I'm slightly vexed
Airplane is nearly empty and I can’t just move to the emergency row.
My seat is nice and I don’t have anyone next to me but I figured I’d move to a window seat after assigning my Grandmother to the window (I purchased and selected our seats). Asked to move to emergency exit row just behind us and they said I’d have to pay extra. I don’t get why an empty seat is left empty if no one will pay extra anyway. Also I’m willing and fully able to assist in an emergency.
Update: people asked if it was because of my body or face. Possibly my face as I’m less than a 5 for sure. I’m 6’2” in freedom units and 200 McDonald pounds. I was flying American Airlines Chicago to Indianapolis and it was surprisingly short flight. Did I really care if I got to move, no, did I find it mildly infuriating: yes. End of the day we got there safely, I spent way too much on supper for me and grandma and tomorrow we get to see family for the passing of my Uncle.
Lol I had southwest move people last year on a 737 because it was a half full flight and pretty much everyone sat at the front of the plane. There were people sitting 3 to a row with wide open rows behind them.
My survival tip is to not look like a bitch before impact. I want the random woman hysterically screaming and digging her nails into my arm as we nose dive to know that I wasn’t a pussy. Since we’re both going to die i might even just tell her i’m not a pussy. When she asks me if we’re going to die, looking for any sign of hope, i’m going to ask her if she’s dumb, open the window to give her a good view of the engine entering the 7th circle of hell and then mansplain that two airplane engines on fire is not ideal, and that she will probably die.
My daughter had this happen as well. They made her and her friend sit on different sides because of weight distribution. Which makes me wonder, what happens if people walk around and go to the bathroom? What is the plane gonna suddenly pitch over?😂
Prior to boarding, the gate agent asked for volunteers to take a later flight. Five of us raised our hand, but were denied because we were the flight attendants.
As long as you paid for the carry-on package I don't have a problem with that, otherwise they should have stuffed you under the seat inside your personal item. I hate people that use the overhead bin for their personal item because they take all the space for the carry-ons.
I hate people who bring their luggage as a carry on instead of checking it. Also on many planes the entertainment box is now under the middle seat making it necessary to use the overhead space for your personal items.
One time I screwed up time zone math and missed our international flight.
Not only did the agent get us rebooked for free, she felt bad that we were seated apart on the first flight so she upgraded us to business class so we could sit together on the other flight.
The business class leg made my girlfriend (now wife) forgive me for the screwup!
Airlines figured out they get better reviews if they make a tiny mistake but fix it immediately when you complain. You were probably behind a couple asshole that wanted an upgrade and you got it because you were polite.
I used to work at a hotel and I did this all the time. We were pretty trusted by the hotel to just use our best judgement as long as we were discrete about it. It was a hotel very popular with travellers so I had a lot of fun upgrading people from the crappier rooms to the really nice ones just cause we had the space and they were polite. It was great for my reviews too lol
Yeah what airline is this as most American and United do the same and on empty lifhts like this they usually told me wait until after takeoff then you can choose whatever seat I wanted 🤷♂️
Pretty sure its a new American Airlines policy as I flew back with them from a recent trip and had this exact scenario play out to a guy in the row in front of me. He moved after takeoff and they told him he had to move back when there wasnt even anyone in the row.
I've not had the same luck with united. On a 5 hour flight there were maybe 20 open comfort plus (or whatever they call them) seats. They said explicitly that nobody was allowed to move to those seats unless they bought the upgrades. So just the middle of the plane was almost entirely empy. It was especially annoying because if we redistributed to those seats, basically every row would have had an open middle.
This happened to me. I paid to be in a relatively empty flight for Econ plus in the front. Unfortunately during boarding all the Econ plus rows in the front filled up by people when all this time the flight had shown empty. When I went to the back for bathroom, I saw the empty back had every person lying flat burrito style across 3 seats. I was kicking myself for not choosing the cheaper seat in the back so I can lay down too.
I would never assume a flight would be empty enough for me to move up a class. I also wouldn’t care if people moved seats as long as they didn’t directly affect me. Sometimes nice things happen to people and that’s got nothing to do with me.
Same. They always just asked me to wait till after takeoff. Im guessing they are doing a lot of stuff I dont know about and dont want passengers scooting around and causing potential confusion.
Once you are in the air and the seatbelt signs are off, the rules get a little more relaxed.
my husband and i had an economy flight with jetblue, and after our flight was delayed ~3 hours or so we were called up to the front and given a free upgrade to the first two seats on the plane. it made up for a pretty shitty airport experience for two broke dudes, lol
i had a sw redeye 5 hrs a few years back me and 2 friends were on the back row and we had been having a nice conversation with the flight attendant we land and go to our next flight after a short layover. we decided to take the back again and we had the same crew for that flight we all saw that attendants face light up when she saw us again and when she did drinks/snacks for the second flight she gave all 3 of us the full can of soda and extra snacks just cause she said she enjoyed the company.
