Southwest Airlines Seat Selection
Today, I made a pretty rookie mistake in seat selection on Southwest.
I was in the "A" group so was almost certain to be able to get an aisle seat. From the look of the crowd behind me, it was clear that some, but not all the middle seats would eventually be taken.
I am pretty good at taking up a lot of space even without trying (I am 6-4) but when inspired I can really spread out in my aisle seat to make the middle seat uninviting to the average middle seat shopper. And an empty middle seat looked like a layup on this flight, since only about 7 or 8 would be filled, and several of the rows around me had really tiny people on the aisle.
But then I glanced at the occupant of the window seat. AARRGGGHHH! Sitting there was an extraordinarily attractive young female, dressed quite fetchingly with a bare midriff and a short skirt. At that moment, I knew I was doomed. No matter how small I made the middle seat look, some twenty-something guy with minimal self-awareness was going to take that seat to try to hit on the girl at the window. And sure enough, despite the fact he was as big as me and our shoulders were ordained to fight for space for the two-hour flight, he homed in on the middle seat next to me like a cruise missile. Worse, I had to listen to him trying to pick the girl up for 2 hours. I will say it was hilarious for about a third of that time as he tried valiantly to feign interest in the hard-core collectivist-socialist drivel she was selling. I worried towards the end that he might actually be bonding with her as they both came to quick agreement that all their job prospects seemed to much like "work," but fortunately for my piece of mind she shot him down in flames as we were exiting.
