Who actually has rights to spare seats on a plane???

Mal · #1 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 06:22 PM

I noticed an interesting situation on a flight, and curious what people think. I don't know all the details, but here is my best estimation of what happened.

Passenger X was allocated seat D on a twin aisle plane. This is the first seat in the block of 4 seats in the middle of economy of the plane.

Seats E, F and G were not occupied. I don't know if the ground staff blocked them for X.

Passenger X got onboard, and sat in seat E, then put some belongings on seat D and G to imply that the row was taken. I could see that they were getting ready to snooze by lying across the four seats.

Before take-off, another passenger, Passenger Y was moved to seat G due to being next to a lapchild (I think) and the FA's wanting to give more space to the child/mother in their original row. There was some comment from the FA about Platinum, so I assume that Passenger X was a Plat Qantas FF.

Passenger X stretched out over the three spare seats (D,E,F) and slept most of the journey. Passenger Y was quite annoyed at Passenger X's behaviour, but staff couldn't do anything about it. There was lots of muttering about "Passenger X only paid for one seat", death stares and similar nasty comments. Pax Y never confronted Pax X.

In this situation, do you think that Passenger X was in the wrong?

PS - I wasn't Passenger X, nor Y, just a curious bystander!
PPS - Oh and Pax Y, I don't think it was appropriate for you to take photos of Pax X while he was sleeping for whatever purpose you have in mind for the photos (complaint to Qantas? Show to friends?)

Hvr · #2 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 06:32 PM

So mutterings about Pax X only paying for one seat, did any other pax pay for more than one seat?

With regards to pax Y, did they get told by the FA not to stretch out over any other seat? If not it sound like pax X moved first and got the sleeping seats.

Very similiar to the arm rest debate.

Travel Guru · #3 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 06:33 PM

I don't necessarily think its a clear cut case of right and wrong.

I do think that pax X was severaly lacking in manners and common courtesy towards pax Y by doing what he did, and was extremely presumptative by jumping on board and attempting to block off a whole row.

Just because someone has platinum status doesn't give him the right to unoccupied seats, and certainly doesn't excuse him from having manners.

I sympathise with pax Y as I would have been rather pissed off myself, as you'd think 2 seats each would have been the decent thing to do.

I guess some people's heads become stuck up their ass's when they hit platinum and suddenly think "their **** don't stink"

Interesting post MAL, im sure others may differ in their views, but in my opinion pax X needs to take a look at themselves.

TG

v8Statesman · #4 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 06:33 PM

Now that is a curious one. Couldn't the FA's have moved Y to another row? (How full was the rest of the plane?)

simongr · #5 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 06:35 PM

Also if pax X paid for one seat so did pax y so why would pax y have any entitlement to the seats that pax X "stole". Everytime I fly I realise how lucky I am to be in J.

Mal · #6 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by v8Statesman

Now that is a curious one. Couldn't the FA's have moved Y to another row? (How full was the rest of the plane?)

Not too full, but didn't see any similarly spare 3 spare seat rows in my vision. Most other central areas were D/G pax, or various combinations of partners with the D/G pax.

Also, like I indicated in the original post, I don't know everything about the situation, and didn't chat with either pax to get their views. I may be slightly incorrect in certain parts of my story as I don't know everything and was was absorbed in my own world when bits of it happened

Petch · #7 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 07:21 PM

I was in a similar position to passenger X, last week on a JQ A320.

I had taken a risk and booked/paid for several JetSaver tickets, well in advance, at a good rate - but on the day, ended up travelling alone. The important thing to remember is, when I had booked the flight, I pre-allocated seating, so we would all be seated together.

Of course when it comes to check-in, no one was allocated these seats, as the others could have arrived just prior to the 30minute check-in close off, and no one else could check in after that any way.

So, on a fairly full flight, I ended up with 2 empty seats beside me. A situation I took advantage of. After all, I had paid for those seats, so as far as I was concerned they were mine, and not some lucky draw for the punters.

The general point: When you see "empty seats" never assume that they have not already been allocated to someone... Empty seats doesn't mean "free for all", if you have paid for 1 seat, then that is what you should expect to get!

Travel Guru · #8 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by simongr

Everytime I fly I realise how lucky I am to be in J.

Im hearing you there Simon....thankyou God!

TG

JohnK · #9 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mal

In this situation, do you think that Passenger X was in the wrong?

I have no doubt assuming they only paid for one seat. Common courtesy and manners would have ensured that they both had 2 seats each. One other solution would have been for passenger Y to sit in the F seat and leave seat G vacant.

I have been in this situation on a number of occassions and luckily the other passenger involved would only use the 2 seats on their side of the row. The most recent was last year on a BNE-SIN flight and I had a tantrum child in my row. I could sense this was going to be a problem flight and searched a few rows back and found a lady sitting in D seat alone. I asked if I could sit in the G seat and we shared 1 spare seat each for the entire flight.

straitman · #10 (**permalink**) 20th November 2007, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mal

I noticed an interesting situation on a flight, and curious what people think. I don't know all the details, but here is my best estimation of what happened.

Passenger X was allocated seat D on a twin aisle plane. This is the first seat in the block of 4 seats in the middle of economy of the plane.

Seats E, F and G were not occupied. I don't know if the ground staff blocked them for X.

Passenger X got onboard, and sat in seat E, then put some belongings on seat D and G to imply that the row was taken. I could see that they were getting ready to snooze by lying across the four seats.

Before take-off, another passenger, Passenger Y was moved to seat G due to being next to a lapchild (I think) and the FA's wanting to give more space to the child/mother in their original row. There was some comment from the FA about Platinum, so I assume that Passenger X was a Plat Qantas FF.

Passenger X stretched out over the three spare seats (D,E,F) and slept most of the journey. Passenger Y was quite annoyed at Passenger X's behaviour, but staff couldn't do anything about it. There was lots of muttering about "Passenger X only paid for one seat", death stares and similar nasty comments. Pax Y never confronted Pax X.

In this situation, do you think that Passenger X was in the wrong?

PS - I wasn't Passenger X, nor Y, just a curious bystander!
PPS - Oh and Pax Y, I don't think it was appropriate for you to take photos of Pax X while he was sleeping for whatever purpose you have in mind for the photos (complaint to Qantas? Show to friends?)

I had a similar situation a couple of years ago. Slightly different though, but here is my best estimation of what happened.

Passenger X was allocated seat D on a twin aisle plane. This is the first seat in the block of 4 seats in the middle of economy of the plane.

Seats E, F were not occupied. I know that the ground staff blocked them for X.

Passenger X got onboard, and sat in seat E, then put some belongings on seat F. He was getting ready to snooze by lying across the three seats.

Before take-off, another passenger, Passenger Y sat in seat G. There was some comment about Platinum, and I know that Passenger X was a Plat Qantas FF.

This is where the story is different!

Passenger Y stretched out over the three seats (E,F,G) and slept most of the journey. Passenger X was left with only seat D and was quite annoyed at Passenger Y's behaviour, but staff couldn't do anything about it. There was lots of muttering about "Passenger Y only paid for one seat", death stares and similar nasty comments. Pax X never confronted Pax Y.

In this situation, do you think that Passenger Y was in the wrong?

PS - I was Passenger X!
PPS - Mrs straitman was Passenger Y!
PPPS - No photos of Pax Y were taken while she was sleeping.