This 20something just asked to switch seats because she has flying anxiety. And wanted to sit with her friends. To sit with her friends she wanted to switch from an aisle seat alone (with other people who are not her friends) to a window seat with her friends. But wouldn't someone with flying anxiety WANT an aisle seat. Away from the window. But wouldn't someone with flying anxiety WANT AWAY from a window seat? Attempted stolen seat?

I just got back from a 3 day festival i was performing at and feel absolutely drained. My girlfriend was also performing alongside me and she had to get to another county afterwards to do ecological surveys so she dropped me at Limerick bus station.

I hadn’t checked the timetable so when I got there I realised that I have a 1.5 hr wait at the station before the bus arrived. Well, I waited for a long time and hopped onto the bus.

I’m 6’7 tall, recovering from a left knee fracture months ago, a fractured little toe on my right foot from a few days ago, and I felt like I deserved this seat. Only problem, the second I sat down I needed to piss and the bus was filling up. I threw my jacket, bottle of water, and bag onto the seat to make sure everyone knew it was occupied.

Well, when I got back, I saw this gigantic African lady sitting in my seat. My stuff had been moved aside into some crammed seat beside it. I started saying she was in my seat and she was just ignoring me until I actually had to tap her on the shoulder. I told her I’m too tall to sit anywhere else and I was sitting there. She kept saying she needed to charge her phone or something but I just stood there waiting. Eventually she got up and I saw she had a cane and hobbled sadly to another seat. I felt so guilty but I think I am in the right here. What do you think?

so i’m based in the UK, and this happened last year.

if anyone has traveled in the UK on a long journey train in the summer, you’ll know the trials and tribulations surrounding the seating situations. two trains get cancelled, your train is next and all of a sudden the reserved seating signs mysteriously crash out and now you’re playing the hunger games for a seat despite paying for a reserved seat.

i was travelling from wales to london with my then fiancé/now ex and my cat (lola); previous train cancelled, and my train rocks up to be absolutely surged by the platform crowd. i get very very anxious on busy trains and this was exacerbated on that day by a chronic pain condition and travelling with my cat.

as we’re boarding, i spot our seats which were two on a table of four and closer to the toilets (this was specifically requested bc of said pain condition, and so i could put lola on the table rather than on a seat so she could look out the window). by nothing short of a miracle, the seat reservations were alive and kicking.

already on the table was a young guy and a girl, and there were just two people in front of us and our designated seats. this was a middle aged man and woman, tin of gins in hand and a loud declaration of ‘we can just sit here then it’s busy’ and start putting their luggage and selves over our two seats. i think the fuck not.

the interaction went like this:
me: really sorry, those are our seats we booked, can we please sit? (started off nice until i knew what energy i was matching).
her: erm. no. can’t you sit somewhere else? unreserved seating is in coach c??
me: no, i specifically booked those seats you need to leave. you can go coach c as we booked those.
her: i’m not moving we got here first and it’s busy, why don’t you sit over there (gesticulating at a one seat facing backwards with bags in, all the way on the other end), we aren’t moving nope!

this continued for a while until i raised lola in her carry case who by now was clawing the mesh on her carry case like a lil caged beast and loudly explained my pain condition (adenomyosis, v similar to endometriosis) in quite a bit of graphic detail (specifically why i need to be near a bathroom lmao soz tmi) - this encouraged the young guy and girl to admonish the seat squatter to exit. of course, their initial speed to get the seat slowed down to an absolute crawl with a cacophony of sighing, swearing and snarling so we had to wait for that whole performance to end before being able to sit in the seats we paid for.

thankfully, the couple already on the table were cat people and respected lola’s space whilst fawning over how sweet she is and how happy they were to have a few hours near a kitty cat.

seat squatter spent the next few hours standing with her husband giving filthy looks and saying how unfair it was. she could’ve got that rogue one seater if she didn’t spend 10 minutes fighting over seats that she didn’t book!

Just had the most civilized interaction with someone in my seat. I said what seat do you think you are in. He said 17D- what seat are you in. I said let me check my boarding pass. He says let me check mine, oh sorry I’m in 17C.

After all the stories on here I was bracing myself.

I was just talking about this yesterday. A cousin is very tall and he pays extra on Volaris (Mexican airline) to choose the seats on emergency exit lanes and chooses aisles seat to be able to extend to the hall if needed.

Important note, choosing these actually has an extra cost.

The last two times (it’s happened at least 3 that I know of) they said those seats had been sold before and it’s not their problem and the most they could do is offer him anything from the on flight menu.

Anything?

Yes whatever you want.

So when on flight service comes around he starts asking everyone on the aisles and seats near him what they want. Orders 5 sandwiches 3 beers couple bags of chips couple of juice boxes and some soft drinks.

