This is of absolutely no consequence, but I’m curious if anyone has any insights or theories.
Passenger moves from window seat to middle seat
This morning I flew from Miami (MIA) to Tampa (TPA). While I didn’t get an upgrade (I was number seven out of 14 on the upgrade list as an Executive Platinum), I was delighted that the flight operated on schedule, given all the irregular operations that we’ve seen in recent days.
Even though the flight was quite full, I lucked out. Not only did I have an exit row aisle seat (seat 17C), but I also had an empty seat next to me, with someone else in the window seat (seat 17A). Hey, that’s basically like first class!
Of course during boarding you always wonder if someone is going to try to take a seat in an exit row, so I was happy when I heard the announcement about boarding being complete, and about the door being closed.
Well, to my surprise, the second the door closed, the woman in seat 17A moved to seat 17B. Yes, the person in the exit row window two seats over from me moved to the exit row middle seat immediately next to me. She stayed there the entire flight, and the window seat stayed open.
Please help me make sense of this!
I bought one seat, so I’m by no means entitled to an empty seat next to me. However, curiosity is getting the best of me, and I’m trying to come up with any possible theory for why someone would do this.
I was tempted to outright ask the woman why she moved. But I’m not a very social person, and I also couldn’t come up with a decent way to phrase it. I mean, what could one really say?
“Hey, so it’s totally fine you moved to the middle seat, but I’m just curios, why? Usually people prefer window and aisle seats, so…”
We do frequently see pairs traveling together try the strategy where they select a window and aisle seat in hopes of getting an empty middle seat. Then if the middle seat is occupied, they can offer either the aisle or window seat to that person, to be able to sit together. But this is an odd twist on that, where a solo traveler seated in the window seat decided they wanted a middle seat instead. Make it make sense, please!
The only half-decent theory I can come up with here is that the passenger was scared of sitting right at the exit row, given the Alaska Boeing 737 MAX 9 door plug incident earlier this year. However, this was a Boeing 737-800, so it wasn’t a MAX, and also doesn’t have the same door plug as the 737 MAX 9 and 737-900ER. Then again, plenty of people may not realize that, and just think “Boeing” and “exit row,” and become scared.
Bottom line
It’s not uncommon to see people swap seats on planes, though I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone voluntarily move from a window seat with an empty middle seat to that same middle seat with someone next to them. So if anyone has any theories, I’d love to hear them…
Anyone have any theories as to this strange seat swap?
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