Shabbat and my United Flight

[shaulyaakov]

Re: Seating assignments, if it's so important to you, why not confirm that your boarding pass is correct before boarding? You could ask an agent to confirm that the letters on your boarding pass match on the plane? United actually prints the relative location of the seat "aisle, window, or middle" and this is helpful.

[ExGingi]

Re: Seating assignments, if it's so important to you, why not confirm that your boarding pass is correct before boarding? You could ask an agent to confirm that the letters on your boarding pass match on the plane? United actually prints the relative location of the seat "aisle, window, or middle" and this is helpful.

It's not like this incident happened yesterday.

Remember this was BA. This is before the days of fuel surcharges, or even etickets for that matter.

[Aaaron]

I think it's important to know (since I'm obviously not a posek), are there truly any Rabbonim that if called right then would be like:

Passenger:  Rebbe, DW and I just boarded a plane and we realized we're seated next to each other, despite being told we'd be across the aisle.  She's a Niddah, what should I do?
LOR:  What are your options?
Pass:  Make a fuss and demand that other passengers be moved to accommodate us.  Deplane, and most likely inconvenience the entire plane, crew, etc.  Or sit and be careful regarding the harchakos.
LOR:  Well, can you politely ask and FA and other passengers to accommodate?
Pass:  Tried that, and no dice.
LOR:  Ok, you must deplane.

[ExGingi]

I think it's important to know (since I'm obviously not a posek), are there truly any Rabbonim that if called right then would be like:

I am sure there are plenty of מורי הוראה on DDF, some of them could chime in on this, or maybe it needs to be asked on the appropriate thread for an answer.

[Jeremiah]

There is a tshuva from reb moshe that it is ok. I will look it up later.

[jsk173]

IF (and that's a very big IF, as I will point out below) the story occurred AS ALLEGED (you only have one side, out of three parties - if you count the two Pakistanis as one, or four parties if you allow each one of them to have their own version), then I think all would agree that the gate agent was WAY out of line.

However, I tend to doubt the veracity of the story as presented.

LOL. You make a big stink when I didn't provide links, and then when I do so, you hand-wave it away.

You claim to fly a lot. Why don't you try the following experiment: every time you fly ask the gate agent if the person assigned the seat next to you is a male or female, and report back on how often you got them to give you that information. Then, if you get that information, claim some reason why you can't sit next to that person, and see what happens. Please report back with your findings.

There's no way in the world I'm going to make myself look like a weirdo by doing the above, so why don't you skip to the end and tell us what you believe would be the typical result? (And remember, the hypothetical is a full plane, not a plane with a lot of empty seats to which such a person could easily be moved without inconveniencing anyone else.)