When DYKWIA becomes the full <airline> tanty

[Deleted member 29185]

Some time back I was on SQ on a night flight back to MEL.

I had a grumpy, poorly dressed couple next to me in the block of 3 adjacent to the window. I was in the aisle seat.

Shortly after cruise, the woman went and spoke to a flight attendant, who then asked me to move. I assume the woman said she needed more room. We hadn't had any interaction, but from his clothes, the gent was a bogan.

The female cabin crew said to me the only seat (in economy) was in the last row, an aisle next to a window. So I moved.

In the circumstances, should I have politely said 'if you'd like me to move can you please find me a business class seat?' or is that sort of request completely over the top? At the time, I didn't think of saying it, as I was more interested in meekly complying.

I don't know if J was full. From memory it was a B773.

When you say you were asked to move, was it a direction or a request?

I fail to see any kind of logic in this. On a chocker block full plane, someone wants you to move (but doesn't want to ask you themselves) to the only remaining seat in the last row (no recline?) so they can have an unpaid shadow and the flight attendant actually took them seriously!!

If it was a request, a single word springs to mind ... why. If no valid reason, the answer would be no. If there was a valid answer, than I'd likely be OK with it, but how long was the flight SIN-MEL? No recline would be a PITA, if so.

 

[JohnK]

Shortly after cruise, the woman went and spoke to a flight attendant, who then asked me to move. I assume the woman said she needed more room. We hadn't had any interaction, but from his clothes, the gent was a bogan.

The female cabin crew said to me the only seat (in economy) was in the last row, an aisle next to a window. So I moved.

In the circumstances, should I have politely said 'if you'd like me to move can you please find me a business class seat?' or is that sort of request completely over the top? At the time, I didn't think of saying it, as I was more interested in meekly complying.

I don't know if J was full. From memory it was a B773.

I would not have moved. I don't do so well down the back and I'm not having some snob dictate where I sit.

As mentioned the easiest solution was to move these 2 down the back and move the single person from the back up and then you have a spare seat. If they insist then ask for seat in business.

 

[Melburnian1]

Why not ask if they could move the person in the last row forward to your row, letting the couple have the last row to themselves?

I am not sure why the attendant even entertained the idea of asking you to move TBH.

Complete mystery to me too, mannej, but the attendant was pleasant. Maybe the woman claimed that one or both of them had health problems. It was the first time ever I'd been asked to move seats. I imagine you and others have had this occur more than once.

 

[JohnM]

I once had an experience in AA dom F of being asked if I would move move from 3A (front row - where else? ) to 6A so the wife of the guy next to me could sit with him.

No way! I had pre-selected 3A.

But I did point out to them on deplaning that they had it the wrong way round: to ask someone in row 3 to move back is illogical and unlikely to be met with a favorable response. I said they should have asked the pax in 6B if they would move forward to 3B, while the couple that wanted to sit together took the lesser option. The wife looked muddled but I think the logic of what I was saying finally sank in - sort of. D'oh .

 

[HockeyMonkey]

I was recently asked to move from an aisle Y seat with an empty seat next to it to a bulkhead window on EK ZRH - DXB. It was to allow a mother and baby to not have to nurse her baby for the entire flight. Was a great feeling when I popped by and the baby was fast asleep on the spare.

The 14hr DXB - MEL would have been a much harder decision. I had 3 seats and was able to sleep for 8 hours.

 

[leadman]

Just a footnote to my rant a few posts back in regards to trying to use my status via a frustrating transit through LAX a few months back. In the States again now and had to change another flight and during the conversation with AA, found the "problem" flight was fully refundable! I've had a number of flights i had to cancel/change and found it was pointless to get anything back, but this was a nice surprise.

I feel like a real goose now, but a happy one!