, I'd have felt guilty

What would you have felt guilty about?

This thread neeeeds the laugh reaction

Oh and also, @Flightquandry you were rude to expect to disembark in front of people in the rows in front of you. It’s polite in that crowded space to disembark row by row, from the front to the back.

WTF is wrong with adults who cannot cope with sitting separately from their spouse/partner on a flight? I can see you might have preferred to chat to your DH on the journey but is your own fault you didn’t book the seats in time, so suck it up.

On a recent flight, a man sitting in the exit row (more legroom) with me asked me to swap with his wife in a standard seat behind. I said no and suggested HE swap with the passenger sitting next to his wife in the row behind. Which is what he reluctantly did in the end. The absolute cheek of asking someone to swap into a less comfortable seat astounded me.