Is it rude to sit next to a passenger if other seats are available?
I once traveled business-class in Qatar Airways. I am not sure about their seating policy. I was, however, able to choose my seat while I got my online boarding pass.
So, after I got in to the plane I noticed that the seats in front of and behind the one that I booked were unoccupied, and there was a gentleman in the aisle seat (I booked the window seat). So I went and sat down in my seat, because I wasn't sure if the other passengers would show up or not. I've read online that Qatar Airways has a free-seating policy (first come first served).
After a while, just before takeoff, he moved to one of the empty seats and remained there for the rest of the flight. I felt bad thinking that I should've done the same in the first place.
1. Are there flights that has this "first come first served" policy? Is this policy compatible with the online-seat-booking procedure?
2. Is it rude in these cases to sit next to someone even though you are sitting in your booked/confirmed seat?
Best Answer
As far as I can tell, Qatar Airlines has "free seating" in the sense that you can select your seat at the time of check-in. I would expect that the seat you chose is then printed on your boarding pass.
(This is as opposed to, for instance, Southwest Airlines, where your boarding pass does not have a printed seat number, and you choose an available seat when you board the plane.)
If your boarding pass shows a seat number, then you have to sit in that seat when you board. This is a matter of rules, not courtesy. The cabin crew's manifest shows them which seats are expected to be occupied by which passengers, and confusion will result if you're not in the seat which you have assigned to yourself. Also, if you sit in a different seat than the one on your boarding pass, it might be a seat that was selected by some other passenger behind you, and then you'll have to move again when they arrive.
After all passengers have boarded, if you can see that there are other seats available (that are not next to anyone), you can ask a flight attendant whether you can move. They may say yes or no, or ask you to wait until after takeoff. Of course, your seatmate can do the same.
At check-in time, I don't think there's any courtesy problem with selecting a seat next to someone (even though there are other empty rows), if it's a seat you particularly want. For all you know, the empty seats may fill up later, in which case both you and your original seatmate will end up sitting next to someone anyway.
For an airline which offers truly open seating (seats chosen when boarding), if you have reason to think the flight will not be full, then you should probably prefer a seat that is not next to someone who's already there. But if the flight is going to be full, it's irrelevant because someone will eventually sit next to them anyway.
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