Someone's in my seat

[ShaneN]

What do you do when someone is in your seat AND their allocated seat? I had this last week PER-ADL in the exit row (thankfully) I had 14C but the guy in 14B was so big he spilled into my seat, his right arm, right leg and right shoulder were all in my seat. He really took up a quarter of my seat. We were the only row of 3 that I could see in front of us that had 3 people apart from one family group. I was fuming! (I am not a small guy but fit within the confines of my seat!)

Late in the flight I ventured down back to the bathroom and noticed empty rows, surely a FA could have suggested that one of us may be more comfortable down back?

Variant on the large person topic related to the wrong seat topic.

In 2008. SYD-BNE to visit my mother. who had just heard she had cancer, so I was upset and confused. Got in what I thought my seat next to a very large person spilling in the adjoining seat spilling into mine.

Shortly after I had a tap on the shoulder - "Excuse me Sir, I think you are sitting in my seat". Had a quick lat boarding passes, they were right, and I was across the aisle. Another look at my very large neighbour, and I have never moved so fast.

 

[serfty]

Always a tough gig that has occurred far less since I began boarding early.

I had a work associate who would always try to board last and simply take the best unavailable seat he could see. Once an original allocatee returned from whatever coming up from down the back and he did his version of the "walk of shame", heading to the "next best seat".

 

[dajop]

Actually thinking about my original incident some more, the explanations were either a stuff up or deliberate gaming the system (given there were lots of empty pairs of seats in the rear business class cabin, including the bulkhead pair I took), ie. either the couple were told they were sitting together (stuff up by checkin agent) or travelling on the LX codeshare and their seating was stuffed up/limited in choice (which isn't beyond the realms of possibility), or they were trying to game the system to sit together in a bulkhead in the very first cabin. For the life of me I cannot understand why they simply didn't request one during check-in if it was important to them - I think I counted at least 4 empty pairs of seats in the rear cabin alone. Otherwise, perhaps they were allocated something, but were told it would be at the back of the plane - so they settled for separate seats at the front in the hope they would swap with me.

 

[cgichard]

I once initiated a 3-way seat swap in Y on a full flight (on BA, I think, in the days when they flew from MEL). I had pre-booked a window seat, and a mother and child (age about 3 or 4) settled in next to me. Even before we moved off the child started repetitively swinging his legs from side-to-side, kicking my shins each time in the process. Summoned the FA who was sympathetic, and said she would see what she could do. She found a woman in a window seat a couple of rows ahead who said she would prefer an aisle seat, so I moved into her seat and mother and son were moved across so the kicking child had the window, his mother the middle and the woman who had swapped with me took the aisle (maybe not realizing when she accepted it happily that the pair next to her would be climbing over her later on in the flight).

 

[Moindardt]

This one time at uni.. We did a three way swap.. oops. Wrong forum.

 

[CaptJCool]

On many airlines it's a PAID FOR SEAT OF CHOICE. if I've paid for it, why would I want to swap?

Forewarned is forearmed.

When this happens I use this statement

"oh, it seems we both got the same seat number on our boarding pass....."....

Hadn't had any issues cause it shifts the shame onto them infront of the other passengers.

And we know how people prefer loss aversion than chasing the dream of scamming someone else's pre-selected seat....

 

[mannej]

Where is Feper when you need an opposing view in a thread like this?

 

[tuapekastar]

Shock Horror mannej! You mentioned the F-word!

 

[nodabs]

On many airlines it's a PAID FOR SEAT OF CHOICE. if I've paid for it, why would I want to swap?

Forewarned is forearmed.

When this happens I use this statement

"oh, it seems we both got the same seat number on our boarding pass....."....

It actually can happen... On MH 3 years ago I paid the $30 to choose a bulkhead in the A380 mini Y cabin upstairs. this being for the KL - CDG leg. When I got my BP's in MEL I noticed that this had not been honoured but given I'd paid I took it up with the agent and they apparently corrected the error. When it came to board there was someone in my seat, the kicker was she had the same BP... I had paid for the seat she had simply been allocated and refused to move (I wouldn't have at that point either to be fair). There where about 3 other parties standing in isles that apparently had had the same issue with pre-booked seats being allocated to multiple BP's. Turns out MH was a first come first served airline before it was a HLO airline

 

[awkwardpaws]

It actually can happen... On MH 3 years ago I paid the $30 to choose a bulkhead in the A380 mini Y cabin upstairs. this being for the KL - CDG leg. When I got my BP's in MEL I noticed that this had not been honoured but given I'd paid I took it up with the agent and they apparently corrected the error. When it came to board there was someone in my seat, the kicker was she had the same BP... I had paid for the seat she had simply been allocated and refused to move (I wouldn't have at that point either to be fair). There where about 3 other parties standing in isles that apparently had had the same issue with pre-booked seats being allocated to multiple BP's. Turns out MH was a first come first served airline before it was a HLO airline

nodabs - I wonder if the person who was seating in 'your' seat had checked in before you, and hence the MH systems recognised that it was an empty seat (given your selection was incorrectly not honoured) and proceeded to allocated that seat to her.

