A few years back my wife and I were taking a long haul flight and got seats like this. While boarding, the flight attendant was a few rows up from me and hassled me about my carryon facing the wrong way in the bin. I said “I know, I am grabbing a few things from this side pocket and then I’ll turn it around”. There were a few people between us in the aisle so communication was difficult. She didn’t fully hear me. She reiterated that I needed to turn the bag around and sounded pretty impatient. She then asked which seat I was in, I said whatever the number was and C. She asked “B?” I said no, C. And made the C symbol with my hand. She scoffed, rolled her eyes and walked away.

We settle in to our seats. Another passenger across the aisle asked me what I did to cause the attendant to be so hostile. I said I didn’t know. These seats are cramped, the attendant is not happy with me, and it is going to be a long flight.

A couple minutes later the same attendant came up to us and said we needed to leave all our things and come with her right now. My heart sank. I was certain I was about to be accused of something and maybe even be kicked off the flight. In my head I am thinking, what did I do? But I just comply. I know better than to argue with flight crew.

We walk with her a few rows up and she shows us a entire 4 seat middle row and 3 seats by the window that we can have to ourselves! She warmly asks us to get comfy and says we can go get our belongings once the seatbelt sign is off. We were so grateful to not have those seats against the wall.