Not all airplane seats are created equal, so you shouldn't just switch yours without getting the OK first.
Seats on an American Airlines A321neo aircraft.

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Just because an airplane seat is empty doesn’t mean you’re entitled to sit there. And if you move without asking, you may have to pay.

Some passengers on United Airlines had to be reminded of that just last month after a social media post bemoaning a surcharge caught some attention across the internet.

“@united flight to our mission trip to Honduras from Houston. 3 hour duration. Most of the plane is empty. The attendant told us that they won’t let anyone change seats for less than $86/each even though the plane is nearly empty,” one passenger posted on social media, along with a picture of empty rows of seats in front of her.

Here’s the thing: I get this flyer’s frustration. It’s annoying to see seats go unused on a flight when you’re elbow to elbow with your seat neighbor, but there are good reasons for United and other airlines’ policies around keeping passengers where they are, and it’s not (just) about maximizing their profits. There’s a safety incentive to everyone’s assigned seat, too.

Here’s why it’s not so bad to stay put on your flight, and why – if you’re going to move – you should always ask first:

Safety first

Regular readers are probably sick of seeing me write about how everything in aviation has a safety component, but it’s true. And it may surprise you to learn that it extends to seat assignments, too.

“There is a thing called weight and balance and airplanes need to be in balance to ensure that they can fly safely,” Brett Snyder, author of the blog Cranky Flier and owner of the travel agency Cranky Concierge, told me.

While Snyder acknowledged that weight and balance are more of an issue on smaller planes, they can still be a factor in the safety of a larger jet, too. If a plane of any size is out of balance, it may not be able to take off or land safely, and even a small amount of weight in the wrong location can affect a plane’s flight capabilities.

Last winter, I was flying home from Utah on a relatively empty flight, and the gate agents made repeated announcements that many of us would have new seat assignments given at the boarding door. They stressed it would be important to stay in the newly assigned seats for takeoff and landing to keep the plane balanced properly.

“The airlines will know where people are sitting, they calculate the weight and balance using their systems, and they will load the cargo and the luggage properly to make sure it stays in balance,” Snyder said. “It is still something that can be a problem and travelers do not want to mess that up for their flight.”

Profits and privileges, too

This (the profit motive) is probably why most people assume airlines won’t let passengers move around once the boarding door is closed, and there’s certainly an element of truth to it: the companies charge a premium for some seats, and letting passengers move there without paying degrades the product for those who did.

“When you start getting into extra legroom, that is something that people paid for, they found enough value in it to pay for it.” “It makes people angry that actually did pay for it and it’s not fair for them,” Snyder said.

It’s very likely that the United passengers who were going to be charged $86 to switch seats were trying to move into extra legroom seats, which many airlines consider a different ticket class.

United itself posted (somewhat sassily) about these kinds of moves on social media in 2019, and I think what they said then still holds true.

“The customers who choose to pay for Economy Plus are then afforded that extra space. If you were to purchase a Toyota, you would not be able to drive off with a Lexus, because it was empty. ^BA,” the airline’s post said.

That thinking does make sense to me – if they have customers who were willing to pay extra for extra space, or who got upgraded as a result of their airline loyalty, shouldn’t those passengers also experience an even greater benefit on a less-than-full flight?

Also, I think more companies should post on social media with a “ask dumb questions, get blunt answers” philosophy, but that’s beside the point.

What to do if you’re unhappy with your assigned seat

If you’re getting ready to board your flight and aren’t happy with the seats you’ve been assigned, there are a few things you can do.

First, you should see if you can just switch your seat in the airline’s app or on its website.

“Often you can do that in the app, it’s no problem at all,” Snyder said. “Self-service is your best bet.”

If that doesn’t work, you can try to speak to the gate agents who are working on your flight, but he warned they may not always be able to help.

“Generally, your best bet will be someone at the gate if they’re not overwhelmed and they have the time, but they have a million things that they’re trying to do to get that airplane out on time,” Snyder said.

Your last line of defense should be speaking to the flight attendant, but Snyder warned that’s really only worth doing if there’s a serious problem.

“Maybe sometimes the flight attendant can help you, maybe they can take payment on board if you want to move to an extra legroom seat, but otherwise, you’re just going to make their jobs harder,” he said, but with a caveat: “If there is a legitimate concern, like a health or safety concern that you encounter when you get on the aircraft, that is when you should absolutely bring it up to the flight attendant.”

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why you can't just move to an empty airplane seat for free

Reporting by Zach Wichter, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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