How to keep the seat next to you free - not a shadow or a comfort seat

[anat0l]

How to keep the seat next to you free | News.com.au

There's one huge thing wrong will all types of public transport. Other passengers.

We've all been there. You have your perfect seat and the bus keeps filling up. As each passenger gets on you pretend you don’t see them, don’t make eye contact. Inside your head a small voice says “stay away”.

As public transport gets more and more crammed some people have come up with inventive ways of keeping other passengers away. They are not very nice. But here they are thanks to travel website Gadling.

There you go, people. Cheap and easy ways to improving your chances of getting that second seat.

Naturally, do expect your obnoxious rating to increase by utilising these suggestions.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Here's a novel idea...don't catch public transport if you like privacy...

 

[Hvr]

1) Spread your stuff out. This one doesn’t work for long but it will mean you are the last seat to be picked. No-one likes the hassle of asking you to move everything.

Read more: How to keep the seat next to you free | News.com.au
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I'm not proud, I just go to sit on their stuff. It is usually moved fairly quickly, or squashed.

 

[Blinky]

I take great pleasure in asking people in departure lounges with laptops and so on on seats next to them "is anyone sitting there?". I usually get an embarrassed and mumbled "no", and proceed to wait until they move stuff so I can sit there. Occasionally I get someone say "yes", to which I respond "really", and stand nearby staring.

Yes, I know, I'm a bastage without a life......

 

[JessicaTam]

I take great pleasure in asking people in departure lounges with laptops and so on on seats next to them "is anyone sitting there?". I usually get an embarrassed and mumbled "no", and proceed to wait until they move stuff so I can sit there. Occasionally I get someone say "yes", to which I respond "really", and stand nearby staring.

Yes, I know, I'm a bastage without a life......

+1

If I have a choice on bus/train of a seat that someone has tried to 'keep' and an empty one I will ask the 'keeper' to move their stuff.

 

[Blinky]

+1

If I have a choice on bus/train of a seat that someone has tried to 'keep' and an empty one I will ask the 'keeper' to move their stuff.

A bastage after my own heart.

 

[Andyc]

I must admit, they're a few tricks that aren't too different to what I've used on EasyJet flights in the past

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Have read that article & all the 'tips' seem irrelevant unless you're travelling on a flight that has 'open seating'.

They've probably just done a cut & paste job from a UK counterpart.

If a pax has allocated seat 15F but pax in 15DE have spread out & put their stuff on it you will ask them to move it, they're hardly going to scare you off.

I was fully expecting to read stuff like 'do OLCI & select the middle seat' type suggestions.

 

[anat0l]

Have read that article & all the 'tips' seem irrelevant unless you're travelling on a flight that has 'open seating'.

Well, it's not entirely unheard of for people to claim seats which are not their own, and then if you happen to hold BP for the "correct" seat they will insist or suggest that you take up another seat.

In the US this seems a common tactic by those couples who were not fortunate enough to get seats together, i.e. they are a loving couple so they expect you (a single) to give up your seat for another.

Some DYKWIAs will plonk themselves in row 1 even though they clearly do not have a ticket for it. Try hell before you can make them move.

In Asia this practice can be surprisingly common, e.g. if you have a BP for 5C but the person sitting in 5C already is actually 5A, he'll just insist that you take 5A and he'll keep sitting in 5C. "No one really cares" as they are the 'same seat'.

So the tips actually don't need unallocated seating to work, though suffice to say if it was unallocated seating it does remove the 'contractual' forcing of one to use a BP to rightfully claim a seat, making those tactics in the article much more effective.

 

[Paddy55]

Have read that article & all the 'tips' seem irrelevant unless you're travelling on a flight that has 'open seating'.

They've probably just done a cut & paste job from a UK counterpart.

News Corp cutting and pasting? :shock: Well I never

 

[harvyk]

I was fully expecting to read stuff like 'do OLCI & select the middle seat' type suggestions.

So was I...

Well my trick is pretty simple, look for rows of seats where say the C seat is already taken, the B seat is free, and then select the A seat. (as I prefer windows)... Not many people will actively chose the middle seat

 

[smit0847]

What a stupid article.

If you want a seat free next to you in Y on a plane check-in early and ask very politely how full the flight is. If it's not full politely ask if they could block the seat next to you. There isn't much of an excuse not to if the flight isn't full.

 

[SeatBackForward]

On my bus in to and from work everyday, there are people who specifically don't sit on the window seat, but sit on the aisle seat, so that "stepping over" them becoems too hard for msot people. I always like having a window seat on my bus ride in, especially if i'm getting off before


























them too