Passenger Takes Another Man’s Aisle Seat To Sit With His Wife—Frontier Flight Attendant Lets Him Keep It

A Frontier Airlines passenger found another man in his assigned aisle seat. The man wanted to sit beside his wife, so he offered the passenger his middle seat two rows back. A flight attendant listened to a passenger’s plea to sit in his assigned seat but did nothing. The passenger finally gave up: “I just want to get home.” The seat stealer on flight 1550 from Atlanta to Jacksonville on Sunday got what he wanted. And the airline – which sells these seat assignments – left them to negotiate amongst themselves, creating a secondary market. The flight was full, a long-haired man in his 20s arrived at seat 28C, and a white-haired man in his 60s was already sitting there beside his wife. When the younger passenger pointed out that this was his assigned seat, the response was: “Well, I wanted to sit next to my wife. You can have my middle seat (30E).” The younger man waited. A flight attendant got involved and heard the story, the witness says. After nothing happened, he walked back to 30E and sat down. Several commenters say the displaced passenger should have insisted on his assignment or asked a second crewmember for help. Some suggest flight attendants shouldn’t get involved because unlike at Delta, American and United their pay at Frontier isn’t calculating including boarding time. Some think the best solution would be to stand in the aisle, refuse to move, and demand compensation. A couple can ask for a seat swap. They can offer money. They can ask a flight attendant for help finding two willing passengers. But stealing someone’s seat isn’t acceptable. Still, sometimes it’s permitted. I covered an American Airlines passenger whose paid aisle seat was occupied by a child. He said a flight attendant backed the family because “She got on the plane before you,” called him “the bad guy,” and threatened to remove him. It seems to me that at a minimum the passenger here is owed a refund for his seat fee. There’s no involuntary denied boarding. There’s no downgrade of class of service. So anything more than that is discretionary customer service on the part of the airline. Morally the passenger is owed more. I’d surely ask for another crewmember’s involvement if I got nowhere with the first flight attendant. Unfortunately, in the moment, it doesn’t matter whether the passenger is right or wrong. They’re at the mercy of what the crew says, even when the crewmember just shrugs. Topics on this page