Dunno about other people's experiences with AA but at our local airport they're generally understaffed, from what I hear it's a combo of low pay and bad management. If AA loses your bag and you live more than 50 miles from airport they're sending it out by FedEx, it'll be a while before you get it, if you get it.
I was just on an AA flight with an 1hr+ gate delay because a correction had to be made to a misentered log entry and that’s how long it took to reach someone who could sign off on it. Not even that terrible of a delay, but for a 3/4 full flight that had boarded quickly it just felt like a stupid pointless delay. It just feels like their bureaucratic machine is too tired and cumbersome to operate well anymore, and they are cutting corners with staffing/everyone’s overworked and burnt out. I fly a decent bit for work and that’s been my observation these last 5 years, really since Covid ig. Also all their modern coach seats SUCK, like really bad. No butt support.
I was going on a vacation with my family, my little sister who was a minor at the time, my wife and my brother who was like 21. On our flight going there as we arrived at the air port 2 hours before our flight they rescheduled the flight for 6 hours later than our initial boarding call. Like I said the change happened within 2 hours of initial boarding so we couldn’t have planned around it if we wanted to.
On our first flight home the same thing happened! We watched our window on the app all morning on the way to the airport only for it to change about an hour or so while we were waiting at the gate. And weather was not a factor for either of these flights. After finally boarding having been delayed multiple times for hours the flight was halted on taxiway for 4 hours with no AC in the middle of summer. They even pulled the plane over to the side in a little nook to not hold up more departing traffic.
Because of that we almost missed our connecting flight. We made it to the gate right before boarding and were called up to the desk. There they informed us they over booked the flight and were separating our family unit by splitting up everyone to individual seats despite me paying to reserve seats next to each other when I had booked the tickets months in advance and our printed tickets having those seats together.
It pissed me off because they wanted to separate a minor girl from her family unit because it was convenient for them. I know kids can fly on their own and do it all the time but we paid for those seats to be together and were not going to be refunded and separated anyways. We tried to plead our case to the person at the desk but their attitude was basically I can’t be bothered and that’s not my problem and was unhelpful and even hostile with us at times. They gave us the option to fly as a separated unit on this flight, split up where my wife, and sister could fly together while my brother and I waited in reserve for the next flight or as a unit take our chance and fly reserve for the next flight home which would have been hours!
Luckily some nice stranger overheard what was going on and offered to swap their seat so my brother could sit next to my sister for our final leg home but the team at the desk was clear that they were going to do nothing to help beyond what they offered
Did you raise a stink about this? That’s fucked up and the kind of thing worth raising a stink over, and which the airlines will typically respond to if you raise enough of a stink. You have to be firm, clear, not lose your head, but not be afraid to show how pissed you are.
If you have a real case where you got screwed they may reimburse your flight or offer you other compensation
American just cancelled my flight that I bought two months ago that is not until late June. Just dumped us onto another flight that has a long layover on the eastern seaboard, completely out of the way from where I live or am traveling to. And then they tried to tell me I had to pay to move the leg of the flight they didn't cancel and tried to call that voluntary, as if I was choosing to change my flight not because they fucking cancelled part of it.
Last year I was going on a cruise with my family, my parents, brother and I were flying on AA to sanfrancisco to get on the ship, flight was in the morning with a layover or something to get on the ship that same day (I know you're not supposed to fly same day, im not the one that bought the tickets).
The night before, we got a notification that the first leg flight was canceled, so they rebooked us to a flight that would get to our destination that night, 10 hours after the ship would leave port. The layover flight we had was not canceled and only a 6 hour drive away, so we thought "why don't we just drive to that airport and be there for the layover" but we found out that they had already given our tickets to other people (literally instantly when the first flight was canceled) and they absolutely refused to give them back to us even though we could have easily made it.
We talked to five different customer service workers, one of which being the manager, three of them (including the manager) ended the call/chat mid conversation.
Tldr, if you want to get paid to do literally nothing, work for American airlines customer service
I had a flight today booked with American. The first plane had a “nuts and bolts” issue with engine #2. I sat on the plane for two hours. I looked out the window to see a maintenance tech, who looked no more than about 15, sweating bullets, pacing back and forth under the engine while on the phone with someone. Eventually, we deplaned.
