RANT: I don't care if you want to sit next to your kids on the airplane

[Monykalyn]

It doesn't always have to be bad to have a kid split off from a parent-obviously depends on age and temperament of kid...example: last year flying back from Orlando on a budget airline-we ere late night at the parks and didn't do the "check in" at precisely 24 hours ahead-so our family was split up-best we could do was me in an aisle and son one row back in aisle seat (he was youngest-the other 2 were perfectly content to not be right by mom and dad LOL). I offered to give up my aisle seat to the gentleman in the middle seat by my son- he very graciously declined and said he was delighted to have a young man next to him - if it was ok with me they were going to strike up a friendship-I listened to this very nice man talk with my (rather shy) son the whole 2 1/2 hour flight back-lots of random topics (comic books, video games, fishing, riding bikes, friends). I actually felt rather bad that my son was being entertained by this man and I could relax! (For the record- I did offer mid flight to change again if he was tired of my kid. I think the man may have been missing his grandkids a bit!)

 

[mnrose]

I find this insight really interesting and thank you for sharing. Just this Friday I spent $99 to upgrade on a United 3-hour flight from San Fran to KC. This almost $100 bought me an aisle, closer to the front, and 6 inches more legroom. I don't spend a hundred dollars lightly and I felt guilty for spending that much just to treat myself. After spending that there is no way I could just say oh well here take my seat I'll go back and consider that $99 a donation to making someone's day better. On some of these upgrades we are talking real serious money and that money isn't refunded when you trade your seat. I might have a different attitude if it was $5-$10 but expecting someone to forfeit $100 that they fairly spent seems like a guilt trip too far.

Especially because the Mom in the OP could JUST as easily asked the person next to HER to trade with her daughter. A person in the rear of the aircraft *might* be willing to trade for a seat closer to the front. But, why oh why when seeking a trade are you seeking to better YOUR position, Mom? Use some common sense. Think about it from the perspective of the person you are asking to switch.

Look, I HATE that airlines make you *pay* for the better seats on the aircraft, but if I pony up the cash (and it can be quite a bit, for example, to get a Delta "Comfort" seat at the front of the economy cabin), it's because I want to sit in that seat. It's the state of the world today. And, it's the "occasional" traveler who causes the most problems in this regard. They see that low fare, buy it, and make all sorts of assumptions about what the airline will do in terms of assigning seats. They pay no attention to the notices (which are clearly there if you care to read them) about how seats get assigned. Experienced travelers are well aware of these things. Those that fly a lot tend to have very clear preferences about what seats are best (for them) and pay to get them. They have thought about it in advance. Lack of forethought by other passengers doesn't mean that I should be "punished" and pushed to the rear to accomodate their lack of planning. Why aren't the 'non-planners' being called thoughtless and selfish?

 

[sk!mom]

I was on a flight and the lady sitting next to me had a small baby and her husband was in the row in front , i asked him if he would like to sit next to his wife, and we switched seats. I had no problem.

Moving AWAY from a baby on a plane is a good reason to switch! I might even take a middle seat to get away from a baby. ;-)

 

[usnuzuloose]

Moving AWAY from a baby on a plane is a good reason to switch! I might even take a middle seat to get away from a baby. ;-)

I had no problem sitting next to children. I just figured if she needed help at least her husband was next to her to help.

 

[kaytieeldr]

If the OP really NEEDED that seat, for health reasons or otherwise, she could have simply smiled and said "I'm very sorry, but I need to stay in this seat. I wish I could help, but I cannot. Maybe the person in the seat next to the one you are assigned will be willing to sit in this row so your son can sit with you."

Or a simple, "No, I can't" without the extended discussion is even more effective.

I fundamentally disagree with this mentality. I think airlines should ensure that all children are sat with an accompanying adult and they should move lone adults if this is necessary.

Accompanying adults should ensure they're seated with their children by

• Reserving and paying for, if necessary, seat assignments together; if that's not possible
• Talking to the Agent at the check-in counter; if that's not possible
• Talking to the Gate Agent far in advance of boarding; if that's not possible/successful
• Working with the Flight Attendants

But solo travelers aren't pawns to simply be moved around for the convenience of families

If there is any kind of airborne emergency then the correct place for a child is beside the adult responsible for them. Also I have been on many many planes where kids are actually sick and it needs a parent.

I've been on many,many planes where, if anybody gets sick,it's not based on age.

An adult's desire to sit in an aisle seat is not more important than a minor child being properly supervised and supported. I hate this attitude

Minor children travel solo all the time. Being on the same plane as your minor child = child being properly supported and supervised. How do these minor children deal with daily life?

