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Comment by jghn | Hacker News Reader

I know way too many parents who take the stance of not bothering to pay for assigned seating, on the assumption that people will move around to accommodate them.

As someone who pays for an assigned seat so I can sit where I want, this annoys the crap out of me as now they expect people like me to move.

When I point this out, their response is "why should I pay for that?"

I agree with the airlines here but if it makes life overall less stressful for all to put families together due to the bad behavior of those parents, I'm fine with it.

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You don't have to engage or justify staying in your seat, just say no thank you and end the conversation

Have you never seen a confrontation erupt from this? Or a flight attendant "suggesting" the person being asked to move?

No. Is there compensation given, since assigned seating costs more than non?

I've been bumped out of my paid preassigned seat for other reasons and have never received compensation.

Despite flying at least 10-15 times a month on average, I have actually never seen this happen. Reddit suggests that there is an epidemic of it. The actual problem is an epidemic of terminally online dipshits making mountains out of molehills.

And yet as someone who only flies 10-15 times a year and being a terminally online dipshit, I have seen this happen. Not like one of those TikTok videos with fisticuffs, mind you.

I remember as I was annoyed that this whole thing was holding up my flight. Family asked someone to move, they declined, family kept insisting. Boarding line was getting held up due to this. FA arrives, starts imploring the man to move his seat, obviously just trying to get boarding complete so we can all move on with our lives. Eventually the man got up & changed.

And I'll smile back knowing you're about to have a really great flight with my 3 year old :)

(to be clear, I don't do this personally and pay extra to sit together but I do hope people start parking their kids all over the plane since that's what we all seem to want! It's tempting.)

So according to you: they should give up their paid seat so that you don't have to pay for assigned seats, even when you know way in advance that you are traveling with a 3 yr old?

Let's ignore special cases where you didn't have a chance to buy assigned seats, and focus on the vastly more common scenario where parents can easily pay to ensure seats of their choice.

Yes, it's nickel and diming by the airlines to make all seat assignments paid. And hating airlines is completely justified.

But I find the entitlement of parents, that other passengers should accommodate their parsimonious preferences, just amazing.

No. According to me there is probably a middleground.

You can't have it both ways that you don't want a child next to you and just expect parents to spend extra money to accommodate you.

Easily pay? I assure you it isn't easy for a lot of us. The irony of your use of entitlement.

You're assuming a stranger will watch your kid and not just let them constantly unbuckle and run to your seat the entire flight.

If you can't afford to fly then drive.

I can afford to fly. I'm on the plane. You don't have to watch my kid, but they'll be next to you. It works both ways.

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