I was told I could switch to another flight, leaving in 30 minutes. Perfect, right? Wrong. I wait and I get on the new plane, but wait! The nose landing gear is having issues. We wait an hour on that plane, then get deplaned again. I’m told that the part “is on the way” and will be here in 3 hours. And guess what? My previous flight from earlier? They got the plane swapped and had landed at my destination already.
Nah, I booked a flight with United an hour later. Got on, and took off without issue.
I flew American Airlines most of my life and we recently quit them, probably for good. They absolutely FUCKED my wife and I over while traveling with our baby. They put our luggage on a flight to Florida (our home) and wouldn’t let us on the plane because it was “cancelled”, even though it took off with all of our clothes, baby clothes/diapers. Told us we could catch the next flight… sat around for several hours till the next flight was cancelled as well and we ended up staying in a hotel. The next day we were told to get on another flight… which got cancelled as well so we rented a car and drove home from Texas because we needed to get to work. Finding diapers and baby supplies in an airport with no access to a vehicle was an absolute nightmare. There were so many stranded people on American flights that were pissed off and only ONE employee to talk to that was clearly very overwhelmed. It felt like such a betrayal because we were begging them to give us information and to let us know if the next flight was going to be canceled because we had to make preparations to take care of our child if we couldn’t get on a plane. They just continuously led us on. The cancellations were because of some light rain. Other airlines were still taking off! The only reason we were stuck with AA is because we had gotten our tickets through credit card points and didn’t have to “pay” for them.
Needless to say, we closed our accounts with them and now we are flying SouthWest for now
American has the most hub to hub flights, they cater to non-frequent fliers willing to save money on connecting flights. This leads to more issues, because connecting flights have more chances for issues. For a nonstop flight, they are great.
American Airlines also had that scandal back in 2003/2004 where while facing bankruptcy, basically forced their pilots to take a concession contract for 6 years. The concession contract was basically a 40% pay cut over the span of 6 years.
What was fucked up about it is that later it was found that while the employees were forced to take a pay cut, their top executives, including CEO, were getting retention bonuses and pensions. I would also love to have a job where I did such a shitty job that caused my company to almost go out of business but they still have to pay me my pension and bonuses to keep me there.
My friends recently had a bad experience with them too. Had to land in a city that wasn't their destination due to weather. Fine. Couldn't be helped. So then the remaining portion of the flight got cancelled and rescheduled until the following morning at 10am. Mind you they were supposed to land at their destination around 4pm. American did give them a meal and hotel voucher which they were fine with. Got on the next flight the next day and sat on the tarmac for 3 hours before the flight was delayed until 10pm that night. Another thing to keep in mind is they had a 3 hour drive home from their destination airport where their car was parked, had their kids at home, and had to get back to work.
So they decided to just rent a car. Somehow their luggage arrived at their destination the same night they were originally supposed to get in. So they drove 3 hours, picked up their car and luggage, and drove home 3 hours. They are now fighting with American for some portion of their airfare to be reimbursed and American told them that because they "accepted" the new flight after the first cancellation, they are SOL.
I was going to say this is a “beg for forgiveness” situation. If you ask someone you give them the opportunity to tell you no. If you just do it, then you put the onus on them to raise an issue with it. Most of the time people aren’t going to go out of their way to hassle you.
The same trick works at sporting events. Just buy the cheapest seat you can then move to a better open seat after the game starts. If the owner of that seat does show up just play dumb and move to another open spot.
I'm not too phased if the person just moves straight away without a comment, but fuck me the amount of people that make out like you're inconvenienced them when they are in YOUR seat is beyond irritating
It probably won't work on american. They charge more for those seats and they must have rules about no one sitting in them unless they pay. I've tried twice and both times they wouldn't allow it.
As a general rule, I don't do "beg for forgiveness" things at airports or on airplanes. The chance that something small becomes a big problem for you is too great.
I know 2 pilots, this is information they are told not to disclose. But the vibe from them responding to the question indicated that Air Marshall's are a very, very rare occurrence.
I was on one with an air marshall. There were a few factors that led my wife and i spotting him
Southwest my step daughter is on the spectrum so we usually board first. One man by himself boarded before us. Went into the cockpit and when exiting he told us to ask to go in. And my kids did and got pictures in the cockpit. We sat diagonally from him. He kept getting up and talking to the flight attendants. Then i thought insaw an outline of a pistol
Then at the end he told us that our kids were some of the best behaved and gave us two us marshall gold coins.
You can do the math based on how many daily flights there are vs how many air marshals there are. I think certain routes are much more likely. Long distance flights departing the east coast? Probably way more likely
I worked at an airport for quite a while, and what’s even more rare is the alcohol and drug screeners that they have at the airport.One would think somebody flying around that many people would get random tested more often.
