I recently took Swiss air to Netherland and the flight was not fully booked in October. People who travelled frequently will know about this.

So, during check-in, single travellers will book seats at the flank of the plane (comprising triplet seats), and their strategy would be to book a seat at the center of the triplet seats, thus discouraging people who travelled in pairs or with kids from picking these triplet seats.

Such strategy would usually translate into having the whole roll of three seats available to these single travellers.

The significance of such maneuver is great because that would allow these single passengers to move the arm rest up and convert the triplet seats into their personal ‘bed’.

First of, they don’t care if they are depriving couples or family members from seats. Second, they will take advantage of you the first chance they get.

If you are affected by such people, which happens daily, then you should know the rules and ‘play around it’.

So, for the above example, travellers with family can request to the flight attendants that you want to have a seat together as pairs or family (with kids). You can also tell the flight attendant that it is your honeymoon and you would like to be seated together. It will likely ‘displace’ the single passengers who took the center seat in the triplet seats.

Remember, don’t be ‘too courteous’, else you will be sidelined. Too courteous is considered being accomodating when you are supposed to stand firm.