Boorish or Acceptable Behaviour for Preferred Y Exit Seat?

[jonleong]

Witnessed an incident on a SIN-HKG flight recently.

A guy sitting alone on the Exit Row seat refused to allow another guy to sit in the 2 empty seats next to him and said that these are Preferred Seats and you can't simply sit there. This was after the guy who wanted to swap had asked the stewardess who said yes and he was originally in the bulkhead seat. The stewardess felt bad and shocked and proceeded to ask another guy sitting on the other side's Exit Row and that guy had no problem with it at all.

Initially I thought the first guy was an ass but thinking a bit more I guess he was peeved that he had to pay $ to get that Preferred Seat but still if I were that guy who wanted to swap seats I would have done so and told the Preferred Seat guy to piss off.

What do you all think?

[a340-313x]

A guy sitting alone on the Exit Row seat refused to allow another guy to sit in the 2 empty seats next to him and said that these are Preferred Seats and you can't simply sit there. This was after the guy who wanted to swap had asked the stewardess who said yes and he was originally in the bulkhead seat.

The long and short of it is that the guy originally at the window seat (or aisle seat) is not entitled to have the other two seats remain empty next to him since he didn't pay for them. As such, the airline is more than entitled to put someone else there and the stewardess has done that by proxy. For him to refuse is very poor form in my opinion.

[FN-GM]

He can't really refuse, but I can see why he is annoyed. He paid and someone else go them for free.

[iancasillas]

The long and short of it is that the guy originally at the window seat (or aisle seat) is not entitled to have the other two seats remain empty next to him since he didn't pay for them. As such, the airline is more than entitled to put someone else there and the stewardess has done that by proxy. For him to refuse is very poor form in my opinion.

Totally agree! Must be some ugly snobbish Singaporean. If you are willing or stupid enough to pay, then you just have to blame yourself for it. SIA has every rights to accommodate and accede to their customers/passengers request.

[icn.sg]

It's akin to seeing people get free upgrades, isn't it?

[SQflyergirl]

If ancillary income is a significant portion of your business, like it is with the air asia group - they police it quite strictly. In SQ's case I imagine it's a fraction of the revenue stream so there may or may not be strict policies on it.

If the person was put there because of no other seat being available, and his seat being inoperative - fair enough. If it's just because he thought - I like that seat better, can i have it? - then SQ needs to ask itself if it wants to protect that revenue stream or not. The crews actions merely lead to more people in the end saying: Pay? no need la, get on board and grab it when no one is looking.

[KC*]

My understanding may be wrong but I thought the "extra-fee" is just to reserve the seat ahead of time but it does not mean that such seats intrinsically carry a higher ticket-value.

It is still a seat in the economy class cabin and I believe that the crew has every right to allow another passenger to occupy it if it has not been already assigned. After all, food, service etc are all same across the cabin.

It is an entirely different matter if a passenger from economy runs over to occupy a seat in business class simply because it is empty (though I've seen such attempts being made).

[viraj735]

My understanding may be wrong but I thought the "extra-fee" is just to reserve the seat ahead of time but it does not mean that such seats intrinsically carry a higher ticket-value.

I think you're right. I've been offered a bulkhead window/aisle at check-in before, middle seats were the only ones available online. IIRC if you ask at check-in you don't have to pay the fee either.

[iancasillas]

I think you're right. I've been offered a bulkhead window/aisle at check-in before, middle seats were the only ones available online. IIRC if you ask at check-in you don't have to pay the fee either.

Exactly! Well I suppose SIA charge customers extra for advance booking / reservation for this emergency exit seats haha

[RHG]

Totally agree! Must be some ugly snobbish Singaporean. If you are willing or stupid enough to pay, then you just have to blame yourself for it. SIA has every rights to accommodate and accede to their customers/passengers request.

This would likely encourage others to simply try to coax the crew to give those seats onboard instead.

I can understand the logic behind the person's behaviour. If this were some other forum, the opinions expressed may be different.

[jonleong]

I'm not going to comment on the races of any of the 3 parties involved here since that is irrelevant. It was just interesting to note the extremely different responses of the preferred seat passengers. Perhaps if I had paid I would have been mildly annoyed too but as someone else said how different is this from an upgrade due to SQ overbooking? Imagine the paid J passenger demanding compensation from SQ for allowing the upgrades

[scooby5]

Perhaps if I had paid I would have been mildly annoyed too but as someone else said how different is this from an upgrade due to SQ overbooking? Imagine the paid J passenger demanding compensation from SQ for allowing the upgrades

We all know, however, that SQ guard the J seats like Fort Knox and upgrades are pretty rare, especially in comparison to other airlines where it is a norm. On that basis I can also understand the argument that can be made to protect Preferred Seats in the same was as any other upgrade.

Most flying J know SQ's policy.