A sneaky flight attendant has revealed the unique way she gets passengers to swap seats if a family with young children asks to sit together.
Mitra Amirzadeh, a flight attendant based in Florida, says she receives seat change requests on eight of the 10 flights she works on each month.
She claims that she is good at “reading the mood” when looking for volunteers to act, but has one trick up her sleeve if they initially refuse.
“I already said, ‘OK, so are you going to watch the toddler?'” she told the Wall Street Journal. “You’ll need their snacks and their coloring books then, because they’ll need them.”
Seat change requests often come from couples who have booked their seats far apart in hopes of finding someone willing to swap before takeoff.
Amirzadeh, a union representative for a major airline, only intervenes in the boarding request when a child is involved.
The flight attendant is not very interested in the changes because she believes that the person who purchased the desired seat has the right to sit for the flight.
“The next time you feel angry or frustrated about not getting the seat you want, you need to remember that you didn’t pay to choose your seat. Otherwise, you would be in,” she told the outlet.
A former flight attendant turned TikTok star has revealed the success rates of passengers looking to change seats to be closer to their significant other.
Influencer Jeenie Weenie says that if the same seat-to-seat exchange is requested with a single traveler seated in the same area of the plane, the probability of getting the change is 99.9%.
“No one ever said no,” Jeeenie said in a video viewed more than 2.4 million times.
But if you’re looking to move from the back to the front of the plane, the success rate drops to 80%.
Add in that your original seat is next to a baby or a bathroom, and you only have a 40% chance of changing seats.
Asking someone sitting near a window or aisle to switch to the middle seat won’t help you, as there is about a 10-15% chance of swapping.
“But if you give up your window or aisle seat, your rate goes back to 99%.”
“And for those trying to try their luck at different classes, don’t even try to ask,” said the influencer, who has an impressive 10.4 million followers.
“Passengers pay a lot of money for an upgrade, so unless you plan to reimburse them, your pass rate will be a negative 682%.”
New York Post
