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 wouldn’t have swapped a window seat for an aisle. You didn’t like the fact a woman talked to your dh for 10 hours. What did he think of talking to her? Did he enjoy it or was he bored?
id have laughed about dh talking to a chatty woman like that as it’d drive him mad after a bit - he’d have stuck his headphones/put the film on (as would I).

Do you always think any woman who chats to your DH must fancy him/be trying to seduce him? Because that's the obvious sub-text of this thread!

The seating was 2/3/2. The worst seat on that configuration by a mile is the middle seat beside you. If it bothered you and your husband then simply offer your husband's seat for the middle seat beside you. Anyone would jump at the chance of getting out of the middle seat and your husband would be sitting beside you.

If it was a window seat, no way would I offer to swap. I like a window seat.

Your DH should have just shut down her chattiness if he didn’t like it. You should have just read a book or dozed.

We need the laugh reaction back. Top post.

Why is any of this her problem?

Your dh was talking to her for hours. He could have waited for you so you could exit the plane together. Why expect a stranger to have higher levels of consideration than your dh?

If it is that important to you that he doesn't talk to anyone else and that you do everything together, then you need to be more organised and book your flights at a time when there are plenty of seats available to choose 2 together.

I will never offer to swap seats in a plane, ijust suck it up . Funny it’s not your husband posting complaining, don’t be that person.

Did you ask the passenger sitting next to you if they would swap?

No, under your vigilant gaze is not the best way for a woman to get her hands on your man, i grant you. But needs must. Perhaps she thought you'd nod off at some point. Glad you managed to keep your eye on the situation though. When you've snagged a husband, you can't be too careful can you?

Another woman's husband 😆

come on, you spent a whole holiday with him, surely you could have had a lovely flight watching a few hours of Netflix and counting your lucky stars you weren't in his seat having your ear chewed off.

He made small talk on a plane put of obligation when he'd almost certainly rather have switched off but was too polite to say it. It's a "😆 sucks to be you DH" moment.

I've been married 24 years and DH and I have travelled all over the world and I don't think we've ever had a conversation on a plane longer than one or two sentences. He gets on and either watches something or sleeps and I generally sit on the other side of the aisle with the children.

Now they are teens I don't pay for seat selection so we all get put at various ends of the plane where, for a few hours, we are capable of listening to music, reading a book, watching a movie or gaming for a few hours rather than trying to conduct a conversation above the noise of four Rolls Royce engines.

It would never have crossed my mind to swap seats with an unknown person. The feelings of jealousy and being uncomfortable are her issues to deal with, not mine.

You aren’t wrong to feel weird about this but I don’t think you were entitled to the swap of seats and it would have been up to your DH to curtail the incessant chatter by putting on his ear phones or watching a movie. Takes two to tango..

As for the exiting the plane issue - it’s nonexistent. If you’re not seated next to each other then you don’t get to be filed behind one another - it’s row by row.

Let it go and enjoy your holiday!

If your DH wanted to walk off the plane with you he would've stopped to let you in front of him. I'm going to guess this was an attractive woman and you're jealous.

Maybe she saw it as chatting to another person who was sat next to her. Is your husband incapable of saying if he doesn't want to chat? Do you usually get controlling over who chats to him. Was their inappropriate behaviour or flirting? If not, get over yourself.

I would have put my headphones on, pulled out my book along with my snacks and let them crack
on honestly!

Unless they went to use to use the loo together to join the mile high club I don’t see the issue. I can imagine the husband got the thumb screws on him when he got home to recount ever single part of the conversation. It must be exhausting being consumed with this much jealousy that someone is annoyed their husband is seated next to a random female.

Two questions
Would you have been asking this question if it had been a man in the window seat?
Why didn’t you sit next to the woman?

Yes, this. You can't expect people to swap seats unless there's something in it for them.

The woman chatting to your husband - so what? I doubt they're going to run away together on the strength of a chat. If it was annoying him, he could have said at any point 'It's been lovely chatting, but I want to read/doze/watch/listen to something for a while now'.

I definitely would have asked to switch seats with you - if I was your husband 😂 10 hours next to a chatty stranger would drive me to violence.

Your mistake was not making him wear a sign saying I am the property of Flightquandry, do not speak to me or walk next to me

I wouldn’t swap because a couple booked late and there is a jealous wife.

people talk on planes, it doesn’t mean she wanted to bang your husband.
he’s also in control of what happens, he could have just put headphones on or naturally stopped the convo.

I am interested in the unspoken implication that it is the unknown woman's job to remove herself and accommodate the wife in her correct place next to her husband.

He must be a real catch. I would personally be glad of the break 😂 and am capable of walking off a plane alone. I don’t think she did any of it with any remote bit of malice.

Jeez, I was on a plane recently, sat next to a lovely bloke, chatted away for hours, even 'chincked' our drink glasses when we got our drink!
It never once crossed my mind there could be some unhinged wife lurking in the aisles 😆😆