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I was flying to the east coast the other day, non-stop from San Francisco to Washington Dulles. I had taken my seat and was settling in (“feathering my nest,” as I like to think of it). A women with her two children, about 12 or 13 and about 8 or 9, arrive at a nearby row. The woman asks the flight attendant if there was a way the three could be seated together: they had been unable to reserve contiguous seats, and one would be in the row behind. The flight attendants looks at the boarding passes, surveys the area, and sees she has an aisle and a middle together, and an aisle in the row behind (2-3-2 seating on this plane).

“I don’t expect anyone will switch with you, since it would mean changing from an aisle seat to a middle. And then, this gentlemen would have to be willing to move back a row.”

Pause for a moment, and consider: what would you do if you were in one of those two aisle seats surrounding the lone middle seat?

Really think about this. It’s a five hour flight, and you’ll be stuffed into a middle seat for the journey.

What would you do?