Have you ever been asked to vacate a seat on a plane? And did you agree or not?
Travel forums are full of tales of people being asked – or pressured – into giving up their seats for various reasons, but mostly to keep families together, although a surprising number only want to swap their seat for an aisle seat or bulkhead or exit row. Go figure.
There seems to be two camps in the answers; people who refuse to give up their seats, and people who only give them up for a good reason, and very few will willingly give up a good seat for an inferior one.
If you paid for a specific seat or booked in early and selected your seat at the time of booking, I can understand travellers being miffed with the suggestion that they suck it up for the convenience of others.
Last-minute drama
However, the flip side of the argument is some families may need to travel at the last minute for any number of reasons, or their flight has been changed and it may be too late to choose assigned seats together. Do you let a toddler sit away from their parents, and would you even enjoy your flight with a minor sitting next to you on a flight?
My brother-in-law is 193cm – six foot four in the old scale – and travels a lot. He usually goes business overseas, but for short domestic flights he pays extra to get an aisle or exit row because it can be excruciating for him in today’s cramped cabins. I would get second-hand annoyance for him if someone asked to take his seat, especially as he’d paid for it and especially if it was for something such as a couple preferring to sit together.
In an extreme example, there is the case of the late Renee Rabinowitz, who successfully sued Israel’s national carrier El Al for discrimination after she was forced to move from her seat next to an ultra-Orthodox man who refused to sit next to a woman.
It seems they picked the wrong woman to move on as Rabinowitz is a former a lawyer and Holocaust survivor who initially complied but when she found out the scale of the issue – there was an organised legal campaign against the practice – she sued the airline.
So what’s the solution? Depends on the situation and the alternatives.
Compensation
If someone asks you to give up your seat, I think I speak for many people that if I had paid extra for a seat I would want some sort of compensation, either a better seat in turn, some discount flight vouchers – especially if was in business or premium economy – or free stuff, i.e. drinks or food.
But of course if it was for a flustered parent and I was in economy, I’d almost always move. They’d have my sympathies and, frankly, I don’t want to look after someone else’s child. Thankfully, my children are well beyond this and would probably prefer to sit on their own, but back in the day if I had to ask a stranger to move, I most definitely would shout them some snacks or drinks.
The cold, hard truth is that, unless the airline is providing a solution for you, you are under no obligation to give up your seat.
Have you ever given up your seat? We’d love to hear about your experience in the comments section below.
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I was asked once on a Qantas flight from Perth to Melbourne many years ago. I agreed to the move, and was given a business class lunch and a bottle of wine for my trouble.
My wife and I were on a trip from Halifax to Gatwick, UK on a UK airline.
We waited to select seats until checking in as per the Airlines policy which stated there was no fee for selecting seats if you selected seats within the last 24 hours before flight time.. We were able to select two aisle seats opposite each other. During the flight the Attendant asked if I would move to allow two people on my left who had paid $26 for each for their seats, one of which was facing part of the bulkhead., to move across to my aisle seat. The Attendant asked for my boarding pass as though I had stolen the seat. I had the boarding pass and handed it to the Attendant who went away and then returned to say that there was a mistake and that I had to move for these Brits in the other seats.
I was asked to move to the rear seats where there was lots of room, so I considered this and said that if I moved I wanted as many Fosters Beer supplied as I could handle in the first two hours of the trip. They agreed but in hindsight I felt that I should have asked for an upgrade to first class for my wife and I instead.
Later, I outlined the issue experienced and made it clear that I would not be flying with that airline again in an email to the head office.. Their answer did not offer anything but stuck to their poorly outlined reason for asking me to move in the first place.
How ironic- one has good seat and other has (perceived) bad seat – BUT they always want to move to good seat.
If that happens (say I’m in row 4 economy-paid) and the guy next to me wants to move their family up from say row 29. I’d tell the FA to move someone in row 29 up to take his/her place and they can move back to be with their travelling companion. Problem solved. Nothing to see here.
Although if upgrade for wife and me to Business Class was offered – that’ll be a different story.
I was once asked to move (don’t know why), but found that my new seat was next to the emergency exit. Which meant I would have to assist if there was an actual emergency. As I’m elderly, have mobility issues and invisible disabilities, I said no. Attendant was not happy, but that was a ridiculous request.
Say yes but only if I can sit up-front with the captain and have a turn at the controls.