“My Life Is Not Expendable For Your Own Convenience”: Woman’s Unwilling To Swap Seats With Moms
Remember the movie Home Alone? Of course, you remember probably the greatest Christmas comedy of all time. Remember how at the very beginning, when the McAllisters and their relatives flew to Paris, the adults found themselves in business class, while the children got their seats in economy class, in another part of the aircraft?
Yes, sometimes parents simply expect that they will be able to agree with other passengers on swapping seats in order to sit next to their children. Of course, this annoys many lone flyers. And it turns out a heated discussion, like this one which recently happened on Twitter.
A Twitter user recently wrote about how she is not willing to give up her booked seat to parents with kids
Image credits: Pixabay (not the actual photo)
The author wrote that she definitely considers this a hill to die on
So, it all started with a tweet from the user @BeccaLizz, in which she stated that she would never give up her seat to passengers who would ask her about it. Even if they need to sit next to their own kids. According to the Original Poster (OP), the fact that she doesn’t have children and other people do is not a reason for making her life ‘expendable’ for someone’s convenience.
Image credits: BeccaLizz
Image credits: BeccaLizz
We don’t know what was the reason for OP’s tweet, her own experience on an aircraft, or an article she read on the subject. Perhaps both – after all, in the comments, Becky refers to this recent article on People, where a travel expert shares her opinion on whether solo flyers should give up their seats in order to help families reunite on the flight. In any case, the discussion, sparked by Becky’s tweet, turned out to be extremely heated and lively. And the internet, as usual, was very divided over it.
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Image credits: StevenPWalsh
Folks on Twitter had mixed feelings over the initial tweet, and some really thought it wasn’t even worth a debate
On the one hand, some commenters are quite sure that many passengers with kids, when booking their tickets, sometimes deliberately choose seats scattered throughout the aircraft with the expectation that later they will be able to persuade the owners of neighboring seats to swap. And adherents of this side sincerely believe such people are entitled, therefore they fully support the original poster.
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But there is also the other side of the coin. There is a situation when parents with children are unable to choose their flight and seat, so it is quite reasonable for them to want to sit next to each other. And these commenters, they say, would be honored to help a parent sit next to their kid. “It’s called kindness. Karma never loses an address,” one of the followers of this side wrote in their tweet.
Image credits: Kelly (not the actual photo)
Image credits: ChrissyV75
Some people in the comments generally believe that Becky is paying too much attention to this issue. After all, yes, a window seat is definitely better than a middle seat, but is that a reason to consider your day ruined – especially if you helped a good person by doing so? Definitely not. “My holiday was ruined because I had to sit in seat 16D rather than 17E. – Nobody ever,” one of the folks in the comments quipped.
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Image credits: laurenlself
There’s actually a special online dashboard where people can check free family seating while booking tickets
Currently, airlines do not have hard and fast rules about whether lone flyers should give up their seats to parents or not. There are, of course, recommendations, but nothing more. On the other hand, this issue has been raised more and more often lately, so various tools like this Department of Transportation online dashboard have appeared, which show, in particular, which airlines guarantee free family seating. So, yes, the case seems to be really moving towards the fact that family seating will become mandatory sooner or later.
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“Parents traveling with young kids should be able to sit together without an airline forcing them to pay junk fees,” The Points Guy quotes U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “We have been pressing airlines to guarantee family seating without tacking on extra charges, and now we’re seeing some airlines start to make this common-sense change.” Perhaps, over time, we’ll perceive such discussions on Twitter as a kind of anachronism. Who knows?
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Image credits: BruceB010
Image credits: Rahul Singh (not the actual photo)
However, plane passengers often encounter entitled persons trying to get them out of their booked seats – and often these folks get instant karma instead. As it was, for example, with the characters of this story about a cunning couple who tried to exchange places with another passenger, but in the end only achieved extra leg room for him. And if you too have had a chance to face or witness some plane situation with overly entitled folks, please feel free to share your own story in the comments below.
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Sometimes it's more than just an "inconvenience". If I have paid more for a given seat that I picked out specifically, nope. The idea that guardians should fly with their kids makes sense, but to me, that means that it's on them to get and select their seats ahead of time.
If you are flying with children you should be forced to choose seats together and pay where appropriate before the flight can be finalized period.
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I feel like this mainly happens on flights where airlines charge for seat choices. I usually end up paying and picking my seat. The 'family' or whoever it is that isn't happy with their seating never does. Then they get mad when the person who paid for their seat is unwilling to movie to a worse seat. Your cheapness is your problem, not my emergency.
I always pay more on Frontier (cheap flights, go to Trenton to see the parents) to sit near the front if there are aisle seats available. I am not switching.
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I don't mind moving, provided the seat to which I am moving is equivalent to the one I booked. I only book window seats, so I'm not moving if the new seat isn't a window seat (an exception to this rule can be made if the new seat is an aisle seat in first class 😁)
That rule is cast in concrete. The offered seat must be an upgrade, with space for my carry-on nearby.
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Sometimes it's more than just an "inconvenience". If I have paid more for a given seat that I picked out specifically, nope. The idea that guardians should fly with their kids makes sense, but to me, that means that it's on them to get and select their seats ahead of time.
If you are flying with children you should be forced to choose seats together and pay where appropriate before the flight can be finalized period.
Load More Replies... I feel like this mainly happens on flights where airlines charge for seat choices. I usually end up paying and picking my seat. The 'family' or whoever it is that isn't happy with their seating never does. Then they get mad when the person who paid for their seat is unwilling to movie to a worse seat. Your cheapness is your problem, not my emergency.
I always pay more on Frontier (cheap flights, go to Trenton to see the parents) to sit near the front if there are aisle seats available. I am not switching.
Load More Replies... I don't mind moving, provided the seat to which I am moving is equivalent to the one I booked. I only book window seats, so I'm not moving if the new seat isn't a window seat (an exception to this rule can be made if the new seat is an aisle seat in first class 😁)
That rule is cast in concrete. The offered seat must be an upgrade, with space for my carry-on nearby.
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