Refusing to swap seats might land you on the wrong side of cabin crew in certain circumstances, and a flight attendant has revealed the simple trick she uses to punish passengers who won’t oblige
Dealing with challenging passengers from time to time is part and parcel of life in a cabin crew, but they often have their own secret methods of dealing with any potential disharmony on their planes.
Being asked to swap seats isn’t something that many passengers are keen to oblige, particularly when they have paid extra to secure their seat of choice long before their holiday. However, there are some circumstances when refusing to oblige the request might mean you end up on the wrong side of your flight attendant.
Being asked to swap seats is a seriously contentious topic, with many people believing you shouldn’t have to do so if you’ve gone the extra mile to book a specific spot, especially as many airlines do charge passengers for this privilege.
However, some people are a little bit more flexible, and in the right circumstances would happily swap their coveted aisle or window seat to help out a fellow passenger in need. One savvy air hostess has revealed her tried and trusted method for getting more obstinate passengers to swap their seats with parents travelling with young children, and claims it works like a charm…but a lot of people won’t likely be pleased to hear this one.
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In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Orlando-based flight attendant Mitra Amirzadeh explained that if a child is mixed up in a heated seat-swapping dilemma, she’ll step in to try and smooth things over – using all her hard-won powers of diplomacy.
Mitra, who is also a union rep for an airline that charges passengers for advanced seat selection, told the publication: “I have said before, ‘OK, so you’re going to watch the toddler? You’ll want their snacks and their colouring books then, because they’re going to need that’.”
As you can imagine, this motivates plenty of peace and quiet-loving passengers to hop up sharpish. The cabin crew member went on to clarify however that she very rarely intervenes in cases which don’t involve kids – for example with couples who simply want to sit together, despite not having planned for such an eventuality at the time of booking.
Confirming that she absolutely doesn’t want passengers to be ‘forced’ to swap seats they’ve paid for, Mitra continued: “The next time you feel yourself getting angry or getting frustrated that you’re not getting the seat you want, you need to remind yourself that you didn’t pay to pick your seat. Otherwise, you’d be in it.”
According to Mitra, such awkward situations are far from a rare occurrence, with the universally frustrating seat-swapping scenario occurring during approximately 80 per cent of her monthly flights.
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