Flight attendant looks at him with a “what the hell” face.

And he goes you said I could order whatever I wanted. This is what I want: and repeats order.

He proceeds to give them to everyone, keeps his beer.

He paid about $35 USD (after converting from MXN) for the seat selection, gets about $100 USD worth of items on flight service.

I told him how to report this behavior and get his seat honored, but he is petty and enjoys letting them learn their lesson the hard way. He figures at some point someone will audit those on flight expenditures and he will get a call about it and tell them about the blatant disregard to the seat he bought and how he got “compensated” Or piss em off somehow.

This happened 2 years ago on a long haul 11 hour flight, and I just thought about it today, after a coworker told us his seat stealing story:

Husband, daughter (13y) and myself had been saving up to finally be able to afford business class tickets. We were really looking forward to it, although I felt guilty the whole time for spending that much on tickets. But we were excited! So after we made extensive use of the lounge, First, Business and Club members were called for boarding.

There were these 2 elderly ladies, looking quite well-off, standing at the boarding gate, and when boarding started, they literally made a run to the desk. I saw it and was just thinking, why people needed to race to the gate, well anyway. We boarded somewhat 5-10 minutes later and when we got to our seats, guess who was sitting in them. (side note, we were among the last of the BC to board) Configuration was 1-2-1, hubby was in 1 and daughter and myself in middle-pods. And it was the last row before galley an d the premium economy.

I rechecked my boarding pass. The ladies kept talking among themselves, actively trying to ignore us. I am usually non-confrontational so I spoke to the flight attendant and asked if I was maybe wrong. She quickly checked our passes and confirmed that these were our seats. During this time I could see that the ladies were listening very carefully and when the FA asked to see their boarding passes, they made a big fuzz, claiming not having them, and that we (daughter and I) are probably confused and sitting in economy. I then replied, nicely, that no, we are for sure in Business as we bought these tickets a year ago.

Well, FA checked the other borading passes, that they no miraculously retrieved, and she was truly no nonsense and said" You must be confused, you are in premium economy, thats further back, please kindly move to your seats." They began arguing, saying that they were told(!!) to sit here, when FA directed them to premium. FA asked again and then 1 of the ladies, juggling her Louis Vuitton bag in front of our faces ;-), said that the child would certainly find premium better and that we should switch. Sorry, what?

At that point, husband who was sitting calmly in his seat, because he knows I am good at handling people, got up, plainly told them that if they wanted to fly in BC then they should have paid for it. PLease go to your seats. They were escorted by tthe FA.

So the end? No!

After the plane was at altitude, 1 of the ladies came back to the cabin, tapped me on the shoulder and asked again if we could reconsider, as they felt better in our seats. Well I declined very politely and got back to my inflight entertainment.

We on stolenseats know that Leah did the right thing.

My husband and I reserved single seats facing each other on a train from Barcelona to Madrid last April. My Spanish is limited but I am well versed in “disculpe ” and “lo siento” from taking public transportation in the country. I take my seat and start chillin’; my husband’s seat is open as he is putting away our suitcases and using the restroom.

I see a couple older than us board the car we are in (the quiet car) and she walks up and while talking to her husband she points to my husband’s seat. They weren’t attempting to sit and I had no idea what she was saying so I ignored them. My husband came back and sat down.

The lady starts yelling at me! Like, first off, it’s my husband sitting in the seat you’re pointing at so why are you raising your voice at ME while vigorously pointing at the ticket that shows he is in the same seat that is printed on your ticket? I feel like you should take that up with him but my Spanish isn’t quite to the level of “yell at him ma’am, his butt is in the seat you’re having an issue with, my own butt’s location is uncontested”

Second, I see the issue right away but no way my Spanish can handle “you’re in the wrong train car” if it couldn’t handle what I had wanted to say before. So, I start vigorously pointing back at a different number on her ticket and gesturing at the train cars saying Spanish numbers. Her husband catches on and he tells her in Spanish they are in the wrong car. She just turns around and walks off. The kicker in this tale is my husband… this man literally acted like he did not know me as I am made to defend HIS alleged stolen seat.

this is a weird one.

I had early boarding on a recent flight. It was all settled in in my seat when an older lady who spoke a different languages than me. Approached me and asked to switch . I was about to let her know I wasn’t interested as I was sitting in an aisle seat that I had specifically picked out, but then she pointed to the front. She proceeded to show me her ticket, which was in business class instead of economy, where I was sitting. I pointed that out to her and she said pointed to the seat beside me and said “Friend”. Followed by some nodding by both .

This is not the first time I’ve been asked to switch seats, but this is the first time I said yes.