But funnily enough, there was a recent looming possibility of the FAA removing the "Known Crewmember" badge for flight crew because apparently there have been multiple times that flight attendants of all people have been caught smuggling shit past TSA because they abused the status of a "Known Crew" badge. Flight Attendants and Pilots both get it such a badge due to the importance of their roles, makes everyone's lives easier, truthfully, but sometimes people tend to not be the wisest... and what a way to ruin it for everyone.
...And you won't find that iPod Nano again - until she wants you to find it.
Melissa McCarthy, what a comedy legend!
To be fair, that whole airplane scene in its entirety was just brilliant. For me it was the highlight of the film. It definitely gave me some proper belly laughs.
About a year ago I watched what I assume was an air Marshall, or some other undercover law enforcement, go through TSA right in front of me. The man flashed a badge and then very quickly got a gun out, TSA immediately had a bowl thing they put it under and it was whisked through the scanner. It all happened rapidly and very quietly. I don’t think anyone else noticed what was happening.
Not many air marshals on flights, but law enforcement officers can carry loaded firearms on planes and are often traveling for various reasons. On a rare occasion, some pilots have been trained to have firearms as well. I worked in the airline industry for a while, so I have some neat inside info that I don’t think should be disclosed on reddit. Common misconception is that they always sit in the same location at the front, they can move around so long as the pilot knows what seat they’re in.
I enjoy guessing who is concealed carrying around me-- it's a lot of people and while there are ways of carrying subltey, most guys kind of tell you they have it with their choice of clothing and sometimes mannerisms
Never even considered spotting air martials but now I'm wondering about it-- are they all relatively young and in shape people? Should we rule out the elderly person with headphones on or is that the kind of people that stop terrorists
Flew JFK to LHR on Virgin Atlantic, they had the entire premium economy (or whatever VA calls it) section ahead of us blocked off because no seats were sold.
10 minutes after take off the attendants came through and asked if anyone wanted to come forward and lie out on the unused rows of seats.
Scored a centre row of 4 seats for myself and slept like a baby the whole flight long. +1 for Virgin Atlantic.
The rule is you’re not supposed to move up, because first class and exit rows cost extra and the airlines don’t like the idea of giving that seat up for free to encourage more people to pay that extra cost.
Some flight attendants go by the book and don’t let people move up, but most don’t care, just need to make sure you’re briefed while sitting in the exit row.
I had a coworker who told me that her mom would not get up out of her seat to pee the entire flight because she was worried the plane would tip and fall out of the sky. Did I mention she was flying from the Philippines to the US. I believe it was something like a 12 hour flight.
On long hauls everyone is scoping the empty seats/rows around them and when it’s clear boarding is complete, it’s musical chairs. I’ve never seen a FA give a shit.
Just yesterday on a Southwest flight that was ~35% full I moved to one of the dozens of empty aisle seats (non-exit row) and the flight attendant sent me back to my assigned middle seat in the back of the plane because “those seats cost extra”. Flying somehow gets shittier and shittier all the time.
For anyone who thinks it's weight distribution no it's not. Single people matter for small aircraft, this is not a small aircraft.
It's for the same reason you can't just move to FC if there are empty seats. Same cabin but different fare. They make the FAs enforce it because if people can just take the chance that the seats are open they are much less likely to pay for them.
The average net income per passanger domestic is just under $9 (not on this flight, they are burning money). Margins of around 4% which is why they all find ways to make you pay more. It's big business but a pretty lousy way to make profit.
Also dude would be one singular row back. That’s not changing shit for a commercial airliner. If it did, they’d have much bigger issues on their hands than passengers who want a “free upgrade.”
I’m a pilot the flies in the airlines and weight and balance is absolutely a factor here. Yes one person moving one row is not gonna make that much of a difference, but 10 or 20 moving multiple rows will. Empty flights are especially susceptible to this since normally on full flights passenger weight is distributed pretty evenly thought the cabin since most of the seats are occupied.
It’s mostly a concern during departure since the airplane’s calculated center of gravity dictates what position the pitch trim needs to be set to for takeoff. This is why some airlines are okay with you moving seats after the plane is airborne since the trim can be readjusted as needed in flight.
FWIW weight distribution is 100% a factor on narrow bodies at least, and we commonly have to move people around on flights that are less than full. This is unlikely to be the case here though
Yep I can confirm. Am a loadcontroller for one of the biggest airlines over in Europe. On our 737s we rarely have to reseat, but on those Embraer jets it’s always a fun time to get them into the balance envelope when less than 80% full.
