You are finally on board your flight and settling in when someone asks you to swap seats. Some people would be happy to do so, while others are not going to entertain the notion.

Considering the fact everyone can select seats from the time they book through to check-in, you would think being asked for a swap on board would be a rare occurrence. It is, but it still happens.

Seat Swap Stories

One time I was travelling on standby on a staff ticket. We were finally cleared, but as the flight was quite full my travel companion and I were seated separately. He asked the girl beside him if she’d swap with me and she happily did so, which was really nice.

There are stories online such as the one where a father and daughter arrived at the end of boarding. The person beside the daughter in business class was asked if he would swap and it ended up that the swap was into the father’s first class seat. Now that’s a swap I’d like!


Of course, other people have shared stories of couples being seated apart in the same cabin and trying to get people to move into less salubrious seats. While all seats in a cabin are the same, they’re not all created equally.

Seats on the upper deck of the Boeing 747 are more coveted than those on the main deck. Having one half of a couple wanting to move upstairs to sit with the other and displacing the real occupant downstairs is likely to get a negative answer.

Overall Thoughts

What’s your opinion on a seat swap? I would do it if it was like for like. For example, if I had a window seat and it was another window in the same cabin, I’d be pretty fine with moving. For something like a window or aisle to a middle seat, I’d probably say no.

I’d certainly be more inclined to move if I was asked nicely. Being blatantly lied to or commanded to move by another passenger would make me dig in and stick to my guns. Considering how much thought I put into selecting my seats, I’m usually quite glad not to be asked.

What do you think? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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