You were lucky enough to grab the last aisle seat during online check-in, or were smart enough to spend a little extra money during the booking process to secure your favourite inflight seat.
You’re just starting to get comfortable in your specially-selected position, when some rando comes along asking to swap plane seats.
In some cases, flyers are strong enough to decline, but when it’s a mother asking to sit next to their young child, most of us will reluctantly gather our belongings and move to the less appealing location (and it’s almost always a middle seat).
Thankfully, the Internet has a solution to everything, even the best way to turn down a request for inflight seat swapping.
Users on discussion website, Quora, have openly shared their techniques for declining a seat swap and the most popular method seems to be responding with a firm ‘no’.
User Jimmy said that although different circumstances call for different responses, if the person is offering you a “worse seat” then the best approach “is to just be friendly and polite and say ‘no'”.
The same advice was delivered by Thi H. Nguyen, who said travellers should never feel “obliged to give your seat up”.
“You don’t owe anyone an explanation either,” she said.
“Of course, there’s no need to be a jerk about it either. Just decline politely.”
Thi H. Nguyen, aisle-seat fan
Kelly Martin concurred with Thi, and also suggested seeking assistance from inflight staff.
But what does an expert say?
According to the Daily Mail, body language expert Judi James says it’s important to be firm and offer little explanation.
She said to give “full, polite attention” so you come across as ” less stubborn and inflexible”. She also said that flyers shouldn’t tell lies or make excuses because “a stubborn negotiator can battle each point”.
“Show empathy before the ‘no’ as in: ‘I’m sorry your seat isn’t in the best area. I’m afraid I’m going to say no’.”
Judi James, Body Language Expert
“Then look helpful as in: ‘How about asking the people in that row?’ or ‘Would you like me to have a word with the cabin crew to see if there are any alternatives?”
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