 

[kaytieeldr]

And people wonder why I hate to fly so much.

No, we don't.

 

[sk!mom]

And that's why I feel so sad about the state of our society.

Holy over reaction. It's a refusal to switch seats not some big societal breakdown.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

I take it you don't have kids

What exactly does having kids have to do with it?

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I was once assigned a seat that was nowhere near my NINE MONTH OLD child (who I had paid for). My husband and six year old were also seated nowhere near me or each other. And when we approached the gate agent, we were told that they would fix it on board. It was not good. That 9 month old had to have a window seat because he was in his car seat, and it took them a while to find him a seat, then they had to put me next to him because REALLY...was anybody going to want to sit next to a nine month old that wasn't theirs?? In the end, I did get seated next to my son, and my husband and DD ended up together as well, but it was a big hassle.

I think the FAA requires the window seat if I am not mistaken. At least that is what FA's pretty much stated as we installed the car seats.

 

[scrapquitler]

I think the FAA requires the window seat if I am not mistaken. At least that is what FA's pretty much stated as we installed the car seats.

Yes, and it took them a long time to find him a window seat.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Yes, and it took them a long time to find him a window seat.

It's like it really shouldn't be this hard on flights. But this is the industry which will change flight schedules and not notice that the originating flight now lands AFTER the connecting flight will have departed and just lets it sit there. Presumably they would have fixed it eventually, but that was a fun surprise to discover.

It required us to MOVE to another flight so that we could get to our destination-- this itinerary change occurred several months after we had booked originally. So while we were seated together, no problem--it could have been that the flights could have been sold to the point where that was not possible. But we booked our original flights in good faith and chose our seats accordingly. Our kids were 5 and 3 at the time. We did nothing to be cheap or irresponsible. This was all on the airline. Had their been an issue, it wouldn't be that we wanted "better" seats. Just that we would have wanted to make sure our children were accompanied as was our ORIGINAL arrangement when we purchased the tickets. This was Delta. And yes, I realize that they are within their rights to change flight schedules...but I can't predict this and book based on what is available at the time of booking.

Just another example of how--we shouldn't necessarily judge that the parent was trying to be cheap. As screwy as our airlines are--it isn't out of the realm of possibility that the airline caused the problem on their own or that weather or mechanical problems created the issue.

 

[RedAngie]

Nothing wrong with OP wanting to keep her paid-for premium seat, even if Mom and kid originally had good seats on a flight cancelled due to the snowstorm.

I'm betting Junior was glad to sit away from Mom for a few hours.

As a few others have mentioned, people who want to swap seats almost always want the better seats for themselves, instead of taking the lesser seats in order to sit together.

Nobody ever demanded that I swap seats, but it happened to DH. We were flying back from Denver, and while checking in at the airport kiosk about 90 minutes ahead of time, a screen asked if we'd like to upgrade to First Class for $99 each. We figured, why not? and got separate seats in FC. A guy boarded and ordered DH to move back to coach. Apparently he was a Lifetime Triple Platinum Deluxe Diamond Encrusted Elite, and he wanted his female companion to sit up front with him. He was probably aware that the FC seat next to him was still open earlier in the day, but was too cheap to pay the upgrade for her. A flight attendant denied his command, and he and the woman stormed off the plane raising holy hell. Eventually another person took the guy's FC seat.

Someone way up thread mentioned poachers upgrading themselves to your assigned seat. That happened twice to me last October, both going to and coming back from LAX. On the way there, DH and I paid for Economy Plus window seats one behind the other. We had our reasons for this. A woman was in my sitting in my seat. She decided to upgrade herself when her husband got upgraded to the E+ middle seat. They pulled the "we wanted to sit together" routine and "what difference does it make?" When I suggested they both move back to their original seats to sit together because what difference does it make, they gave me a dirty look. The FA came over and it seems about half a dozen people were playing musical seats in the area. The FA finally got everybody back to their assigned seats.

On the flight back, DH and I were among the last to board. We had a aisle seats across from each other. The woman in the middle decided to take my aisle seat, then suggested she move to DH's aisle seat, so that we could be together. She quickly moved back to the middle when we said we DIDN'T want to sit together.

(By the way, a 9 page NEW thread!!! I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't a zombie.)

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Nobody ever demanded that I swap seats, but it happened to DH. We were flying back from Denver, and while checking in at the airport kiosk about 90 minutes ahead of time, a screen asked if we'd like to upgrade to First Class for $99 each. We figured, why not? and got separate seats in FC. A guy boarded and ordered DH to move back to coach. Apparently he was a Lifetime Triple Platinum Deluxe Diamond Encrusted Elite, and he wanted his female companion to sit up front with him. He was probably aware that the FC seat next to him was still open earlier in the day, but was too cheap to pay the upgrade for her. A flight attendant denied his command, and he and the woman stormed off the plane raising holy hell. Eventually another person took the guy's FC seat.