So what happened afterwards? Did you get given an equivalent seat?

 

[nodabs]

Not too sure how the same seat is allocated twice like that but I assume it was a situation as you describe, I would have thought that after the "fix" she would have got beeped at the gate though.

We all basically just stood around until the captain got involved. The situation was basically if we don't get off the ground we miss curfew, so there was no time for more negotiation. The best seat they could offer was downstairs middle bulkhead(despite some subtle and not so subtle hints at the J cabin). This was my first 380 flight and I was pretty excited about the mini cabin so it really did erk me. had to go through the whole complaint process to get my money back (eventually) That incident and the way it was handled basically put me off MH for good

 

[drewbles]

I was on a JQ flight MEL-SYD on the A330 once in "Star Class" as it was known back then.

Allocated myself second row, aisle (as the cabin was empty bar one or two others) and figured 'well i'll have two seats to myself'.

As the last of the pax drifted onboard, a man says 'excuse me i'm there' and points to the window seat. Thinking it was strange considering the empty cabin I said "oh errm ok" and let him in.

As we were taxiing and after the safety demo, the CSM came up to him and said "Sir, are you sure you're in that seat?" and asked for his boarding pass. It was 36E or something! The CSM said he could stay there for take off as we were taxiing, but he'd have to move when the seatbelt sign went out. When the light went out, he almost tried to hide and ignore the CSM who had come to drag him away. He offered no explanation either other than 'oh sorry I misread it!"

Some people

 

[Awesom Andy]

I was on a 3K flight once, and 2 pax were allocated the same seat somehow. It wasn't a special seat that needs to be paid for, so it was a bit strange. The cabin crew basically just told the last pax to choose an empty seat near by, and by the way they handled it, it seems like it's a frequent and regular occurrence.

 

[blackcat20]

I've had someone steal my seat (by accident, same row, wrong window). I've also accidentally stolen a seat (misread the BP and sat one row forward after 24 hours of travel). Turns out the seat was allocated to a kid whose parent was allocated in my original row, so the swap worked anway. And I've been on a flight where they issued more boarding passes than there were seats on the plane....

 

[Austman]

I once boarded a lightly loaded flight, fairly late. There were lots of empty seats. But a lady was sitting in mine.

An examination of her boarding pass revealed she was on the wrong plane! She was actually about to fly internationally instead of domestically.

It might of made for an interesting situation if I hadn't come along ...

 

[drron]

And our one flight on Thai Air Asia mrsdrron and I were allocated the same seat.Fortunately picked up before boarding as we usually just check the row number.Now we do like to sit together but that was just too close.

 

[get me outta here]

I was in a full J cabin once and 2 of us had the same seat on our BP. One of us was going to F and fortunately I had the higher status. He thought if he stood in the aisle patiently, it would be him going into F, but he was sadly mistaken.

 

[jb747]

Paxing home one day, and a young American decided to try to upgrade himself. Just quietly slunk into the seat when he thought nobody was watching. I was the wrong person to ask to 'keep quiet'.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

I once boarded a lightly loaded flight, fairly late. There were lots of empty seats. But a lady was sitting in mine.

An examination of her boarding pass revealed she was on the wrong plane! She was actually about to fly internationally instead of domestically.

It might of made for an interesting situation if I hadn't come along ...

How does that even happen!?

 

[Moindardt]

I have been trying to find a photo of a flight we took in Europe. It was either an Air France or Veuling plane, both the nastiest flights I have ever been on. The numbers didn't align with the seats so they were sometimes moving a number of rows back at a time. They had to count from the front of the plane. It would have been hilarious if it wasn't so terribly pathetic.

Apparently was due to them adding extra rows of seats (my kids knees were touching the seat in front & I was sitting sideways) and the plane wasn't designed to have that many rows so they were stuck on or some stupid story.