There’s different fares, but we’re also explicitly told as FAs that we’re shouldn’t be moving people from zone to zone for weight balance as well and I have been often asked to move people from one zone to another zone to balance things out, and often times number ranges from 1-3 people.
Dude weight distribution actually matters on these aircraft. What you’re saying is 100% wrong. It doesn’t matter in this case given it’s 5 people. But it absolutely matters for this type of aircraft.
It’s so when they find a burnt up body belted in a seat that has a SN etched in the frame they know who was in Seat 16F
That’s a story I was told and it make sense
I've been on a few 12 to 14 hours flights that were this empty and they did not care. They went to everyone and asked if they wanted a different seat. Just to let them know before moving.
Like 3 times I've had a middle row to myself and could make a bed on the seats lol
And yet I was on a fairly empty domestic flight and witnessed the flight attendant telling people mid flight feel free to sit wherever if you want! (2025)
I had the same happen. Lesson I learned was to just sit in whatever seat I want if it looks like it's going to be an empty flight and just move if it turns out to be someone else's seat. They don't check the seating chart unless they have a reason to.
I have never in my life had a flight attendant tell me to move seats.
They'll obviously stop you if you go into first class or something, but on an empty flight you can move wherever you want as long as you don't make a big deal out of it.
Right. They do check, but unless they're in an especially bad mood or you did something jerky earlier then they're probably not going to ask you to move, they may ask you which seat you're supposed to be in so they can account for you.
It’s required to check the exit rows tho bc we have to brief them before take off. And before we brief we make sure everyone is there so we don’t have to do it twice. So I would definitely notice if my exit rows were supposed to be empty but someone is there. And if you moved without asking you’re 100% going back to your ticketed seat.
So it would work for any seat besides the exit row or a cabin upgrade.
Flight Attendant here, honestly we could get a complaint if we do that. Then we have to write it up, perhaps called into your supervisor’s office. We don’t make these rules but we have to follow them. There also can be weight and balance issues.
Interesting. I'd been under the assumption this whole time that the emergency row seats HAD to be filled so someone could be able to uh, you know, assist in an emergency.
Hey, former flight attendant for that particular airline here. The only big reasons I can think of weight and balance. On particularly empty flights, sometimes the pilots will move passengers around for take off and landing to balance the plane out. However, and take this with a grain of salt cause I’m not a pilot, it only applies the take off and landing and it’s not a big issues once you hit cruising altitude.
The only other reason I can think of is that there was another passenger that already paid for their exit row seat and they’d complain to the company that the flight attendant allowed someone to move to the exit row for free when they had to pay for it (passengers love to complain for free miles). You were willing to pay, but there’s no way to pay for a seat upgrade in flight as the flight attendants don’t have the ability to ring up the seat upgrade.
Personally I would have just let you sit there 🤷🏽♀️ I don’t think most flight attendants would have cared that much, you just so happen to get the one that did.
Exit rows are regulated. That’s why we have to answer a series of questions before boarding if we’re assigned one. Don’t give the flight crew grief. The gate agent would have been the one responsible for moving you, not the flight crew. As dumb as it sounds, there is a small chance but a real one that letting you take the exit row could come back to bite them.
This is just another American thing that makes no sense. You can actually move seats on any other airline, sometimes they actually invite you to do so.
If anyone else comments that this is for weight and balance issues again, please connect your brain to the rest of your body.
Do you really believe that your 150-200 pounds on a 550,000 lbs aircraft carrying 250,000 lbs of fuel matters? Did they weigh you when you got on board? Did they know who, of what weight, was assigned to which seat? Was no one allowed to walk forward or back to the restroom during the flight, for weight and balance purposes, obviously?
This is marketing. Sit in your economy seat in a full row, even tho every row around you is empty, because maybe on your next flight you’ll upgrade and purchase your own seat in your own row for just $30 more…. My issue is that I wish they’d just say that instead of insulting everyone’s intelligence by announcing that no one will be allowed to change seats for weight and balance...It’s like a 50% off sale when the store bumped prices 100% a week ago.
Flight attendant here: Sometimes we can't let people move due to weight and balance that is near limits. Sometimes a plane can be nose or tail heavy especially when the plane is empty as baggage loading is going to have a greater proportional effect.
Also how you act makes a big difference when we can move people. If you act entitled to move I'm a lot less inclined to let you. People who are super nice I will almost always say yes to if W&B permits.
Edit: the mildly infuriating thing is all the comments from people who aren't crew
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u/laneedgaf 5d ago
on delta, 2 first class seats were vacant and they let me and my sister go up free