Someone way up thread mentioned poachers upgrading themselves to your assigned seat. That happened twice to me last October, both going to and coming back from LAX. On the way there, DH and I paid for Economy Plus window seats one behind the other. We had our reasons for this. A woman was in my sitting in my seat. She decided to upgrade herself when her husband got upgraded to the E+ middle seat. They pulled the "we wanted to sit together" routine and "what difference does it make?" When I suggested they both move back to their original seats to sit together because what difference does it make, they gave me a dirty look. The FA came over and it seems about half a dozen people were playing musical seats in the area. The FA finally got everybody back to their assigned seats.

On the flight back, DH and I were among the last to board. We had a aisle seats across from each other. The woman in the middle decided to take my aisle seat, then suggested she move to DH's aisle seat, so that we could be together. She quickly moved back to the middle when we said we DIDN'T want to sit together.

(By the way, a 9 page NEW thread!!! I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't a zombie.)

LOL on the last line.

And oh my word! Thankfully I have never encountered such strange behaviors nor have I been the one to be exhibiting such behaviors. People have such nerve!

I have genuinely misread my boarding pass on accident though. But it sounds like these were not people making mistakes. Yikes!

 

[RedAngie]

LOL on the last line.

And oh my word! Thankfully I have never encountered such strange behaviors nor have I been the one to be exhibiting such behaviors. People have such nerve!

I have genuinely misread my boarding pass on accident though. But it sounds like these were not people making mistakes. Yikes!

I've misread my BP a few times too, and I've encountered a few people who mistakenly were in my seat. But it's always been, ooops, sorry. Not people like the above who were intentionally trying to pull something.

 

[Aladora]

I take it you don't have kids

I have a child and unless someone is asking me to switch my aisle seat for another aisle seat, then my answer would be no. I get claustrophobic and do not want to sit in either a middle or window seat and I happily pay to reserve an aisle seat. When we travel together as a family, we pay to pick all of our seats together and only once has there been an issue.

A number of years ago I was flying back home from Ottawa with my then 5 year old. I had paid for and selected seats for us on the 5 1/2 hour flight. When we had stopover in Toronto and had to get off the plane (on our apparently non-stop flight!) the gate crew gave us new boarding passes which seated me 9 rows away from DS. I let the crew know that this was not acceptable but they tried to tell me that we had to move. After a bit of a debate, I ended up being quite direct and told them that there was no way that my 5 year old, newly diagnosed autistic son was not going to be seated anywhere but in the seats I had picked and paid for.

They moved us back to our original seats.

 

[NHdisneylover]

What!?! She thought your kid was her kid? Well that's embarrassing!

NO-but she thought I was travelling alone I guess? I think she was so wrapped in wanting MY particular seat she never even glanced at who I was next to to notice it was also a kid similar in age to her own she was trying to get near.

She didn't really have an answer for why I should separate from my child, so she could sit next to her child who was older than mine (and, again, she was super rude about it and yelled when I said no to her original rude "request" which was basically a "I need you to sit in my spot so I can be next to my kid"

 

[NHdisneylover]

Haha! That's funny about parents in first class vs. kids in coach. My sibling and I would be none to happy if my parents did this to me! We would probably say, "You guys take the coach while we get first class!" LOL

Well, it only happened once, when DH happened to have two upgrade vouchers. The kids were probably 8 and 10 and I would have had no problems at all telling them that the people earning the money for the nice vacation get to have a perk and when they grow up they can earn their only money and get the perk themselves--in the meantime they can be be grateful to get to go on nice vacations at all.
Luckily, they only cared that they got to sit together to play their card game.

 

[mjkacmom]

I take it you don't have kids

What does having kids have to do with it? I have 5, and there is no way I'm giving up my aisle seat to anyone. I hate to fly, and I'm very claustrophobic. The last time I booked flights with 2 of my kids, I sat 10 rows from them, instead of in the middle seat in front of them.

 

[Skywalker]

I don't understand all the seat-trading going on. We were all separated on our last flight and it didn't dawn on me to ask someone to switch. My kids know how to entertain themselves and how to behave. And if they should so happen to need me for something, I am like 10 feet away lol.

 

[littlejimmy]

cripe. I didn't know claustrophobia was such an epidemic in this country. seems like half the people on this forum are claustrophobic. dang.