An Etiquette Question Regarding Southwest Airlines

I don’t think this is actually an etiquette question. I think I’ve been doing the wrong thing. I think the person who scolded me was right to do so.

When traveling with a travel partner and flying Southwest, my priority has generally been to get us our own row if possible, even if that means sitting in the back of the airplane (I generally end up in the middle of the B group even if I check in right on time, because so many Southwest flights connect through Austin or something like that). To do this, I try to make it look like only the middle seat is available, even if I intend to sit in the middle seat because it would feel strange to put a stranger between myself and someone I know. I sit in the window seat, the other person sits in the aisle, the middle is open. In the event someone does come to take the seat, I usually ask if they’re ok sitting window instead of middle and they usually say they are (because who likes sitting in the middle seat) and we move on with our flight.

That didn’t happen Sunday.

Sunday, I asked the woman if she was ok sitting window instead of middle and she said something that didn’t totally make sense but included a sentence where she said it was usually the “assumption” that people were sitting in the seats they were sitting in. Which is fair. I agree with that. I felt kind of bad, and I didn’t do the routine on the connecting flight. I was taught my lesson. But she said it with so much bite in her voice—it was cold and quick and dismissive-pissed, like she’d just completely had enough of my existence after only learning I’d existed moments before, when she opted to sit in my row instead of the one in front that also had a middle seat open (which caught me off guard)—that it’s stuck with me. How bad was what I did?

The question here, I guess, is whether any of you also do this. Once you grab a specific seat, are you committed to that seat? Or just the row? Also, with it being open boarding, does anything go? All’s fair in love and war and Southwest Airlines?

So yeah, I guess I’m asking after all. I think I was in the wrong, but I’m not positive. That woman did two things that surprised me. I wasn’t expecting her to pick the back row over the next–to–back row, and I wasn’t expecting her to react like I was pissing on the floor again when I said I’d sit middle.

I’m still rattled.