Was I In The Wrong? A Virgin Australia Story

Intro

A couple of days ago, I was flying from Denpasar over to Sydney on Virgin Australia and had a very interesting interaction with the cabin crew onboard, to the point where I would like to write a formal complaint. Not for compensation, but to get to the bottom of why this happened. Before I do, I would like to know, was I in the wrong? 

As you know, I am rarely one to complain ever, even when a flight is delayed 7+ hours in sub-Saharan Africa, but this… I personally expect more from a decently sized carrier.

What Happened 

Arriving at the remote gate (6B), boarding was just wrapping up for our flight off to Sydney, and I happened to be the last onboard the bus. Now, this was actually a good thing since I had checked the seat map and saw that 10A/B/C was open for this leg, and figured that if I was the last one onboard, I could just grab it. 

So I get onboard the plane, and find that the row of seats are empty. Perfect I thought, and I placed my overhead luggage in the bin, and even had a flight attendant come over and make sure my seatbelt was fastened before pushback. No deals whatsoever. 

Just before takeoff, thinking I had scored

Once airborne, I spread out across the seats and was sleeping peacefully until a flight attendant woke me up an hour and a half after takeoff. She woke me up and said, “You need to move to your original seat now, as 2 passengers need to sit here”. No, please, no thank you, no, I am so sorry to wake you up during this short redeye. 

So I did the walk of shame downwards towards the back of the cabin (a rarity these days ha) and came across my seat 27A. Just one issue, the man had spread out across the seats. Personally, I am against waking someone up during such a short redeye, but the cabin crew kept informing me, “It’s your seat, we’ll wake him up”. I love a window seat, but I am going to disturb someone on a 5-hour (wheels up to wheels down) redeye for my greater gain. 

So there we were in the galley, and we start getting into some back and forth and I ask them (very respectfully), “I am still confused as to why I had to move”. They mentioned that an exit row seat didn’t recline and was now considered “inoperable”. They then proceeded to tell me that this person has a back issue (originally it was 2 passengers but now it is was just 1). 

I then asked, “Can I just sit in the seats where they were before?”, and they responded with “no, you have to brief before takeoff”. Now this is where I got a little witty and probably shouldn’t have, but I said, “With the utmost respect, I fly 160 flights per year and have never once encountered this”. At that point, the purser looked me in the eyes and said she had already called the captain and that they needed the galley space so “go sit down.”

I sat down in some seat and slept the rest of the way, no issue. 

My Thoughts (Quickly) 

Before I begin, I just want to say that this isn’t a big issue whatsoever, it is more the way that the crew handled it than the issue at hand. Here were a few things that stood out to me. 

When I went back up to go and grab my backpack from the overhead bins, I found a woman sitting cross legged in the middle seat of the row all alone. If her back issues were originally that bad, how was she able to be “able and willing to assist incase of emergency”. 

If it was just one person, or even two, why ask me to move when we could have all just shared the row? If the FA had come over and said to me, “There are two (I still don’t know if it was 2 or 1 because I never saw a second person) people with back problems and their seats are broken. I am so sorry to wake you up, but it would it be alright if they came and sat next to you?”. Now that is so much more respectful. 

All is well, as I made it for some great coffee in the SQ Lounge and had a lovely flight in Polaris a few hours later.

So, yes, should I have taken a seat that wasn’t assigned to me? Absolutely not, and I know it is a risky game to play. But I personally feel like there was something missing here which they were not telling me, and I would have appreciated open and kind communication. 

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, I guess this is what I get for flying economy for once, and especially on a leg from Bali to Australia which is notorious for issues. I never raised my voice once or got aggressive, but I was trying to look out for a fellow passenger by not waking them, and I was trying to understand the situation behind all of this. I know I probably should have just sh*t up and follow the FA’s orders, but with flying so much it’s the small things I pick up on which most leisure travelers probably don’t. 

So with that being said, do you think I was in the wrong? (and yes, I am more than open to being told yes here)