Empty seat on airplane - someone moved to it

[bloxe]

Booked an extra leg room seat for an overnight flight in economy. Sat in the aisle seat. Middle seat was empty. Great I thought, I won’t feel claustrophobic and can sleep.

Just after the lights went dim, a guy came and plonked himself in the empty seat so he could get extra leg room. His wife now had three seats to herself so she could spread out too.

But this guy was over the arm rest so I couldn’t sit straight in my seat as I’d be touching him, which meant I had to lean towards the aisle instead. So I kept getting bumped by people walking up and down.

Was the guy right to move? Should I have said something?

Buying a seat next to an empty seat is pure pot luck though. Right up until take-off that seat could be assigned to someone else. Booking a seat next to an empty seat gives you a chance it will be empty. The only way to guarantee it is to pay for both seats.

Literally never heard of anyone booking a seat to keep it empty.

I think the only thing you could complain about was the use of the seat, in that he spilled over in to your space. I wouldn't, but you could. I would just silently try to win my seat back. But you didn't pay for the seat he took for free. You paid for your own, and that's a pita that you paid for something someone else got for free. I don't know what the answer is for airlines. Everyone in a single section of a plane has paid a completely unique price. Some have been fleeced, some got a great deal, some booked in advance, some last minute. It's just all such a free for all. The only way I can stomach it is to pay for my seat and feel ok about the price I paid and then pay no attention to anyone else.

I have, very over weight people often book two seats. Although, you can’t sit in the emergency exits if you need a seatbelt extender some assume this isn’t the case here.

Rare but it does happen, as an example this from BA:

”You can buy an extra ticket to keep the seat next to you free, for reasons like requiring additional personal space or to secure a fragile or precious item, such as a musical instrumentor painting.”

Not really that rare. People do it because they are overweight and cannot, comfortably fit into one seat; they have an expensive musical instrument; some airlines allow anyone to buy one (or more) seats so that they can stretch out (at a price less than buying another ticket).

@McSpoot

Not sure how common it is now but from what I saw when working I wouldn’t say booking an extra seat just for free space was that common but it was a while back and we had the premium cabin option for those that fancied it.

What we certainly did used to see on some routes was things like cellos and other large instruments carried in the cabin, secured to seats - the loading manuals even had instructions on the specifics of doing that.

On one occasion we had a big chunk of a touring youth orchestra on board…might have been useful if the Inflight Entertainment had broken down.

Anyhow I digress - I’d agree with the general idea that you only have a say over the occupancy of seats you have bought, not any adjacent ones, empty or not.

You should have gone and sat with his wife.

next time if seat next to you empty = as soon as seat belt sign up claim it for yourself

Instead of giving space when he hogged the arm, pushing you to the side, I’d have put the blanket over me and pushed back.

I mean yes he can sit in that seat. It’s a pain but 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
But what is not ok is someone taking up more than their ‘fair share’ of the space. Those men rely on women ‘to not want to touch them’. I wouldnt let them.
(Same with manspreader btw)

If extra legroom seats had an extra fee then yes I'm petty enough, would have complained to cabin crew. You are also not allowed to upgrade yourself to business or premium eco just because there are free seats.

Should have gone and sat next to his wife as then you’d have had an empty seat beside you if she had a whole row to herself.

Should have gone and sat next to his wife but no extra legroom

Yeah but she wouldn’t have had an arsehole leaning over the armrest meaning she had to lean in to the aisle. So three options, tell him to move or at least sit up straight, move herself next to his wife and hope he gets the message and moves back (could have leaned over the arm rest into the wife until she told her husband to come back) or sit there not doing anything and getting banged by people walking past.

im struggling to see why the last option was the best one

If I had booked extra legroom seat, I would definitelt have gone for option 1 over 2 - why would the cheeky seat swapper need to get extra legroom for free, and empty seat on top?

Well no, neither have I. I’m not saying this is something people regularly do, though - I’m saying that the poster who said OP should complain because someone sat there when she’d specifically booked next to an empty seat is wrong. You can’t book next to an empty seat with the expectation that it will stay empty - that’s a matter of luck.

We flew Virgin Atlantic yesterday and they were telling people to stay in their assigned seats due to the weighting of the airplane flying in storm Bert. I was curious about that as the reason.

Yes, I think that’s bullshit. I’ve never been asked for my weight when booking an airline ticket!

We flew home EasyJet in a storm a few weeks ago and they asked people to stay in the rows they were sat as it had been weighted a certain way. Also said they were coming to ask some people to move rows to distribute the weight.

I’m assuming they use an average weight to distribute it around the plane rather than knowing everyone’s exact weight.

People being required to stay in their assigned seats or returning to them prior to landing due to the aircraft balance/trim isn’t completely unheard of and usually depends on how closely the aircraft has been loaded to the trim limits (for want of a better expressions)..as for Bert….

I’m not current in this anymore so I’m stretching a bit but if I recall things correctly on some at least airliner types the trim (specifically the centre of gravity position) might effect the aircraft’s published cross wind limits…so that might possibly, be the reason for such an announcement, but I’m speculating.

Well yes, I realise that - but given they’re using averages, it can’t really make that much difference if people move around. Unless it’s a half-empty flight and everyone decides they want to sit in the first 16 rows - which would surely defeat the point of moving.

Yep,

The position of aircraft’s centre of gravity (C of G)has to be within a published range of distances along the fuselage otherwise control and stability can be compromised, especially during takeoff and landing.

Everybody playing musical chairs on a full flight won’t make much practical difference (unless a load of adults swop with a load of children), similarly if there are only a handful onboard moving won’t matter that much, it’s the half empty flight that might be a problem.

The other time a problem can arise is if the aircraft is already loaded with it’s C of G very near the allowable front limit or (and this is more likely) very near the aft limit - then you might really need everybody sat where they supposed iaw with the loading paperwork to ensure you haven’t got the C of G outside the limits.

I was on an Easyjet flight last week and a family of three got on last. They were seated together but across the aisle, dad on one side, mum in front of him, daughter across from the mum.
There was an empty row two rows in front and the daughter moved there with the mum. The crew then made an announcement that everyone had to sit in their assigned seats as (something to do with loading weight) so please return to the seat on your boarding pass.
Mum did, daughter refused to.
Nothing to do with it, but after we took off the daughter started playing a very loud tinkly game (I imagine on her phone) and the steward came along and told her to turn it off.

I got a full row on when I was flying with my 3 month old (husband and toddler had their own full row 10 rows back!). I guy then came and sat on the aisle and I was on the window seat, he started chatting away 🙄 then said his mate would have come and sat next to him but didn't want to hear a crying baby (he didn't even cry the whole flight!)